Celebrating 10 Years of Enduring Performance at The Sustainable Buildings Research Centre
Nestled within the University of Wollongong’s campus stands a beacon of innovation and sustainability: the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre (SBRC).
The SBRC is a structure that lives by its work. Completed in 2013, it was the first and is still the only Living Building Challenge (LBC) accredited building in Australia.
COX Head of Sustainability, Dr Matthias Irger
Humanity is using more resources and creating more pollution than earth can sustain – Living Buildings are trying to address this by creating buildings that repair and restore. Structures that not only ‘do less bad,’ but have positive impacts.
Designed to prototype a range of sustainable building technologies, designs and materials, the fabric of the building itself is a site for integrated research. The SBRC needed to be water, energy, and carbon neutral, socially responsible, equitable, nontoxic, and healthy. All the while remaining beautiful, inspiring, and educational.
So, ten years on – what have we learned?
To celebrate this exciting anniversary, we reflected on and evaluated the impact of the buildings regenerative strategies on the both the environment and the building’s occupants. Read the results below in our paper, ‘SBRC 10-year anniversary – What have we learned?’
The results showed that the building was and still is a great success, performing significantly better than the benchmark average for office buildings, leading sustainability in the built environment, and promoting occupants’ health and well-being. Projects such as the SBRC are required to establish technologies and adapt work flows in the construction industry and inspire the built environment to achieve outstanding performance, meeting the highest sustainability goals.
