Frasers Property Australia has ranked eighth in the 2021 Financial Review’s BOSS Most Innovative Companies’ list in the Property, Construction & Transport category, which is mainly attributed to their work in achieving Living Building Challenge Petal Certification at Burwood Brickworks.
The developer was involved in the shopping centre becoming the first retail precinct in the world to achieve the Living Building Challenge Petal Certification, which officially makes it the world’s most sustainable shopping centre. NH Architecture and Russell & George are credited with designing the precinct.
The annual Financial Review BOSS Most Innovative Companies list is based on a rigorous assessment process that is managed by innovation consultancy Inventium in conjunction with a panel of industry expert judges. Over 700 organisations across Australia and New Zealand were nominated. Plumbing supplies giant Reece Group ranked top in the Property, Construction & Transport category, with construction companies Hickory Group and Roberts Co taking out second and third respectively. Property group Mirvac was ranked fifth overall.
The winner of the 2020 Sustainability Awards’ Best of the Best category, Burwood Brickworks features Australia’s first membrane-aerated bioreactor, meaning water is captured, treated, and efficiently re-used. An embedded electrical, thermal and water network is supported by an extensive solar PV installation to generate clean energy. The retail centre incorporates biophilic design with a strong connection to nature.The building is also the home of Australia’s first shopping centre rooftop urban farm, with the 2020 Commercial Architecture (Small) Sustainability Awards Winner the Acre Farm Eatery showcasing the offerings of the farm.
Another Burwood Brickworks innovation is the Greensheet, a comprehensive list of vetted building materials for everyone’s free reference. Launched in September 2021, each product on the Greensheet has been examined based on factors such as its place of origin, materials used in its manufacture, whether it is responsibly sourced, its embodied carbon, its waste impacts, and its impacts on air quality when used internally.
Stephen Choi, Living Building Challenge Manager, Frasers Property Australia says Burwood Brickworks was about bringing a sustainable entity to the masses.
“Our innovation was to build an ordinary typology in an ordinary place for ordinary people, in an extraordinary way. Burwood Brickworks is one of the only regenerative buildings in the world that is truly open to everyone every single day,” he says.
The International Living Future Institute announced that Burwood Brickworks had formally achieved Living Building Challenge Petal Certification in April this year. The Living Building Challenge requires developments to have a net positive impact by challenging them to operate as cleanly, beautifully and efficiently as nature’s architecture.
To view the Financial Review BOSS Most Innovative Companies list in full, visit mostinnovative.com.au.
