Sustainable+CBD+Buildings+60+L

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60 L (short for 60 Leicester St) was opened in 2002 by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) who had decided to use their own headquarters as an example of a sustainable building. ACF joined with Green Building Partnership (GBP) to make the building, GBP purchased an old brick furniture warehouse and ran the building until 2009 when they decided to give it to ACF.

60 L uses 20% of the water and 30% of the energy of a standard building. It has a standard operating range between 19-26ºC, when the temperature is in between this, the building uses no energy for heating or cooling. Outside of this range, small changes are made to help make the environment more comfortable.

As 60 L has tenancies, they also need to corporation of the tenants. They encourage tenants to cycle and have a Green Lease, which is an agreement to make sure that the tenants use energy and water efficient appliances. The Green Lease also includes that air conditioners and heaters can't be used unless the building is outside of the 19-26ºC range.

According to survey taken in 60 L, 60% of staff think that work productivity has been increased by 10%.

**Features** __Lighting__ __Insulation__ __Heating and cooling__ __Water__ __Energy__ __Building performance monitoring__
 * Natural lighting.
 * 50% open ceiling area, will automatically cover when too hot. (spokesperson, 60L tour)
 * Light shelves and reflecting surfaces outside offices draw light into the buildings centre.
 * Lighting uses energy efficient lamps, fluorescent and ballasts.
 * Roof insulation with insert strips to stop most heat leaking out.
 * Astro-foil.
 * Insulated gutters.
 * Double-glazed and laminated low-E design windows and window tinting.
 * Heating is managed through light and venting systems. (spokesperson, 60L tour)
 * Energy efficient air-conditioning units in individual areas.
 * Ventilation makes use of the fact that hot air rises to make it more natural and reduce energy consumption
 * Passive heating/cooling and thermal mass is the use of building mass and sun access/ shade to keep temperatures comfortable all year round.
 * Large rainwater collection area collects 1000L per 1mm of rain
 * 2 large 10000L rainwater storage tanks
 * Rainwater is filtered then irradiated by UV lighting
 * On-site grey and black water treatment plants.
 * despite lower than average rainfall over the last few years 60L has collected and used about 400 KL every year.
 * Rainwater supplies all the buildings fresh water except the emergency fire sprinklers.
 * Power is 100% green power that is purchased from an energy retailer.
 * Rooftop photo-voltaic arrays collect solar energy that will provide about 10% to 30% of the 60 L common area power needs, and feeds unneeded power into the city grid when building operations are minimal.
 * Building Automation system provides the building manager with real-time data on environmental performance. (spokesperson, 60L tour)

Our opinion
While the other buildings seem to use technology to make the building more sustainable, Pixel seems the exact opposite, the idea is to only use electricity when absolutely necessary and have the building do the rest. Admittedly, it wasn't the perfect temperature inside that you get used to with air-conditioners but it wasn't too bad either. We both love the idea of having massive sky lights that light the whole building.

More photos

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