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ENVIRONMENTAL
Build Sustainably. Live Sustainably
Climate change is recognized as a key challenge facing our society today. Infill development is an important element of meeting this complex issue through reducing the loss of biodiversity and decreasing energy use, both embodied in the buildings the company develops and operationally once residents have moved in.
Apartment development is by its nature energy intensive during construction, but Finbar has pursued a range of initiatives that lessen the impact of its activities as well as the ongoing carbon emissions generated by owners and tenants of its apartments.
This has seen the company adopt a Carbon Neutral approach in selected new developments, following industry leading practice to ensure that buildings are not just built sustainably but are lived in sustainably. As part of this, everything from the concrete structure to double glazing to backboning electric vehicle infrastructure is explored and utilized where possible.
With this over-arching aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, explore below how Finbar is designing and building developments today that will provide important outcomes over decades.
Built for maximum impact
Finbar employs contemporary construction techniques and materials which have resulted in significant reductions in carbon emissions.
For example, Finbar was the first developer in Australia to adopt Bubbledeck, made from concrete and recycled plastic balls, which reduces the amount of concrete used by about a third. The benefits are great, not only reducing the amount of concrete required but also the number of mixer truck visits and the lighter load to each floor requires less overall structural support in terms of concrete and steel.
Finbar has now used over one million square metres of Bubbledeck in its projects over the last twelve years that has saved approximately more than 55,600 tonnes of CO2 in embodied energy.
And in terms of protecting and maintaining biodiversity, if one assumes the average greenfield lot size is 375sqm, then with Finbar having completed over 6,655 of infill apartments, it has saved more than 2,495,625sqm of native bush from the bulldozer on our urban fringes.
Finbar's use of over 1 million sqm of Bubbledeck throughout the years equates to:
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Site Concrete Saved
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Tonnes of CO2 saved
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Foundation Load saved
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Number of cars off the road for one year
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Equivalent of trees being grown for one year
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Ready Mix truck trips saved
Finbar operates within the national system which rates the thermal energy efficiency of residential homes and apartments called the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme, or NatHERS. The rating is a star system out of ten and allows people to compare different properties and understand a home’s potential heating and cooling energy use or thermal comfort.
Optimising design and choice of materials allows new homes to maximise benefits that can reduce the amount of energy needed to keep a home comfortable. The NCC currently requires a minimum an average of 6 stars but Finbar apartments routinely achieve much greater than their mandated baseline with more projects now achieving an average of 8 stars.
Concrete, which has great thermal properties, combined with the latest advances in glazing, means that apartments achieve some of the highest energy ratings possible. This works in both cool and warmer months, and reduces the need for residents to use heating and cooling.