LINCOLNE SCOTT

Lincolne Scott… Walking the talk with sustainability

The new Perth office of consulting engineers Lincolne Scott is the first WA business to achieve a 4.5 star tenancy rating in the Australian Building Greenhouse Rating (ABGR) program.

This exceptional result reflects not only the company's commitment to practice what it preaches but also highlights how easy it is for building tenants to create an environmentally sustainable workplace that reduces energy consumption and costs.

Lincolne Scott is well known in the building and engineering industry for its strong focus on providing positive environmental outcomes. The company therefore considered it imperative that the offices reflect the ethos of its business practice. In fact not only is the office a high achiever in the ABGR scheme but State Manager Robert Mulcahy says that, of the company's six Australian offices, the new Perth office has the lowest energy use per person.

"Our energy consumption bill is very low and we are constantly working to reduce that even further," says Mr Mulcahy.

"We are diligent when it comes to turning off lighting and equipment and every one of our 18 staff is conscientious about saving energy."

Mr Mulcahy also says that choosing the right building for their office was vital in achieving good energy savings.

"Our office has north-facing glazing which is shaded in summer while providing good light in winter. Accessing natural light not only saves energy but creates a far more pleasant working environment."

Of course some artificial lighting was needed but the number of luminaries required was significantly reduced by developing an efficient floor plan and using well thought out interior design. Light paint colours (predominantly white), for example, were used in most areas to reflect both natural and artificial light and to create a bright ambience. Automatic dimmers were installed on fluorescent lights and these subtly dim the general office lights after a five-minute running time. These dimmers alone have produced a 30% saving on energy consumption.

Other lighting initiatives included the installation of movement detectors in store areas to turn lights off when the area was not in use and perimeter lights that are controlled separately so they can be switched off when there is adequate natural light. A timer switch also ensures that office lights don't remain on overnight and a well-labelled lighting switch panel was installed at the office entry so that staff could easily identify which lights they wanted to turn on. Further energy savings were achieved by using low energy LCD computer screens.

The good news for those seeking to create a more energy efficient office is that all the initiatives used by Lincolne Scott are highly accessible as well as being easy and relatively inexpensive to install. An office like this creates a win, win, win situation - Lincolne Scott's staff enjoy the ambience, their clients notice the difference and applaud their commitment and the environment gets a boost as the energy consumption drops.

"Creating an energy efficient workplace is not as difficult and expensive as people may think. And, better still, the benefits and savings are immediate."

Robert Mulcahy
State Manager WA
Lincolne Scott