Central Park sustainability strategy
Industry partner
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Frasers Property Australia
Research Centre
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Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF)
Project dates
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2008–2011
UN SDGS
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11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
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12. Responsible Consumption and Production
- Posted on 16 Jan 2025
- 4-minute read
Placing sustainability at the core of an iconic development.
Taking a precinct-wide approach to sustainability was key to achieving the ambitious vision for Central Park.
Key takeaways
- ISF developed a holistic sustainability strategy that accounted for water, energy, waste, transport and green space across the precinct’s 11 buildings and park.
- The institute’s recommendations have driven ongoing commercial viability and sustainability, including by selling chilled water and recycled water back to UTS.
- The on-site wastewater treatment plant is the largest in the southern hemisphere, paving the way for the future of urban water management in high-density mixed-use developments.
- The collaboration demonstrates ISF’s ability to prioritise partnerships, working within industry-driven timeframes.
When Frasers Property purchased an old brewery near Sydney’s Central Station, the site was prime for redevelopment and urban regeneration.
The company had a bold vision for a $2b mixed-use precinct. But they needed to balance commercial viability with environmental sustainability – and get the community on side.
Our focus with Central Park has always been about sustainable mixed-use urban design while also meeting a very real need for high-density city apartment living choice.
That’s where the Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) came in.
ISF developed a range of innovative sustainability proposals – both environmental and social – and presented them, with Elton Consulting leading community consultation, to the project partners and the community.
Taking into account economic, social and environmental dimensions, ISF’s ambitious plan demonstrated what the project and ongoing precinct would be able to achieve in sustainable infrastructure.
It really set the agenda for the One Central Park developers to aim high and keep focused on sustainability outcomes.
Now, more than 15 years on, Central Park stands as a landmark achievement.
The One Central Park building emerges from the CBD as a visual embodiment of sustainable infrastructure – its green design features proving to be the development’s most iconic and enduring.
A holistic approach to sustainability
ISF was involved from the early stages, devising strategies for water, energy, transport and greening.
While other consultants would have been capable of developing individual plans around these areas, the value that ISF provided was a holistic approach.
Having pioneered the thinking around regenerative buildings, ISF took an integrated approach, formulating water and energy strategies that would work across the precinct, not just per building.
Not only were we looking at energy and water use, we looked at social and cultural issues, we recommended greening of the buildings, we looked at the crossovers between water and energy use.
The resulting sustainability plan set a new benchmark for urban redevelopment.
When Frasers Property Australia Managing Director Dr Stanley Quek, who’d flown in from Singapore, reviewed the proposals, he immediately saw their potential.
That’s great. I want more.
Integrated water management
One of ISF’s primary recommendations was to build a fully operational wastewater treatment plant on site.
The integrated water management solution recovers wastewater from the precinct’s residential, commercial and retail buildings, an adjacent sewer, stormwater runoff and rainwater. The wastewater is then treated on site, before being used for cooling towers, irrigation, toilet flushing and washing machines.
With a 1.5 megalitre capacity, the water recycling plant is the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere.
The world-leading solution dramatically reduces water use on site, keeping the vertical gardens green all year round.
The really innovative part of the strategy is the sewerage treatment system in the basement.
According to Professor White, this kind of localised, fit-for-purpose treatment plant is the future of water management for the urban utility sector. “This is a harbinger of things to come in the built environment.”
Designing with the future in mind
ISF’s involvement empowered the project partners focus on future opportunities, considering ongoing sustainability as well as longer-term commercial viability.
“What we were trying to achieve with the precinct was to make sure it had a long-term plan that would allow it to adapt to changing circumstances,” says Professor White.
“We recommended the infrastructure be oversized for future growth.”
It’s an approach that came to fruition when the developers began selling chilled water and recycled water to UTS. Since 2016, the university has been sourcing cooling thermal energy via underground pipes from Central Park’s supply.
The supply means an almost three percent reduction in UTS’s greenhouse gas emissions (over 1,000 tonnes a year).
The upshot is bigger wins from being ambitious at the planning stage.
Many of the strategies and technologies advocated by ISF remain ahead of their time, says ISF Research Director Kerryn Wilmot. Kerryn wasn’t part of the original project but has since been involved in the precinct and now leads projects in ISF’s built environment team.
“The sort of things they did that were different from the rest of the industry… include having sustainability front of mind for the design and construction, and pushing for targets beyond what many consultants would have had the courage to do,” says Wilmot.
Collaborating within industry timeframes
A key benefit of engaging ISF was their flexibility and focus in prioritising the project. As a research-only institute, ISF doesn’t need to accommodate teaching commitments in their projects.
This means researchers can be responsive to the timelines of their commercial partners, working to tight schedules and deadlines.
Throughout the planning stages, White and his team took part in meetings with architects and contractors, trying to influence the outcomes. “All with the pressure of deadlines and budgets.”
After the initial presentation to Stanley Quek, the project partners held discussions to consider how more greenery could be incorporated into the site. The City of Sydney had stipulated that the top part of the land had to be preserved as parkland. “But Frasers turned that all on its head,” says White.
“Their plan was to push the buildings back and make them a little higher in exchange for more green space.”
ISF was central to these discussions and the cutting-edge sustainability concepts that emerged from them.
“It was clear from those very early meetings,” says White, “that we were on the same page with Frasers Property. We both wanted a best-in-class development and that’s exactly what was delivered.”
Central Park Project Director Mick Caddey echoes the sentiment. For Caddey, Central Park is “an exemplar of what can be achieved when world-leading design partners collaborate and pioneering sustainability initiatives are undertaken.”
Related papers
Pushing the boundaries of sustainable development: The case of Central Park, Sydney
Professor Stuart White, Andrea Turner and JS Hilaire
Central Park Precinct Organics Management Feasibility Study
Andrea Turner et al.