Waste Management
Waste Management’s multi-award-winning headquarters combines industrial spaces with modern offices, setting a new benchmark for sustainable, innovative workplace design.
Project Details
| Client | Stride Property Group; Waste Management |
| Sector | Commercial |
| Location | Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland |
| Discipline | Architecture, Interior Design |
| Status | Completed 2020 |
| Size | 4,000 sqm |
| Design Collaborator(s) | Eclipse Architecture |
Innovative workplace strategy
Waste Management’s corporate headquarters combines several of the company’s existing waste collection and recycling facilities into a substantial mixed-use development with significant workplace and industrial components.
An integrated design process involving the developer and tenant was adopted from the outset in order to unify Stride Property and Waste Management’s visions and ensure the best operational and sustainable design outcomes could be achieved within the project budget, timeline and brief. The result is a truly uplifting workplace for staff and an integral development in Waste Management’s long-term strategy to achieving a net zero carbon footprint.
Jasmax’s workplace concept involved reviewing Waste Management’s existing workplace principles and exploring how they could be activated by a new and enhanced design, focused on improving the ways its 400 team members work and socialise, while enhancing the overall employee experience.
The resulting pared back design allows for future adaptability and flexibility, catering to the changing nature of work and a new generation of employees, while positioning Waste Management for a future where rapid development and change is the norm. The light-filled building has also been designed to be easily expanded if required in future, and the exposed modular steel structure enables future modification and ease of disassembly.
“A fit-for-purpose, world-class development, which innovatively combines operational and non-operational activities whilst improving corporate welfare”
— PCNZ Awards judging panel, 2020
Sustainable design
Based in the established manufacturing hub of East Tāmaki, this 5 Green Star rated facility’s high-quality design reinforces the area’s strong industrial credentials, while signalling that sustainability features can be successfully incorporated into a development of this nature. It also acted as the pilot project for New Zealand Green Building Council’s Green Star – Design & As Built NZ tool, becoming the first building assessed under the new criteria.
Many sustainable design solutions have been integrated into the fabric of the building and wider development, including: an electric vehicle fleet and charging facilities; stormwater management and rainwater harvesting; the introduction of green spaces and swales; high-performance, energy efficient glazing allowing maximum light transmittance, while maintaining an efficient thermal envelope; exposed thermo-mass concrete providing a functional aesthetic with high levels of insulation, fire protection and thermal stability; and the introduction of an atrium within the office building to encourage greater air circulation.
The building’s high-performance façade, efficient HVAC system and lighting, automatic lighting controls and additional initiatives have also contributed to a reduction in energy consumption by approximately 40-66% and greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 50% when compared to a relative building. The facility also incorporates an advanced building management system and an energy/water management system, allowing for the building to be monitored and adjusted to optimise performance.
The Lifecycle assessment has proven the ultra low operational carbon performance of this project. With operational carbon of 57 Kwhs/m2/yr, the Waste management building just exceeds the Jasmax 2030 target of 55 Kwhs/m2/yr. Water use outperforms the 2030 target of 10L/person/day - sitting at 8.7L/person/day.
The building’s dedicated focus on sustainability required a palette of durable, low maintenance materials, which Jasmax took as far as possible, by ensuring the materiality included as many recycled products as possible.
Since occupying the space, Waste Management has seen a marked reduction in absenteeism among staff, partly attributed to the enhanced focus on wellbeing within the new facility.
Awards
| 2020 | PCNZ Awards – Supreme Award |
| 2020 | PCNZ Awards – Green Building Award |
| 2020 | PCNZ Awards – Industrial Property Award |
| 2020 | PCNZ Awards – Commercial Property Award - Excellence |