Mirvac Osprey Waters Sustainable Demonstration Home & Sales Office
The Osprey Waters Sustainable Demonstration Home & Sales Office is an example of Mirvac’s progress towards their mission of having net positive environmental impacts by 2030. Designed by architect Sid Thoo, the project showcases exemplary performance and inspires future residents of the Osprey Waters masterplanned community, nested along the banks of pristine Peel Inlet.
This project demonstrate Mirvac’s aim for design excellence beyond NCC compliance, and includes improvement strategies such as dematerialisation for the building materials and renewable energy (solar PV for electricity and solar thermal for hot water).
- Date: October 2015
- Client: Mirvac (WA) Pty Ltd
- Architect: Sid Thoo
- Builder: Element Builders
- Landscape: Emerge Associates and Mirvac
- Interiors: Mirvac (WA); Matt & Kim Di Costa
- Location: Bridgewater Boulevard, Erskine.
Results Summary
| Impact Area | Total CO2e / Year / occupant (kg CO2e) | % Saved Against Benchmark | eTool Medal |
| Embodied Carbon | 1,148 | 21 % increase | |
| Operational Carbon | -210 | 107 % |  |
| Total Carbon | 938 | 77 % |  |
Project features
Design life
High quality design differentiates this project from surrounding residences and extends the lifespan to 55 years by reducing redevelopment pressure in the near future. Higher design life means that all initial impacts are diluted over a longer period of time therefore improving the performance on a per year basis.
Materials and Construction
Optimised construction time (total of 16 weeks) resulted in less impacts from trade staff transportation to site. A careful selection of materials guaranteed higher thermal performance and durability, and lower maintenance requirements. Materials list included:
- Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs),
- Weathertex cladding,
- Light-coloured Bluescope Colorbond Roofing,
- Polar Double-Glazed Windows
- Polished concrete floors
Operational Energy
The project was designed for reduced energy demand and included high thermal performance rating of 7 stars with ceiling fans as the cooling method, high efficiency LED lighting and solar hot water system with gas boost. After all energy efficiency measures were implemented, a large solar PV system of 5kW was installed.
Throughout the year, the house generates more electricity than it uses, therefore a net positive operational carbon performance. A total 107% operational savings compared to the benchmark.
Solar PV system
An increase in overall embodied carbon was mainly because of a large 5 kW solar PV system. It’s estimated the system will get replaced twice over the life of the building. However, the substantially reduced “Operational Impact” due to the renewable energy input offsets this increased “Embodied Impact” many times over during its design life.
The main advantage of a solar system is that it offsets carbon intensive grid electricity. The system will produce excess clean electricity which will generate carbon credits to offset impacts associate with materials and recurring impacts, resulting in a whole of building whole of life performance of 939 kgCO2e/occupant/year, or a 77% savings in equivalent carbon emissions when compared to a residential benchmark.
Achieving genuine sustainability
We know the importance that leading organisations have in guiding and inspiring us on the move towards a low carbon future. Mirvac’s sustainability plan has four main pillars: re-imagining resource, enriching communities, smart thinking and shaping the future of place. Mirvac design team recognises that Life Cycle Design is an important part of the solution. The company strategy for re-imagining resources considers Life Cycle Assessment to be conduct on every new project.
This assessment was conducted by Fei.
