Top Honors for Bankwest Stadium’s Environmental Design

The Populous-designed Bankwest Stadium is the first stadium in the world to announce it has received LEED v4 Gold certification for sustainability by the US Green Building Council (USGBC). It is also the first building in Australia to receive LEED v4 Gold certification.

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), an internationally recognised accreditation system, was developed by the USGBC to promote and recognise world class sustainable building strategies and practices globally. Released in November 2013, v4 is the latest version of the certification with Populous designing 16 LEED Gold venues around the world.

Bankwest Stadium’s globally recognised LEED certification brings to life the brief of the NSW Government for a first class, unique and exciting stadium with gold sustainability.

Acting Minister for Sport, Geoff Lee, said the gold certification recognised Bankwest’s high performance in innovation, water savings, energy efficiency, transportation options and materials selection during construction.

“Bankwest Stadium has been a game-changer for sports fans and players but this world leading achievement in sustainability shows it is much more than just a great place to watch footy.

“This stadium was not only designed and built with the spectator in mind, but also the local environment, the local community and the industrial heritage of Parramatta and Greater Western Sydney,” Lee said.

Populous Lead Architect, Al Baxter, said sustainability is an integral part of Populous’ design process.

“We believe good design isn’t just about creating places where people love to be together. It is about looking at a building’s ecosystem to balance people’s need for connection with each other and with the natural environment, with practical requirements such as energy use and construction requirements.

“Bankwest Stadium has revolutionised modern stadium design, boasting a series of Australian firsts, key design features, energy and environmental considerations while ensuring great fan experiences are at the centre of the design.

“This symbol of sustainability is an achievement that reflects the stadium’s positive environmental impact for the area,” Baxter said.

Populous work with some of Australia’s top environmental engineers to design structures to minimise the impact on the environment during the construction process and beyond.

“Where possible, we used sustainable techniques such as modular construction, and recycled and locally-sourced materials, to reduce the amount of waste and the distance travelled to bring materials onsite.

“For example, Bankwest Stadium features more than 4,500 tonnes of Australian steel, all of which was manufactured within an 18km radius of the stadium. This helped reduce the costs of construction and, just as importantly, reduced the building’s carbon footprint in terms of transporting the heavy steel components to the site,” Baxter said.

More than 90 percent of materials from the old Parramatta Stadium were recycled to construct the new stadium.

LEED v4 Gold certification for Bankwest Stadium recognises its many sustainable initiatives, including:

• Water efficiency through plants and capturing rainwater through a 260,000 litre rainwater tank
• Energy resourcefulness via effective mechanical plant efficiency and the installation of 100 kilowatts of photovoltaic solar panels
• Connectivity to public transport
• Activation of public spaces surrounding the stadium
• Reduction of embodied carbon of the building through reducing the use of materials used to build as opposed to a traditional design
• Achievement of over 90 per cent waste diversion from landfill, including recycling 700 kilograms of soft plastics from new seat covers, which have contributed to asphalt for roads and plastic wheel-stops

Bankwest Stadium is part of the New South Wales Government’s AUD 1.6-billion stadia strategy to improve sporting infrastructure across the state. It was designed and constructed for Infrastructure NSW, with Venues NSW as owner and VenuesLive as operator. Lendlease was the Head Contractor for the project, Populous managed architecture, interior design and wayfinding, Aurecon managed structural and civil engineering, wind engineering, sustainable design and building services and Aspect Studios managed urban design and landscape architecture.

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