Initiatives at ROE Recognised with Environmental Excellence Award

Hesperia has received the Environmental Excellence Award for our Roe Highway Logistics Park (ROE) at the UDIA WA 2021 Awards for Excellence.

The largest premium industrial estate to be established in Perth for more than a decade, ROE received the award for an outstanding response to conservation and environmental sustainability through innovation.

Demonstrating Hesperia’s goal to create a new benchmark for sustainability in development, ROE is on track to become the state’s first carbon neutral industrial park and the first to deliver a 6-star Greeenstar accredited industrial facility in Perth.

ROE incorporates leading edge innovation, with initiatives in low embodied carbon concrete, solar power, energy optimisation strategies and Carnaby black cockatoo conservation.

Hesperia’s Managing Director Ben Lisle believes the business has responsibility to reduce environmental impact through innovation and investment.

“It is our hope to deliver new initiatives to the WA market, such as the reduced embodied carbon concrete, to encourage other developers to take a more environmentally sustainable approach,” Ben said.

“The face of industrial development is rapidly changing, with demand for environmentally sustainable facilities coming from both local and international businesses, however uptake is often slow and cost prohibitive. We believe that an industry-led approach is going to be the fastest and most efficient way to achieve sustainable development in the property sector.”

Over a period of 18 months, Hesperia collaborated with Boral to develop a reduced carbon emission concrete that was appropriate for the Western Australian conditions. The refined ENVISIA mix reduces emissions by up to 42 per cent in comparison to traditional concrete.

Approaching all projects with the goal to reduce environmental impact, Ben said the team identified early on that concrete was the biggest contributor of carbon emissions at ROE.

“Boral’s ENVISIA product had performed exceptionally well in placement, strength and shrinkage, while also significantly reducing cement content in the eastern states, but it had never been used in WA using our raw materials,” Ben said.

“We trialled multiple pours and mixes to get to this point where it achieved the burnished finish required of an industrial application. This involved investment, however it forms part of our wider commitment to environmental sustainability and the learnings can be applied to our other projects.”

Mid-way through the development of ROE, it was discovered that the endangered Forrest Red-tailed Black Cockatoo (FRTBC) seasonally inhabited the site. Hesperia immediately sectioned off the roost and worked closely with several stakeholders to develop the ROE Conservation Strategy; to enhance the cockatoo roost area, bird monitoring, and complementary research into cockatoo movements across the metropolitan area, including the Adopt a Cocky Nest Project. The partnership with BirdLife Australia and the Adopt a Cocky Nest Project is ongoing. You can read more about it here .

Working closely with both local governments and Main Roads WA, Hesperia assisted with the redesign the road network, lot access requirements and realignment of the existing roads to provide greater efficiency to accommodate heavy vehicles. The new road networks provide a high level of amenity to employees and visitors through significant verge landscaping, entry statements, water sensitive urban design and public infrastructure.

Our long-term plan to create a new benchmark for sustainable development in industrial landholdings was boosted with the $95 million investment by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC). ROE became the first industrial estate to receive CEFC finance which boosted further sustainability initiatives, including low carbon materials and solar power generation.

Environmental initiatives at ROE also include onsite water recycling, 2 MW of solar PV generation, grid-friendly technology including smart inverters and metering, power factor correction and voltage control and the use of energy efficient lighting where possible.

Thank you to the Urban Development Institute of Australia (WA) for recognition of the initiatives in place at ROE and to all of those involved in this project.

More information about ROE is available here .