Roe Highway Logistics Park setting a new national standard in sustainable construction
March 13, 2021
Hesperia’s Roe Highway Logistics Park will set a new standard for sustainable commercial development, after the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) committed $95 million towards the use of a unique low carbon concrete for the park’s construction.
The low carbon concrete is a Boral product that generates far lower emissions than traditional concrete by replacing an emissions-intensive traditional ingredient, Portland cement, with industrial fly ash and recycled aggregates. The product will be used in the construction of at least five new warehouses at Roe Highway Logistics Park, cutting construction-related emissions by an estimated 42 per cent.
A lack of demand for low carbon construction products, largely due to their higher cost, has traditionally been cited as one of the main barriers to their broader uptake in Australia. The building and construction industry’s unwillingness to take risks on a new material has also been identified as a barrier.
CEFC CEO Ian Learmonth said he expected the Roe Highway Logistics Park project to influence broader supply chains in the construction industry, and said it would likely help to kickstart the uptake of low carbon construction materials for commercial projects in Australia.
“[The use of low carbon concrete] offers a new pathway to cut emissions from the supply chain…and provides a world-leading example of low carbon options for the industry,” he said.
In addition to the use of low carbon concrete at Roe Highway Logistics Park, about 2 megawatts of solar photovoltaic power generation technology will be installed across the site’s warehouses to generate clean energy for tenants. This solar generation system will be accompanied by smart inverters, smart metering, power factor correction and voltage control to improve energy usage and efficiency across the site.
Hesperia offset its operational emissions to become climate neutral in 2020 and is aspiring to deliver only carbon neutral projects. While offsets will be part of these projects, the business is committed to driving down building emissions first – not only for commercial projects, but across its full portfolio of residential, retail and hospitality projects as well.
The 56-hectare Roe Highway Logistics Park is the work of a consortium led by Hesperia and development partners Fiveight and Gibb Group.
