AIRAH Awards 2024: joint winners in sustainability prize

Two projects have shared the 2024 AIRAH Award for Excellence in Sustainability, announced at a gala dinner on November 21.

Woolworths Metro Gadsden CO₂ WaterLoop system

The Gadsden West Melbourne development, incorporating the facade of a historic tin smithing and canning factory, features a Woolworths Metro convenience store with 630m² of trading area.

The refrigeration fixtures comprise 21 display cabinets, one cool room and one freezer room totalling 39kW and 12kW of medium- and low-temperature load respectively. All fixtures operate using only natural refrigerants – specifically water-cooled CO₂ condensing units.

These systems are integrated into the fixtures without requirement for a separate plant room. Heat of rejection is managed by a chilled water reticulation to a set of chillers located 11 levels above the trading area.

Sydney Airport International Terminal T1 chilled water plant optimisation, A.G. Coombs and Exergenics

The chilled water plant optimisation project at Sydney Airport involved using the latest machine learning and simulation techniques to improve the control logic of the Terminal 1 chiller plant and secondary pumping system.

The project achieved a 33.4 per cent increase in efficiency, reducing energy consumption by 890,094kWh and cutting GHG emissions by 704tCO₂ over nine months, through improved efficiency. The overall annual project reduction in energy consumption was 1,742,000kWh, equivalent to 1,377 tCO₂.

The project was undertaken in a close partnership between A.G. Coombs Advisory and Exergenics, working with the Sydney Airport team to achieve their ambitious sustainability targets.

See the full list of 2024 AIRAH Awards winners here.

AIRAH thanks Construction Specialties for sponsoring the award.