Case study: Bond university mirvac school of sustainable development building, gold coast, Australia

Abstract

This article provides a case study of the sustainability journey of the Bond University Mirvac School of SustainableDevelopment (MSSD) building, with a particular focus on the use of the Green Building Council of Australia GreenStar Education PILOT tool. The building was awarded a 6 Star rating under this tool, the highest rating possibleand representing "World Leadership" in sustainable development.The article does not aim to outline the entire process of the building, program, design, and construction; however,it focuses on the sustainability aspects of the design, the sustainability process, the sustainability features, and initiativesand the relevant lessons learned.Bond University's Mirvac School of Sustainable Development is one where planning, property, project management,construction management, and quantity surveying are integrated in a school of the urban environment inthe context of sustainable development. The School is the fi rst designated institute to fully integrate environmental,urban planning, property development, quantity surveying, construction management, and facilities managementdisciplines with the practical issues of managing economic and social viability with societal expectations. Unlike mostother property planning schools around Australia that haveevolved over the last 50 or so years, this School started with a blank canvas. Its philosophy is to look at where we seethe built environment-the urban development-beingin the future rather than where it was in the past.The goal was to blend together the three aspects: ecologicalsustainability-indoor environment quality, transport,water, materials, emissions, land use and ecology-closely linked to economic and social sustainability. Therewas a desire from Bond University and Mirvac for a worldclass sustainable building as the home of the Mirvac School of Sustainable Development. This article will talk throughthe process using sustainable building features that wereincorporated to deliver on this objective.