Reduced energy use by 4.1%

At Scentre Group, we aim to reduce the environmental impact we have in our local communities and to provide innovation and influence to support our retailer partners’ and communities’ efforts in environmental sustainability.

In 2018, our portfolio emitted 282,342 tonnes of greenhouse gas, or carbon emissions. Electricity represents more than 93.5 per cent of our total Scope 1 and 2 emissions. We set a target to reduce our Australian emissions intensity by 25 per cent from our 2009 baseline year. We’ve achieved a 29 per cent reduction in Australia, despite an 11.7 per cent increase in GLA. We have updated this target to reduce our emissions intensity by 35 per cent by 2025, portfolio-wide.

Introduced in 2017, our portfolio-wide National Environmental Efficiency Framework (NEEF) achieved a 3.8 per cent reduction in energy use in its first year. Our teams across sites, centres and Support Office have worked hard together to implement energy reduction initiatives, including changing behaviours. As a result, we achieved a 4.1 per cent reduction in energy usage and a 4.6 per cent reduction in carbon emissions across the portfolio. This is equivalent to the amount of energy used by almost 1,500 family homes or the emissions used from over 2,000 cars driven annually – equating to millions of dollars in savings.

Key achievements include Westfield Penrith (NSW), which achieved a 13.6 per cent energy reduction by implementing all recommended NEEF initiatives, and Westfield Geelong (VIC), which saw a reduction of 11.4 per cent from tuning their Building Management System, improving lighting schedules and adjusting temperature set points.

Our teams are now looking at new initiatives and innovations to continue driving efficiencies in 2019 and beyond. Some early options include LED lighting upgrades and Building Management System improvements. Our living centres have set key performance indicators and targets for their environmental performance, with energy high on the radar. Centres can access a dashboard that tracks their energy consumption every 24 hours. In addition, our retail partners have also shown an annual reduction in energy use of 5.4 per cent.

Further, a joint project by our National Facilities, Centre and Technology teams, saw the rollout of Maintenance Connection; a digital platform for managing our equipment and facilities consistently across the Australian portfolio. The platform captures asset equipment, for example air conditioning and lighting, and provides performance data for analysis.  This type of innovative technology will help us to analyse and maintain centre equipment to ensure it performs at its most optimum and efficient level.

We now have solar systems operational at Westfield Marion (SA), Westfield Plenty Valley (SA), Westfield Carousel (WA), Westfield Kotara (NSW) and Westfield Coomera (QLD), generating nine Gigawatt hours per year. Some weeks, our Coomera living centre’s solar generation accounts for over half of the centre’s peak electrical load.