Article 3: Banking On Green

Australian Banks are looking into more environmentally sustainable design. ANZ are designing Australia's largest office building in a $478 M project. NAB's twin 8-story towers at National@Docklands project has won many awards for its eco design. Not only the environment, but the bank considered the health of staff and how to create an environent that would increase the productivity. It removes VOC from the air.

The buildings were influenced by the ING (Internation Netherlands Group) one of the most energy efficient buildings of its time (1987) which only used 10% of the energy than the building it replaced. It did this by limiting the air conditioning by capturing cool air at night and circulating it through the building during the day. Also due to its design, artificial lighting was reduced. This produced a yearly saving of $3.7M compared to the added $866,000 construction costs.