Find Out More: http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/1200buildings/ Ross House is the only self managed and community owned not for profit building in Australia. The greening of Ross House aligns with both the owners and tenants' vision for social and environmental equity and sustainability. Because the building is both heritage listed and owned by a not for profit organisation, resourcing the building retrofit is particularly challenging. -- Transcript -- ROSS HOUSE -- MICHAEL GRIFFITHS & SARAH DAY MICHAEL GRIFFITHS: So 'Ross House' was built in 1898. Many of the buildings in Melbourne predate the nineties and, although it's quite an old building it still stands to make some reductions in greenhouse gases. So my main role is looking after the facilities within the building, but I'm also in charge of the green retrofit they're undertaking at the moment SARAH DAY: 'Ross House' is a really incredible place, it's the only not-for-profit self-managed building in Australia, and it's home to 50 small independent community groups working for environmental sustainability and social justice. MICHAEL GRIFFITHS: So, retrofitting is upgrading, I guess, the existing services, plant and equipment, lighting, heating and cooling, those kind of things. The motivation behind it is the age of the building and age of the systems, but also we like to, I think, do our part for the City of Melbourne. Ross House being quite an old building, comes with certain challenges, it's heritage listed, so the front façade to the building can't really be touched in any upgrades, so it affects things such as outside air intakes. So what can be achieved with the retrofit is actually probably a thirty to fifty per-cent reduction in your energy bills. Within Ross House we've actually done some minor works, we've done de-lamping, we've put in sensor lighting in the stairwells and car-parks and used timers and things to reduce energy consumption and it's actually led to a ten or fifteen per-cent reduction in our bills already. SARAH DAY: We're in the process of getting our whole environmental management system, and looking at changes we can make to the actual infrastructure of the building so that we can be more sustainable. MICHAEL GRIFFITHS: I think a good a good NABERS rating is important to a lot of tenants out there, because it reflects on the company depending on where their office is located and a lot of big corporations now are looking to house themselves within a green building, and although Ross House may be quite a small building I think if a lot of small retrofits get done, it'll add to the greater good and will significantly contribute to a reduction of greenhouse gases for the City of Melbourne.

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