30 | RESOURCES Meridian Energy – Wellington T T Karen Phelps A workplace that embodies its values Meridian Energy is enjoying the benefits of its sustainable workplace design. Photo: Unispace and Lawrence Anderson. One year after relocating to Wellington’s iconic, historic Old Bank Arcade, Meridian Energy is enjoying the benefits of its sustainable workplace design - one of New Zealand’s first certified Living Building Challenge fitouts. Being located in a Category 1 historic building, the new headquarters combine heritage preservation and cutting-edge sustainability, establishing fresh benchmarks for environmentally-conscious office spaces across the country. “The results have been incredibly impressive, including achieving Just milestones, which has been a significant goal for us,” says Nick Robilliard, Head of Procurement and Workplace at Meridian Energy. The Just programme focuses on employee experience, health, well-being and meaningful community connections, recognising that people are at the core of creating a sustainable future. Unlike traditional certification schemes, Just functions as a transparency framework, helping organisations develop meaningful policies and translate them into actions that will generate ongoing positive impact. “It sets a new yardstick for what sustainable construction fitout looks like,” explains Nick. “And, now that we’ve got a performance baseline, we’ll continue to test things like air quality, water usage, waste and other metrics.” The decision to relocate was driven by necessity, after a low seismic conditions assessment was received for Meridian’s previous building. He says Meridian seized the opportunity to create a workplace that embodies its core values as New Zealand’s leading provider of renewable energy, and employee well-being was a central focus of the new workspace design. “The fitout gave staff a reason to come back to the office post-Covid,” says Nick. “We’ve created an agile working environment and we intentionally wanted to make sure that the space works well for all of our people.” The 1,800-square-metre workplace (including 200sqm end of trip) accommodates 200 staff at a sharing ratio that represents a 30% reduction from Meridian’s previous floorplan. Nick says the space has already delivered some outstanding sustainability achievements, such as diverting 95% of waste from landfill, ensuring 90% of materials have zero toxicity levels and sourcing 50% of materials from New Zealand manufacturers. Meridian worked with local suppliers that prioritise regenerative practices, such as Critical, which provided benchtops made from recycled plastic waste, avoiding 2,932kg of carbon emissions. “Our kitchen benchtop alone contains 56,333 pieces of recycled soft plastics and 8,750 recycled plastic bottle caps. And our end-of-trip facility benchtop incorporates 3,465 pieces of plastic packaging and eight metres of recycled commercial fishing nets,” says Nick. Other innovative features include pre- fabricated, modular meeting rooms by XFrame, constructed using reversible fixing methods without glues or adhesives, and allowing for future reconfiguration without generating waste. Around 95% of workpoints have access to views and daylight, all the timber used is FSC-certified, and 30% of furniture was reused, repurposed or restored. For the design and construction of the workplace, Meridian partnered with Unispace, bringing together expertise in workplace strategy, interior design and sustainable construction practices. The project was delivered within 12 months end-to-end, an impressive achievement considering its complexity. With the workplace’s performance being constantly measured against its sustainability targets, initial results suggest the investment in environmentally responsible design is paying dividends in environmental impact reduction and employee satisfaction. “This project demonstrates that Kiwi businesses can successfully balance heritage preservation with forward-thinking sustainability, creating workplaces that reduce environmental impact and prioritise the well-being of people. Proudly supporting Meridian Energy Wellington
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=