Team Catalyst: Driving sustainability through teamwork

Team Catalyst was established in 2005. The company specialises in mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions in the building sector.

Team Catalyst provides innovative solutions to its customers within the building sector spread across new developments and existing buildings. It is currently involved in several projects related to improving energy efficiency in buildings. Team Catalyst works closely with Architects, Developers, Builders, Property Owners and Building Managers. The company also works with Federal and State Governments on policy development, training and research.

Team Catalyst assists its varied clientele towards achieving their objectives in regard to enhancing building efficiency and meeting their NABERS performance, Green Star targets and National Construction Code (NCC) Section J compliance requirements.

Greenhouse Performance of Existing Commercial Buildings

The average GHG performance of existing commercial buildings is estimated to be in the range of 2.5 – 3.0 stars for NABERS Energy – well below the threshold of 4.5 required by the Federal and State Governments tenancies.

The current Mandatory Disclosure policy, coupled with corporate sector commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, makes it imperative for building owners to enhance the greenhouse performance of their existing commercial office building portfolio.

Opportunities and Risks for Commercial Property Portfolios

Building owners face the risk that current greenhouse performance of existing office buildings could compromise asset values.

However, on the upside, there is enormous potential to cost effectively achieve enhanced greenhouse performance through energy efficiency improvements.

Systems Approach is the key

Several components working in conjunction with each other impact on overall building performance. Often these individual components require conflicting operating conditions to operate at their individual best efficiencies.

The chilled water plant subsystem can be the single largest contributor to base building greenhouse gas emissions. An end-of-life capital upgrade therefore presents the opportunity to review the overall sizing of the chiller plant and the existing chiller mix in the plant room. Like-for-like replacement of central plant components is indeed a missed opportunity to leverage maximum chilled water plant energy performance. Hence, it is imperative to focus on capital upgrade of central chilled water plant in a holistic manner to make the building future proof.

Team Catalyst’s expertise in energy modeling, coupled with its knowledge of central plant systems, places it in a unique position to offer cost effective innovative solutions that maximise overall system efficiency of the building.