The SUPP was delivered as part of the Victorian State Government ‘Greener Government Buildings’ program, with the aim of reducing operating emissions by 25 per cent by 2020.
It also underlined the University's commitment to students, staff and industry partners to be a thoughtful contributer to public discusison and provided transpareny in the progress towards environmental sustainability
Sustainability Victoria CEO Stan Krpan described the project as "exceptional".
“RMIT demonstrated to the judges that they have translated the principles of sustainability into practice to achieve outstanding results for our environment and the state of our future,” he said.
“Victoria is an amazing place to live and RMIT is helping to keep it that way, we congratulate them as a finalist.”
Project Manager Michael Snow said that alongside emissions reduction objectives, RMIT also sought to leverage the scale of the program to incorporate initiatives that would improve operating conditions, user experience and asset management practices.
“Our industry-leading initiative enabled RMIT’s sustainability objectives to be met, while supporting the current and future requirements of each campus,” he said.
Completed in 2017, the SUPP project transformed 77 buildings across RMIT’s three Melbourne campuses.
The emissions reduction target was met four years early, with RMIT now expected to achieve annual emissions savings of roughly 39 per cent from a 2007 baseline.
Industry partners Honeywell (Brunswick and Bundoora campuses) and Siemens (City campus) delivered the complex project, and RMIT students were provided with work integrated learning (WIL) opportunities along the way.
A SUPP WIL placement was the springboard into a job at Siemens for RMIT alumnus Tim Pendlebury.
“I’d enjoyed my work on the SUPP project; the work was interesting and challenging and I was working with great people,” he said.
“It became obvious to me that I wanted to pursue a career with Siemens in building automation and control systems…which led to me becoming part of their central engineering team."
The Premier will also personally select two overall winners of the Premier’s Regional Recognition Award and the Premier’s Recognition Award, to be announced at the ceremony.
