How Lighting Helped Country Road Achieve an Australian First with Green Star
August 30, 2019
A lot went into lighting Australia’s first 5-star Green Star standalone fashion store.
The refurbishment for Country Road at Chadstone, Melbourne was all about sustainable design (while making the space look absolutely incredible).
It featured some wonderful innovations, like fixtures made from recycled yoghurt containers and carpet created from fishing nets – a first for an Australian stand-alone fashion store.
Now, lighting obviously is a major consideration when it comes to sustainability through energy use and environmental concerns.
So, let us answer your questions about Green Star how we helped Country Road achieve it.
Interior
HMKM + Country Road store development team
Lighting design + supply
ambience
Photography
Caitlin Mills
WHAT IS GREEN STAR?
It’s a rating system (stars and points) issued by the Green Building Council of Australia, that basically encourages and assesses sustainable and environmentally-conscious design, construction and operation of buildings.
LIGHTING AND GREEN STAR – HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT IT?
For a retail project, we need to assess the following:
- Lighting comfort (indoor environment quality)
- Greenhouse gas emissions (energy)
Our Approach
Lighting comfort
There are standard measures like using flicker-free fittings and specific settings on the Colour Rendering Index. The back-of-house and store room were placed on sensors, and shopfront lighting was placed on a timer.
GENERAL ILLUMINANCEAND GLARE REDUCTION
We specified diffusers, softening lenses, honeycomb louvres to all fittings in the nominated area to reduce the glare.
SURFACE ILLUMINATION
We provided lighting level calculations showing a minimum of uniformity in lighting throughout.
LOCALISED LIGHTING CONTROL
Localised control to all the task areas allowing the ability to adjust the light levels in the immediate environment (Counter and BOH areas) for staff members.
GREEN HOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
Illumination power density
We achieved a 40% reduction to J6 BCA! Yes, 40%!
The approach to this was a lot harder than it sounds – reduce the percentage of the illumination power density by specifying more efficient fittings that achieve the right light levels with less lights and less power consumption.
AND, THE RESULT?
For starters, the space looks fantastic. And yes, we achieved 5 points and stars for the lighting submission/design (we are also hopeful of achieving another point for after-build assessment). A big congratulations to the Country Road team and HMKM for delivering such a fantastic project!
If you’d like to know more about lighting for Green Star, or engage us to help you achieve Green Star compliance for your project, then please get in touch.