From an 80’s era riverside tower to optimised telecom hubs, Siemens is helping data-driven upgrades unlock new decarbonisation potential across Australia’s buildings.
A significant part of Australia’s race to net zero is being won and lost inside its office towers, stadiums and telecom exchanges. Globally, the built environment is responsible for about 34 per cent of carbon emissions and a similar share of energy use – a statistic that stubbornly refuses to fall despite surging renewable generation.
Here at home the picture is just as compelling: Australia’s buildings account for over a quarter of national emissions, making them a compelling opportunity for smart, low-cost abatement. Policy pressure is mounting (from city net zero pledges to a more stringent National Construction Code), but so too is investor and tenant demand for efficient, future-proof assets.
The retrofit advantage
Because many of the buildings we will occupy in 2050 already exist, upgrading what’s currently standing is the quickest lever to pull. A perfect example sits on Adelaide’s riverbank: the Riverside Centre, a 1987-vintage, 22,000-metres-squared government office tower, was recently overhauled in an award-winning project delivered in partnership with Siemens.
“We’re extremely proud of the fact that this building is now carbon-neutral,” says Vishant Narayan, Managing Director of Ashbridge Capital, the fund manager behind the asset. “Buildings produce 40 per cent of carbon emissions globally, and – as a landlord – the greatest impact I can have is to focus on the buildings we manage.”
Siemens began with detailed digital modelling, then overlaid a Desigo CC building management system on existing controls, upgraded lifts, installed rooftop solar and connected the site to a remote digital service centre in Melbourne for ongoing tuning.
“We look at the building, digitalise the information and work out what technology needs to be replaced,” explains Peter Halliday, CEO of Siemens Australia & NZ. “Just utilising the technology available today, and digitalising, actually achieves fantastic results.”
And the results back that up: Riverside cut energy use by 40 per cent, emissions by 67.5 per cent, and electricity costs by 50 per cent – earning a 5.5-star NABERS Energy rating and certified carbon neutrality.
Squeezing every watt through digital optimisation
Hardware upgrades alone are just one piece of the efficiency puzzle. Increasingly, owners are turning to software overlays that mine sensor data and control energy usage accordingly. Telstra InfraCo, the infrastructure arm of Australia’s largest telecom provider, turned to digitalisation to tackle a key challenge across its network of mission-critical exchanges.
“Keeping these exchanges at an optimal temperature is paramount for us,” says Dipan Patel, Digital Infrastructure Solutions Executive at Telstra InfraCo. “If we wanted to make a big impact on our goal of reducing emissions 70 per cent by 2030, we had to find ways to make a much more efficient cooling system.”
Telstra InfraCo turned to long-time technology partner Siemens, whose answer was Demand Flow – a patented optimisation layer for chilled-water plants. The system reads high-accuracy sensors distributed through pipework, then dynamically adjusts pump and fan speeds to deliver only the cooling actually required.
“The implementation has resulted in energy savings of around 20 per cent, or 4,000 megawatt hours each year – equivalent to the electricity consumed by roughly 350 homes,” says Michael Williams, Product Engineering Principal at Telstra InfraCo. “And that’s while maintaining 24/7 reliability for critical infrastructure.”
Digital retrofits like this are fast to deploy and capital-light, yet they can stack with future electrification or renewable upgrades. They also generate granular operational data, which is fuelling the next wave of zero-carbon management.
Toward autonomous, carbon-aware buildings
Those data streams are converging in the cloud. Siemens’ Building X platform – recognised by market analyst Verdantix as a leader in the smart-building field – unifies HVAC, lighting, security, EV chargers and on-site renewables on a single interface. Leveraging AI and digital twin models, it can forecast occupancy, schedule loads to periods of low grid-carbon intensity, and flag maintenance issues before they sap efficiency.
Global deployments – along with Australian pilots conducted with select organisations – point to what’s next: portfolios managed in real time against emissions ceilings and dynamic energy tariffs rather than static annual targets. For owners, the payoff is resilience against volatile electricity prices and growing disclosure requirements – and for occupants, healthier, more comfortable spaces.
What today’s innovations are teaching the market
The Riverside upgrade proves that a 1980s tower can meet (and beat) modern net zero expectations. Telstra InfraCo’s exchanges show that technology can carve out double-digit savings inside complex, never-offline facilities. And Building X presents an autonomous future, where every system is continuously tuned for comfort, cost and carbon.
And while retrofits may be Australia’s fastest lever, the country’s new construction pipeline can’t be ignored – every square metre breaking ground today must launch net zero-ready. Whatever the approach, the lesson for portfolio owners is clear: the opportunities and technology are here, the economics stack up, and the climate clock is ticking. For Halliday, it’s a chance for Siemens to make a difference by doing what it does best.
“Australia contributes around one per cent of global emissions. We believe we can do more than just helping reduce this – and aim for the most sustainable future possible,” Halliday says. “Helping make our building stock energy efficient will be key to looking beyond that one per cent.”
