CEFC, the Australia government-owned clean energy finance corporation, has committed A$95m (€61m) to the development of a 56-hectare logistics park in Perth.

The investment will be for the construction of the Roe Highway Logistics Park being undertaken by a consortium including Hesperia, Fiveight and Gibb Group. The developers plan to use low carbon construction materials across at least five new warehouses to be built in the next 18 months.

CEFC said it was its first direct investment to reduce embodied carbon in property construction, ensuring that it would be a carbon-neutral development.

CEFC CEO, Ian Learmonth, said: “The construction sector is a significant emitter of greenhouse gases, and the lack of low carbon alternatives to traditional building material has so far made it difficult to abate.”

Developments in low carbon construction materials would assist in accelerating decarbonisation, he said.

Hesperia managing director, Ben Lisle, said that through multiple initiatives to achieve high sustainability standards, the project would demonstrate to the property sector that it was possible to deliver carbon neutral projects on a large scale.

“We want to be part of the solution in reducing carbon emissions in Australia, and the best way to achieve our goal is by finding synergies between our developments and new green technologies and construction methods,” he said.

With this investment, the CEFC has now committed nearly A$630m to Western Australia projects across renewable energy, energy from waste, bioenergy, resources and property.

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