It’s more than just work.
It’s where I belong.

On Friday 12 December, 1600 of Victoria’s property finest celebrated at the annual Property Council of Australia Christmas lunch. Irish Comedian Jimeoin had the audience in fits of laughter as the attendees relaxed over lunch at the Melbourne Crown.

Wood & Grieve Engineers are delighted to continue to support the vibrant Melbourne property industry and were proud to be the major sponsor of the event.

Grant Holman, Director & Melbourne Office Manager at Wood & Grieve shared his passion for the industry, explaining “we’ve got a wonderful opportunity to be able to shape tangible things that contribute to our city and the people that live within it.”

Below you can view WGE’s 3 minute video showcased at the lunch, which explores the thoughts of some of the industry’s leaders on why they love Melbourne, what’s made them proud, and the innovative role of the property industry.

Jennifer Cunich, VIC Division Executive Director at PCA summed up the impact of our industry when she explains in the video, “Every single person that lives and works in Melbourne or Victoria is impacted by property.”

Featuring:

• Grant Holman, Director & Melbourne Office Manager, Wood & Grieve Engineers
• Carolyn Viney, Executive Director & CEO, Grocon
• Jennifer Cunich, VIC Division Executive Director, Property Council of Australia
• Tony Battersby, Victorian Chapter Council Member, Australian Institute of Architects (Director, SJB Architects)
• David Lehmann, Executive General Manager Southern Region, Lend Lease

The Movember Foundation is the leading global organisation committed to changing the face of men’s health. They achieve this by challenging men to grow moustaches during Movember (the month formerly known as November) to spark conversation and raise funds for prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health problems.

Since Movember’s humble beginnings in 2003 when 30 men grew moustaches, Movember has become a truly global movement, inspiring more than 4 million men and women to participate across 21 countries. Some dedicated members of our Melbourne WGE office participated in the arduous effort to trim, shape and nurture their facial ornaments whilst also raising awareness for men’s health and in doing so, raised a whopping total of $2,045.40. We would like to deeply thank all participants, men and women, who helped spread awareness throughout the month of November and helped to fundraise for a brilliant cause.

A fabulous effort by all. Til next year.

Wood & Grieve are proud to see the Ocean Keys shopping centre officially open. Our team undertook the civil and structural works for the project, which saw the shopping centre double in size - an enormous $108 million redevelopment and extension project. The project involved extending the existing structure whilst maintaining trading to the majority of the existing shopping centre and surrounding precinct- quite a feat to undertake!

Ocean Keys is now the largest shopping centre north of the river, with over 120 stores and 1500 parking bays.

The Mayor of the City of Wanneroo officially opened the centre today, with the new Target store causing the most mayhem having a queue over 50m long. The City of Wanneroo is in the top 10 fasted growing council regions in the country and the mass of people at the centre opening certainly supported this.

The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) has released their new Green Star - Design & as Built rating tool. As Green Star Thought leaders Wood & Grieve provided input into the evolution of this new Green Star rating tool. Glenn Alman represented Wood & Grieve on the steering committee and Phillip Cook on the technical advisory group. Both fed into the development and helped shape the advancement of the Design & As-Built Green Star rating system.

According to the GBCA “the new Green Star – Design & As Built rating tool will challenge industry to evolve, innovate and improve.”

To ensure the rating tool is considered ‘truly transformational’ a number of new credits have been added including:

• Adaption and resilience: rewards buildings that are designed to be resilient in the face of a changing climate and extreme weather events.
• Life cycle impacts: encourages the holistic reduction of environmental impacts of building materials.
• Sustainable transport: includes new pathways to demonstrate sustainable transport initiatives, including a Google Maps- powered calculator and encourages walking and cycling.

For more information on this tool contact the Wood & Grieve sustainability team.

For the full GBCA article on the launch- click here.

Wood & Grieve’s CEO, José Granado, led an interactive session on what it takes to truly engage your staff. The event was attended by over 120 management professionals and focused on the Wood & Grieve story.

José reflected on what he thought engagement truly meant to WGE and how he continuously works on creating and maintaining a culture that nurtures and supports engagement. Wood & Grieve has, for the past 3 years, been independently accredited as a Best Employer by Aon Hewitt and José reflected on what these accreditations and their supporting data told the leadership team about the Wood & Grieve employees. His key message for the audience was:

“If you truly believe that your people are your greatest asset then you need to protect, nurture and develop that asset by investing heavily in your culture and your people. You must know what motivates them, what is important to them and what they need from the leaders of the organisation – once you have this information you must be prepared to act on it as a matter of priority.”

If you would like to know more about the Wood & Grieve story please contact José.

The hot topic of the event was onsite Data / Server Centres vs cloud technology. Wood & Grieve and Lavan Legal presented at the event, which seemed to open delegates eyes to the possibilities that cloud technology could bring.

Elliot Alfirevich is one of Australia’s leading data centre engineers and has been involved in the audit, design, construction and commissioning of many data centres within Australia. He provided technical insight into upgrading your existing onsite data/ server centre to be more energy efficiency, sustainable and save on cost.

Marco Marcello has been managing IT teams in law firms for over 20 years, he presented on the merits of having a hybrid IT system and transitioning to cloud-based computing.

Cloud based computing ticks a lot of the boxes but why are many organisations still fearing the “cloud” and holding back? Can cloud based systems help IT teams meet the significantly increased expectations of clients, the business and users whilst keeping budgets under control? Can the cloud help reduce your electricity use? These are all questions that events such as this one look to explore and answer.

On Thursday 2 October, the InterContinental played host to over 350 building industry professionals at the fourth Annual WGE Melbourne Cocktail Party.

Gathered under the blue-lit canopies of this landmark building on Collins Street, friends of WGE and staff alike enjoyed fancy delicacies, flowing beer and wine, and conversation. It is an event to celebrate the industry we work so hard in as well as expressing our core philosophy:

“To us, it’s more than just work.”

Being able to enjoy the company of the people we work with day in and day out is of great importance to our working way of life, and we hope that our esteemed guests feel the same. We wish to sincerely thank all who attended and contributed to an exciting and memorable evening.

To quote Darryl Kerrigan, “This is going straight to the pool room.”