In this conversation, we talk to Mark Ross, Managing Director at Kador. We find out how they’ve been bold on buildings – the theme of World Green Building Week 2025.
Mark has over 35 years’ experience in the property and construction industry. For the past 6 years, he’s headed up of Kador, a Melbourne-based property investment and development company. He leads the firm’s national portfolio across office, industrial, retail and residential sectors with a focus on long-term value creation, sustainability and responsible investing. Mark is known for his commitment to embedding ESG principles into property investment.
Mark has been with Kador for 20 years and prior to this worked for Lend Lease, JLL and McLachlan Consultants. Mark’s experience includes all aspects property including investment, development, project management and property management.
Tell us about how Kador got started in sustainability?
Kador’s sustainability journey started in 2000 with a board-backed environmental, social and governance (ESG) philosophy that led to a number of firsts. These included:
- 500 Collins Street becoming Australia’s first existing office building to achieve a 5 Star Green Star Design rating and Australia’s first existing building to achieve WELL Platinum Certification
- 39 Hunter Street becoming Australia’s first heritage-listed, commercial office building to achieve 6 Star Green Star.
When you’re thinking about the challenges that come with sustainability in building design, is there a particular challenge on a recent project that stood out?
If we don’t introduce sustainability into our assets, they aren’t kept relevant and tenants won’t come. Then, our business dies on the vine.
On a recent project at One Kent Street, we were looking at a minor refurbishment. Then we said – no, hang on, we need to set this building up for the next 20 to 30 years. As a heritage building, it was designed over a century ago and certainly wasn’t designed to be an office building.
We chose to take the roof off, open up the windows and bring in natural ventilation and daylight. This will lead to a 15% in energy savings.
On 500 Collins Street, almost 20 years ago, we were concerned about condensation and humidity. We were the first to put in an active-passive combined chilled-beam system, at a time when it wasn’t yet used in Australia. These are the sorts of challenges that you take head on and try to overcome.
Do you see Kador as being at the forefront of adaptive reuse?
We have a long-standing philosophy of doing things properly and thinking of ourselves as the long-term owners of our properties.
If we look at Array at Macquarie Park, we deliberately up-spec’ed that building so it would stay relevant and give us a commercial advantage. We aimed for the highest standards we could justify and physically deliver.
This philosophy applies to all of our refurbishments and new builds.
Which decision do you think has had the biggest impact when it comes to sustainability as you’ve made bold moves in your portfolio?
500 Collins Street was the biggest decision for us as a business. We introduced a totally new air-conditioning system to Australia. It was a leap of faith – we believed it would give us a competitive advantage, but, we couldn’t prove it.
We went on to do a productivity study to try and prove that a healthier building using more fresh air and a chilled-beam system would be a better work environment for staff. Our study proved it was a much healthier building and there was a reduction in sick leave and improvement in typing rates and productivity.
If there are other firms out there that that are starting to embark on this journey with their own portfolios, what advice would you give to get sustainability over the line?
We were lucky. We had the support of our shareholders and Board but we still had to make it financially viable. We had theories that longer-term green buildings would be valued at a higher rate and could achieve higher rents. That didn’t happen for a long, long time. But, we knew it was the right thing to do the right way to go.
How would you encourage others to start the journey?
Well, they’ve got no option to do nothing if their buildings are vacant. First of all, they need to have a vision, engage the right people and then move forward.
Market bifurcation is real. We’re seeing it in Australia and London. We see there being no choice. Get the right team around you and move forward.
One thing I learned from my early days is that you can’t just bolt on ESG at the end of a project or halfway through design. You’ve got to introduce it into your project from day one. On our most recent project, the second consultant we engaged was a sustainability consultant.
How was the outcome different in the early days when you might have engaged a sustainability consultant later on?
We made decisions we couldn’t change. On 500 Collins, Green Star was introduced midway through the project. Some decisions were made too early to change. And we were learning on the job.
How do you think capability and expertise has changed in the last 20 years?
Sustainability is second nature for consultants these days. I don’t think you could enter a project without either a sustainability consultant or consultants with expertise in sustainable design approaches.
How do you think tenant demand has changed?
There have been government minimum NABERS requirements which were an early tick-box driver. Then, tenants started to focus on attracting staff through healthy, energy-efficient spaces that foster wellbeing. WELL certification felt new in 2018. Now, it’s a must-have.
What are you looking for in your next acquisition?
We have expertise in bringing older buildings up to current-day standards. There are a lot of distressed assets out there from both a vacancy and building services perspective. So, it may be electrification, broader energy inefficiency or something completely new.
How have you purposely built a team with shared values?
We had a very stable team with long tenure up until around 5 years ago. A challenge for me when I took over was to rebuild a new team that adopted our values and fit with our culture.
Culture was the primary focus for me when recruiting. We take the same approach with our consultants – they need to share our values.
We’re a relationship-based company, so it’s important the project team is based on existing relationships. That way, we get a much better outcome.
What’s your one last key takeaway?
Doing nothing is the biggest risk to your business. We need to stay relevant and do the right thing by the environment and society.
On a recent project, we measured AU$1 million of social value through our engagement with communities. And that’s ongoing.
It can be challenging engaging with communities when there aren’t many people living in close proximity to your CBD assets. We’ve donated materials and tools to a local Men’s Shed, invited kids from a local primary school to visit the project site and we also roll out social engagement in our operations.
Everyone talks about the environmental side of ESG but business needs to focus more on its social impact. How can me measure social value? For us, those long-term relationships with our community really help set us apart.
