McNab has taken out the Queensland Sustainability Award (over $2 million category) at the 2025 Australian Institute of Building Awards for its work on the Electrolux Group Queensland Distribution and Experience Centre at the Port of Brisbane.
The award recognises the project’s standout environmental performance and highlights the role of McNab and the Port of Brisbane in driving sustainable industrial development.
McNab CEO Kunjan Ganatra said the win was a positive milestone for the Queensland building sector ahead of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.
“This award is a testament to the strength of our partnership with long-term client Port of Brisbane and with the Electrolux Group. This was an ambitious and complex project, and from day one, every partner was committed to pushing the boundaries of what we could achieve,” said Ganatra.
“Early on, we were invited to join an international study tour to see world-class sustainability initiatives in action – an experience that helped shape our thinking and approach for this project.
“We drew on global perspectives, engaged with international experts and we collaboratively raised the bar on what’s possible in sustainable industrial design. Together, we’ve set a new standard for industrial developments across Australia.”
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Commissioned by the Port of Brisbane on behalf of the Electrolux Group – which sells more than 60 million products globally each year – the centre was both designed and constructed by McNab, delivering a key logistics hub for Queensland and beyond.
Port of Brisbane head of property Brett Wilson said the successful delivery of the facility reflected a strong partnership with McNab, spanning 18 projects over five years.
“In the pursuit of a 6 Star GBCA rating, this was a project that pushed the delivery team, spearheaded and expertly coordinated by McNab, to work with industry to find innovative and practical solutions to complex problems, customer requirements and traditional building techniques,” said Wilson.
“It allowed us to implement sustainability initiatives that we’d previously trialled with McNab on a broader scale…the partnership allowed us to jointly design and deliver our first mass-timber structure – in the process setting a global benchmark for Electrolux’s Experience Centres.”
Located on a 42,965-square-metre site, the 21,255-square-metre facility includes full-height vertical tilt panels for the main office, a logistics and inventory warehouse, loading docks and a repair workshop.
Designed to meet 6 Star Green Star requirements outlined by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), the project integrates several sustainability features. A 1.1-megawatt rooftop solar system powers the facility and returns excess energy to the port’s embedded network. A building management system provides real-time monitoring of water and electricity consumption, while a water recycling system captures rainfall for use in toilets, urinals, internal planter boxes and product testing operations. During construction, low carbon concrete was used for all external elements, reducing CO2 emissions by 63 per cent.
Ganatra said a standout feature of the build is the use of cross-laminated and glu-laminated timber in the office and showroom structure.
“This material not only stores carbon rather than emitting it, reducing the building’s overall embodied carbon, but is also made from timber – a renewable resource from certified sustainable forests in Austria and Italy,” he said.
The centre also features purpose-built demonstration kitchens, event space and landscaped outdoor areas, designed to enhance employee wellbeing and provide a high-quality customer environment along the riverfront.
