Melbourne’s iconic Rialto Towers has pioneered an innovative retrofit program, collaborating with GWA Bathrooms & Kitchens to develop a unique toilet suite to dramatically reduce water usage.

Completed in 1986, Rialto Tower’s architecture has been praised for its timeless appeal, however the building’s energy and water usage has been far less enduring.

The two towers hold in total 94 tenanted floors with 608 toilets used by approximately 3,500 people every day, which resulted in an annual water consumption of over 70 million litres.

Investigations began in 2008 to find a solution to reduce water usage and increase the development’s National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) rating, which evaluates the performance of a building based on criteria such as energy, water consumption and efficiency. 

Early on in the investigation, a major issue in the upgrades was identified as the old wall hung pan toilet suites made upgrading to a commercially available environmental model problematic.

GWA Bathrooms & Kitchens were called upon to develop a unique floor mounted toilet pan to meet the design demands.

With a flexible inlet and outlet connection, the new toilet pan design can be used at any floor height and boats a WELS 4.5 rating for water efficiency.

“Ultimately, working together with GWA to develop the unique toilet pan enabled us to reduce the cost and accelerate the process of this major upgrade at Rialto,” said Rialto Building Services Manager, Mr John Vaughan.

Since 2010 almost 90 floors have had their toilets upgraded from the existing 11 litre flush toilet bowls with 4.5 litre systems, with the remaining floors expected to be completed in 2013.

The original 70 million-litre annual water consumption is expected to be reduced to just 49 million litres - a reduction of almost one third of the annual usage.

Commenting on the retrofit, Commercial Business Development Manager at GWA, Mr Manny Vella said, “As such an iconic landmark, Rialto stands as a pioneering example of how identifying, investigating and introducing water and energy saving initiatives can help to cut costs and improve business sustainability.”

Plans are currently underway at Rialto Towers to implement further energy and water conservation initiatives at the building, including an upgrade to water efficient tapware across the development.