BRIEF – 10 March 2010 – A key message from The Australian Water Association's national water conference, Ozwater '10,  which concluded in Brisbane this week was that Australian governments are jeopardising our future drinking water supplies by refusing to consider recycled drinking water as a solution to Australia’s water demands. Chief ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 11 March 2010 – The Victorian Employers’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s sustainability program, Grow Me The Money, has awarded McManus Real Estate as one of Victoria’s moist sustainable businesses. One of ten winners, McManus Real Estate was recognized for implementing a system that has halved paper usage in the office, ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 9 March 2010 - A report from the NSW Department of the Environment, Climate Change and Water which projects Sydney's air quality to 2026 indicates that zone levels in Sydney haven't improved and will worsen over the next 15 years unless the government acts now, Total Environment Centre ...Read More > >

From the Sydney Morning Herald  - 8 March 2010 - Jonathan Chancellor, the SMH's real estate editor today delved into sustainability issues and wrote: About 2025 hectares across Sydney is devoted to professional vegetable gardening. Just 1050 properties grow vegetables, each averaging about two hectares, according to the NSW Department of ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 8 March 2010 - Lend Lease Core Plus Fund expects new energy saving software developed by CSIRO could save up to 30 per cent on bills in its commercial property assets. BuildingIQ, developed by scientists at CSIRO’s Energy Transformed Flagship in Newcastle, and about to be commercialised worldwide under ...Read More > >

Applications for the Green Building Fund’s last round of offers to help green commercial buildings closes 27 April.  Grants available from $50,000 to $500,000, for up to half of the project costs. According to the website: Applications will be accepted up to 5pm local time on the publicised closing date. The Green Building ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 4 March 2010 - British restaurants have come together to establish an association aimed at improving their reputation for poor environmental performance, according to a report in UK green website, Edie. The Sustainable Restaurant Association was launched on 1 March. According to the Environment Agency the restaurant industry is ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 4 March 2010- Wal-Mart - one of the biggest supermarket chains in the world - has announced plans to green its supply line, UK based website, Edie said in a recent publication. The chain, owner of Asda in Britain, plans to cut 20 million metric tons of greenhouse ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 25 February 2010 - UK environmental consultancy SLR Management Ltd has paid $18 million to acquire Heggies Pty Ltd, an Australian environmental consultancy to clients in the infrastructure, natural resource and land development sectors. Heggies has 130 employees in eight offices across Australia and one in Singapore. It ...Read More > >

Do you have a colleague in Europe? Edie, Europe’s leading environmental website, is calling for entries to its Awards for Environmental Excellence, recognising projects that set new standards in environmental protection. Award categories include: Carbon Reduction Green Corporate Initiative Green Retail Initiative Local Government Initiative Renewable Energy Sustainable Construction Sustainable ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 24 February 2010 - Celebrity climate sceptic Ian Plimer seems to have more than his self-purported “truth” motivating his vocal scepticism of global warming. With a place on several mining company boards and holding a lucrative portfolio of mining shares and options, Plimer’s personal ...Read More > >

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BRIEF - 21 February 2010 - The Green Building Council of Australia has released the draft of a revised Green Star Steel credit that aims to “drive best practice steel production and fabrication and encourage dematerialisation of steel instructural applications in Australia.” The revised Steel credit was released on Friday ...Read More > >

[caption id="attachment_9608" align="aligncenter" width="390" caption="The view along Southbank"] [/caption] Read More > >

BRIEF - 19 February 2010 - Plans for Barangaroo, the largest remaining development site on the edge of the CBD, will be aired at a free public  event 23 February at the City Recital Hall at Angel Place in Sydney. Key speaker will be Lord Richard Rogers who designed the ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 17 February 2010 - WSP Lincolne Scott’s specialist sustainable design service, Advanced Environmental, is re-branding and expanding. The company's new name, Built Ecology, comes as the company opens a new office in Brisbane, “one of the busiest green building markets in Australia” and another in London. WSP Lincolne Scott managing ...Read More > >

BRIEF – 17 February 2010 – Sustainable energy advocacy group, Beyond Zero Emissions, has launched Transition Decade, a 10 year campaign aimed at accelerating renewable energy solutions for Australia. The launch on 14 February  saw the introduction of Beyond Zero Emission’s plan to cut Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. Entitled the Zero ...Read More > >

SCHOLARSHIP - 9 February 2010 - How passionate are you about community housing? What about sustainability? If you work for a community housing organisation and can outline a strategy for these two major issues of our day in a convincing 1500 words essay you could be on your way to  Berlin ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 8 February 2010 - Virgin group founder Richard Branson and other business leaders in the UK have warned that an oil crisis could hit world economies within five years and that it would have a more serious impact than the credit crunch, according to a report in The ...Read More > >

BRIEF - Sydney, 8 February 2010 - Frasers Property Australia today announced it had received approval for a public park at its $2 billion six star development project at Sydney’s Broadway. The 6500 square metre  Central Park, as it is to be known,  is intended as a key component in the ...Read More > >

BRIEF - Landcom has released its podcast of its 2009 conference, which featured Tim Flannery, NSW Premier Kristina Keneally (then NSW Planning Minister.) and Nick Rowley of Kinesis.  Go to www.landcom.com.au/conferencepodcast Read More > >

BRIEF - INVESTMENT - 4 February 2010- THE Property Council's latest Office Market Report showed all is still not well on the office investment front, as vacancy increased from 8.3 percent to 9.3 per cent in the half-year to January 2010, “the highest since January 2005,” the PCA said. PCA ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 2 February 2010 - The Melbourne suburb of Frankston is hoping it can soon offer 10,000 of its citizens power points at the local supermarket to re-charge electric cars,  solar-powered neighbourhoods and home appliances controlled via mobile phone could soon be a reality in Frankston - if it ...Read More > >

GOVERNMENT  - 1 February 2010  - 9 (UPDATED 4 March 2020) Sydney Theatre company’s home at Walsh Bay will soon be equipped with one of  Australia’s largest building-integrated solar photovoltaic array in the country as part of a $1.17 million greening program under NSW Climate Change Fund. The fund has allocated ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 27 January 2010 - The City of Sydney has purchased the former site of the T2 nightclub in Taylor Square South, with plans to convert the notorious venue into a community centre as well as the centre of a potential city-wide bicycle hire scheme. Placed at the centre of ...Read More > >

From The Economist- 4 January 2010 - an ever-larger proportion of sewage is being used as a raw material for energy generation. Germans already process about 60 per cent of their faeces this way, and the Czechs, Britons and Dutch are close behind (see chart). One company involved in this ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 10 December 2009 - As the political row on the emissions trading scheme continues the Energy Efficiency Council has seized on commitment by the major political parties to save energy and called on the Federal Government to release the $200 million it has set aside for the purpose. These ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 8 December 2009 - When the world’s leading green building organisations met last month at the GreenBuild conference at Phoenix in the US, it agreed to develop common international language to measure the carbon footprint of buildings, which account for around 40 per cent of the world's energy ...Read More > >

BRIEF: 2 December 2009 - BRIEF: 2 December 2009 - After 25 years in the business, George Floth Consulting Engineers has contracted its name to Floth. Managing director of the company George Floth said: “This 25 year mark was the perfect opportunity for us to take stock, plan and position ourselves ...Read More > >

by Tina Perinotto BRIEF - 26 November 2009 - After 134 years The Master Builders Association of Victoria finally has a woman as a board member -  Melanie Fasham, of Fasham Johnson Homes The MBA Victoria’s annual general meeting today welcomed Ms Fasham. President David Newnham said: “Ms Fasham’s election demonstrates the ...Read More > >