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 use and 33 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Chair of the World GBC Tony Arnel this week, said the significance of this agreement should not be underestimated. “The coming together of so many leading green building organisations is unprecedented and appropriate at this critical moment in the world’s response to the global challenge of climate change. Buildings account for a third of global carbon emissions and, as the IPCC has demonstrated, provide by far the most cost-effective carbon reduction potential. The World GBC is delighted to have been able to play a part in this historic development.” Green Star Director of the Green Building Council... 
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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 for our next phase of growth. “We’re producing some really exciting work in the areas of ecologically sustainable design (ESD), computational fluid dynamics and 3D modelling, in addition to the mechanical and electrical building services engineering we’re widely known for.” This included playing a role in the helping Leighton Properties and Leighton Contractors’ Green Square North Tower to achieve  Queensland’s first built 6 Star Green Star building, including provision of mechanical and electrical building services design that included Australia’s largest co-generation plant (to reduce carbon emissions by 73 per cent water use reduced water consumption of  1.4... 
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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 changing nature of the building industry with the increasing participation of women in building.  Master Builders encourages more women in the industry to become involved in on-site roles and at the management level,” he said. However, it is not clear if this also signals a new approach on environmental issues. The MBA has been fiercely vocal in opposing new six star energy standards for housing, despite evidence that the building industry quickly absorbed and implemented the five star standard for virtually no extra cost, according to industry figures. Ms Fasham is the joint-managing director of Fasham Johnson Homes, a leading Victorian residential... 
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Brief – 23 November 2009 – Minerals Corporation has received its first commercial sales order for its low carbon cement that the company claims reduces carbon emissions by 80 per cent from international building materials company CRH plc. Minerals Corporation claims its technology is “revolutionary” given that cement production is the third largest global contributor to carbon emissions and has the potential to have a significant impact on the global materials industry. The order follows a joint venture signed with CRH to develop a production facility in Chicago, that is expected to yield more than $30 million in revenue. “MSC already has in place a JV with an Indonesian company to distribute low carbon cement in Asia where the demand for the technology is significant,” the company told the Australian Stock Exchange last week.  
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BRIEF 19 November 2009 – The Australian Institute of Architects in collaboration with Architecture Canada, the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Commonwealth Association of Architects will deliver a “call for action” at the Copenhagen Conference next month, as part of a wider push for a meaningful response to the challenge of climate change. “Our call-for-action statement is designed to encourage governments, architects and the broader community to act on extensive research which shows the significant contribution the built environment can make to emissions mitigation – if comprehensive efforts in energy efficiency are pursued,” said AIQ national president, Melinda Dodson in a media statement issued today The statement outlines ten principles: Recognition of the fundamental importance of the built environment as central to the international climate change mitigation and adaptation agenda. Binding emissions targets and a carbon price to drive market... 
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BRIEF 18 November 2009 – The City of Sydney has invited 12 of the city’s most powerful property firms, accounting for 60 per cent of CBD office space, into discussion over the city’s 2030 sustainability strategy. Speaking at the at the Property Council of Australia’s Sustainable Sydney 2030 report-back event, Lord Mayor Clover Moore said she was “encouraged” by the response, according to a report in The Australian Financial Review. The announcement comes as the City of Sydney continues discussions with Valad Property Group over the redevelopment of Gold Fields Tower at 1 Alfred Street. Both parties are understood to be working towards a proposal focused on a taller tower and greater pedestrian space – a move that could see a strategic planning shift away from shorter, clustered towers, according to a report in the AFR. - by Daniel Lavelle  
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Brief 17 November 2009 – The Australian Institute of Architects will wrap several of its awards into a single event each March that will rotate around the country and “bookend” the National Architecture Awards in October. Headlining the new Australian Achievement in Architecture Awards will be the AIA’s Gold Medal for Architecture, with other awards such as the Glenn Murcutt Student Prize, Neville Quarry Architectural Education Prize, Student Prize for the Advancement of Architecture and Dulux Study Tour winners to be also included AIA national president  Melinda Dodson said the new awards would provide a home for the various prizes and become  more “people-focused,” with the potential to develop new prizes that recognised individual contribution to the profession and Australia’s built environment.  
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BRIEF – 17 November 2009 – The World Green Building Council has re-appointed Tony Arnel Chair at its  recent annual meeting at GreenBuild, Phoenix in the US. Mr Arnel is also chair of the Australian Green Building Council and the Victorian Building and Plumbing Commissioner.  A common language for carbon footprint of buildings The WGBC, which now has 63 members, including latest entrant, France, has also made a commitment to develop a common global language for the measurement of the carbon footprint of buildings, in an agreement reached with the UNEP Sustainable Building and Climate Initiative and the Sustainable Building Alliance, Mr Arnel announced. And a new mentoring structure for emerging countries In other news Mr Arnel said a new structure had been developed so that established GBCs would provide leadership and mentoring for emerging countries, with the first of these networks to be the Asia-Pacific region. Current CEO of the New Zealand Green Building Council,... 
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BRIEF – 17 November 2009 - Green Building Council of Australia chief executive Romilly Madew has won the prestigious White Pages Community and Government Award at the 2009 Australian Telstra Business Women’s Awards announced on Friday last week. Ms Madew was in the US presenting to 20,000 delegates at the US Green Building Council annual conference, but sent news of her delight at the award. “I’m thrilled. Winning this award is an absolute testament to the hard work, passion and dedication of the team at the Green Building Council,” Ms Madew said. “The building industry has, in the past, had a reputation for being male-dominated but I am proud to have been able to reach the top of my field – with the assistance of both male and female colleagues. “Hopefully this award shows a young generation of female professionals that it really is possible to reach the top of their respective fields of expertise.”  
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BRIEF – 17 November 2009 - Green Building Council of Australia chief executive Romilly Madew has won the prestigious White Pages Community and Government Award at the 2009 Australian Telstra Business Women’s Awards announced on Friday last week. Ms Madew was in the US presenting to 20,000 delegates at the US Green Building Council annual conference, but sent news of her delight at the award. “I’m thrilled. Winning this award is an absolute testament to the hard work, passion and dedication of the team at the Green Building Council,” Ms Madew said. “The building industry has, in the past, had a reputation for being male-dominated but I am proud to have been able to reach the top of my field – with the assistance of both male and female colleagues. “Hopefully this award shows a young generation of female professionals that it really is possible to reach the top of their respective fields of expertise.”  
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BRIEF – 17 November 2009 – Zurich Insurance has commissioned a national program of intensive one-day training for key brokers so that they can better advise their customers about climate-related risks. The program, which starts in Melbourne today, is being conducted by Climate Risk Pty Ltd. The move follows an Insurance Council of Australia report that said  insured losses from weather related incidents increased from 12 per cent to more than 31 per cent between 2000 and 2007. “There may be debates about the speed and scale of climate change, but everyone agrees there is a risk.  And when people and businesses want advice about risk they usually go to insurance brokers. That is why it is crucial brokers are across climate change,” Zurich Australia chief executive David Smith, said. Climate Risk’s director of corporate analysis, Karl Mallon said the response from insurance brokers to the offer of climate change training had been “phenomenal.” “Australia is highly... 
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BRIEF – 3 November 2009 -Have you invented a clever engineering or technology gadget, widget or idea? And has it been profitably commercialised? If the answer is, put your name down for the Sydney University’s Warren Centre for Advanced Engineering’s Innovation Heroes Award, designed to encourage and reward innovators in the engineering/technology space. Or dob in some clever innovator you know. The award is open to individuals and teams, in small and large companies. Closing date for incomplete nominations is the end February, but a comprehensive nomination with all relevant information can be accepted up to the end of March. Contact Frank Barr-David at frank.barr-david@aya.yale.edu Or go to  http://www.warren.usyd.edu.au/projects.htm  
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BRIEF – 15 October, 2009 - The Australian Property Institute and the Australian Direct Property Investment Association will team up to help their members become more sustainable as the environmental pressures grow. And its first initiative, the partnership will hold a conference, Profitable Sustainability in Property (PSiP) conference in Sydney on 10 November this year. API’s National Sustainability Committee Chair, Richard Bowman said a partnership alliance would develop strategies that meet growing demand for sustainable practices, without sacrificing profitability. “The API has closely followed the growing community concern over the perceived deterioration of the natural environment, and more recently, the debate on how to achieve a less carbon intensive human footprint,” Mr Bowman said in a media release today. “It appears increasingly likely that there will be mandatory carbon offsets as a condition of development consent at the Commonwealth Government level.” “We... 
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From The Economist – 30 October 2009 – THOMAS MALTHUS first published his “Essay on the Principle of Population”, in which he forecast that population growth would outstrip the world’s food supply, in 1798. His timing was unfortunate, for something started happening around then which made nonsense of his ideas. As industrialisation swept through what is now the developed world, fertility fell sharply, first in France, then in Britain, then throughout Europe and America. When people got richer, families got smaller; and as families got smaller, people got richer. Now, something similar is happening in developing countries. Fertility is falling and families are shrinking in places— such as Brazil, Indonesia, and even parts of India—that people think of as teeming with children. As our briefing shows, the fertility rate of half the world is now 2.1 or less—the magic number that is consistent with a stable population and is usually called “the replacement rate of fertility”.... 
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BRIEF – 30 October 2009 - A single cotton dress consumes 22,000 litres of water to produce. With this fact in mind, huge swap parties will be held across the country during Planet Ark’s National Recycling Week on 9-15 November. Property companies Lend Lease and Jones Lang LaSalle will jump into the action, hosting the Canberra “Big Aussie Swap” at Shop 6, 20 Allara Street on City Walk, on Tuesday 10 November –12.00 to 1.30 pm, with registration starting at 11 am. contact:  http://recyclingweek.planetark.org/ or call the National Recycling Hotline on 1300 733 712.  
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BRIEF – 29 October 2009 - The Senate Environment Committee inquiry into insulation for homes and businesses will now be expanded from malpractice in the industry to the potential for job creation, money saving and environmental benefits. Greens Deputy and Senator, Christine Milne, said her party had secured amendments to the original terms of reference proposed by the Coalition. “I am delighted that the possibility of expanding the insulation scheme to cover walls, floors, windows and small businesses will now be examined,” Australian Greens Deputy Leader, Senator Christine Milne said.  
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BRIEF – 26 October 2009 - One in every two Australians want to switch to solar hot water in the next two years, according to a survey by Newspoll commissioned by solar hot water supplier Solarhart. Newspoll surveyed  1062 home owners aged 18 to 64 to find that 55 per cent intended to take the plunge, up from the 8 per cent of householders that currently have solar hot water. Environmental scientist and commentator, Tim Flannery,  said the results were exciting. “Australians are among the highest greenhouse polluters on a per capita basis in the developed world, caused largely by the burning of fossil fuels for energy,” Professor Flannery said. “Electric water heaters are a major contributor to the problem, accounting for roughly a quarter of household energy consumption.  By comparison, using a solar water heater saves about 3 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year,” he added. Solahart’s National Manager, Stephen Cranch said the company expected the uptake... 
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BRIEF – 21 October 2009 - University facility managers now have a rating tool they can rely on, thanks to the Aurecon and Monash University-developed tool which has just won an award at the 2009 Tertiary Education Facility Managers Association conference held in Melbourne last month. The Model ESD (environmentally sustainable development) Sustainability Assessment Tool won the award for the most innovative and “best in class” at the TEFMA Innovation Award. Developed as part of Monash University’s Model ESD Building Review project, the tool benchmarks the university’s buildings in their current condition and assesses opportunities to improve the environmental performance of existing building assets, and at the same time provides for consultation with users of the buildings. Based on ESD strategies listed in the Six Steps to Sustainability and the Monash University Guide for Design and Management of Ecologically Sustainable Buildings, the Eco-Accord Model, the tool has already... 
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BRIEF – 19 October 2009 – Chief executive officer of the Green Building Council of Australia, Romilly Madew, has won the Telstra White Pages Community and Government Award (NSW) in the annual Telstra Business Women’s Awards, announced on Friday. According to Telstra: “Romilly Madew’s biggest business achievement has been growing a small industry association into an influential, internationally recognised organisation tackling the issue of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Romilly’s next challenge is extending the green building message into Asia.”  
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As the era of carbon trading draws near, a new guide has been developed to help companies manage the financial and reporting impacts of carbon emissions. The guide, Managing Financial Impacts and Reporting of Carbon Emissions – A Guide for CFOs, has been launched by KPMG and the Group of 100, an organisation representing senior finance executives of some of Australia’s largest companies. Tony Reeves, National President of the Group of 100, said the guide is a starting point for chief financial officers (CFOs) and their finance teams to assist in the management of the financial impacts and reporting under climate change regulations. “As governments introduce new regulations globally in response to climate change, the responsibilities of the CFO will broaden to include new obligations essential to enable accurate measuring and monitoring of their organisation’s emissions. “It’s time for CFOs to get fully up to speed on emissions reporting in order to overview the outputs... 
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BRIEF – 22 September 2009 – A clear, practical pathway to major emissions reductions within the next 20 years is still possible according to a new report from Greenpeace. According to the report, “energy [r]evolution, a sustainable Australia energy solution”, energy industry modelling software designed by the German Aerospace Centre suggests that significant cuts to worldwide Co2 emissions can be made in the timeframe necessary to avoid a global temperature rise of +2°C if the right measures are taken quickly. Focusing on the stationary energy sector the report outlines a series of measures that, if adopted, could see significant efficiency gains and a dramatic expansion of renewable power generation over the next decade: Phase out all subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear energy Internalise external (social and environmental) costs through “cap and trade” emissions trading Mandate strict efficiency standards for all energy consuming appliances, buildings... 
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BRIEF – 22 September 2009 – The inaugural World Green Building Day on 24 September will focus attention on the huge potential of buildings to reduce greenhouse emissions, easily, cheaply and quickly. And the flip side – which is that emissions from buildings are set to double by 2030 if action is not taken. According to the chair of both the WorldGBC [World Green Building Council] and the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), Tony Arnel, the potential of the built environment is still not being utilised. “This potential is not yet reflected in international priorities. For example, as of April 2009, only 12 of the 4500 projects in the Clean Development Mechanism pipeline were seeking to reduce energy demand in buildings,” Mr Arnel said in a media statement today. “A sustainable built environment can – indeed, must – play a central role in the global response to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. The challenge is to realise the full economic... 
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BRIEF – 22 September 2009 – Get set for another inner city development stoush as the NSW Harness Racing Club starts the development process for its highly sensitive Harold Park Paceway and Rozelle Tram Depot in Sydney’s inner city Glebe. The City of Sydney today said the the consultation program with local residents would get under way on Tuesday 29 September. For more details see here Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP said a range of “planning principles” such as housing diversity, open space, sustainable transport, and heritage would be considered in preparing the controls. “The challenge ahead of us is to develop planning controls that balance opportunities for public benefit with the site owner’s expectations of financial returns,” Ms Moore said in a media statement today.  
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BRIEF – From The Guardian 16 September 2009 Europe has clashed with the US Obama administration over climate change in a potentially damaging split that comes ahead of crucial political negotiations on a new global deal to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The Guardian understands that key differences have emerged between the US and Europe over the structure of a new worldwide treaty on global warming. Sources on the European side say the US approach could undermine the new treaty and weaken the world’s ability to cut carbon emissions. Read More>>>  
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By Daniel Lavelle -14  September 2009 - Japanese Prime Minister-elect  Yukio Hatoyama has stated that he will stick by his election promise to reduce   Japanese carbon emissions 25 per cent off 1990 levels by 2020 provided other  major emitters make similar commitments at  the Copenhagen Conference. “As a mid-term goal, we aim at a 25 per cent reduction by 2020 from 1990, based on the levels demanded by science to stop global warming,” said Mr Hatoyama at  the Asahi World Environment Forum 2009 in Tokyo 7 September. Mr Hatoyama, 62, who is scheduled to take over as prime minister on September 16 said: “Our nation will strongly call on major countries around the world to set aggressive goals. The Japanese business lobby has already announced its objection  to the cuts, which are substantially higher  than the 8 per cent target announced ... 
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BRIEF: From New Matilda- 11 September 2009 – Did Australia’s largest solar power project collapse because of government inaction? Details about government funding of low emissions technology projects are thin on the ground This week saw the collapse of Solar Systems Pty Ltd, the company building what was to be Australia’s largest solar power station in Mildura in Victoria. As Solar Systems’ website dolefully announces, “administrators are undertaking an immediate assessment of the operations and financial position of the companies with a view to continuing the operations on a reduced scale in order to restructure and sell the business as a going concern.” Read More>>>  
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BRIEF –9 September 2009 – As US photovoltaic firm First Solar starts to build the world’s largest solar power station in China, the Greens have slammed the Rudd government’s feeble renewables policy. The 2-gigwatt plant in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, is slated for completion by 2019 and is made possible by a gross feed-in tariff, a policy tool that Australia has failed to enact – with dire consequences for our renewable energy sector, according to Greens Senator Christine Milne: “The gross feed-in tariff, which guarantees a fair market for renewable energy, is delivering gigawatts of zero emissions power and hundreds of thousands of jobs around the world, but in Australia the Government prefers photo ops to real policy.” The Australian renewable energy sector has been hit hard in recent months by the global financial crisis with plans for a 470-megawatt solar plant in Victoria thrown into confusion after parent company Solar Systems went into receivership. In a statement issued... 
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BRIEF: A new report by the UK’s national academy of science The Royal Society warns that large scale geo-engineering projects – including solar mirrors and underground carbon storage may become necessary unless serious action is taken to curb carbon emissions in the near future. The report finds that such measures are technically achievable and could arrest global temperature increases but raises doubts about their cost-effectiveness and warns of long-term ecological side-effects. See this link: or go here for the full PDF report  
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GBCA Party The Green Building Council threw a party on Wednesday 26 August to celebrate the 5 star refurb of their headquarters in Elizabeth Street, Sydney. Environment Minister Peter Garrett, presided over the offical opening and Maria Atkinson the founding chief executive officer of the GBCA joined current CEO Romilly Madew for the festivities.  
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BRIEF – 3 September 2009 – ECO-Buy CEO Hugh Wareham is counting this year’s ECO-Buy Green expo a success, releasing a press statement saying that over 200 representatives from State Government, local councils and businesses came along in a show of support for suppliers of genuine green products. ECO-Buy is an organisation dedicated to transforming the buying habits of governments and businesses in Australia, whose annual expo provides suppliers of green goods and services with an opportunity to showcase the ways in which they can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, minimise pollution and waste, and promote sustainable water solutions. If the success of this year’s expo wasn’t enough of an indication about the level of interest in going green, key findings shared at the event by Nick Bez of the Mobium Group surely was. He said their research revealed that the market for sustainable products and services in Australia is projected to be worth as much as $22... 
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