11 May 2012 – The Property Funds Association conference at Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast last week provided a bird’s eye view of how hard the challenge is for owners of secondary properties to engage in energy retrofits. PFA president, Rob Olde asked where all the money had gone. Property would come back, but for many in the industry it was currently a waiting game, he said. Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto 11 May 2012 – Tony Crabb, national head of research for Savills, taps into regular six weekly meetings with the Reserve Bank, and recently with demographer Bernard Salt and Paul Keating for some of his insights. A key feature of the economy right now, said Crabb, speaking at the Property Funds Association conference at Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast last week, is the trailing Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto 11 May 2012 – Frank Gelber of BIS Shrapnel told the Property Funds Association conference on the Gold Coast last week that other than mining, the country is “pretty well in recession.” Property was “bumping around the bottom and trying to come off the bottom, and the investment industry just isn’t out there.” The corollary was that this is precisely the time to invest. Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto 5 April 2012 – When Gunter Pauli fronts up to the audience it is like a sudden burst of (renewable) energy and excitement has gushed into the room. At a forum organised by Arup and AFR Boss at Arup’s Sydney office on Wednesday, Pauli, a Belgium-based economist, says our efforts need to be directed to a highly efficient, Read More  
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3 May 2012  – South Korea has passed legislation for a national emissions trading scheme, bringing to 34 countries around the world including Australia that, that will use emissions trading as the primary vehicle to drive carbon pollution reduction. “We are far from leading the world, as some have claimed,” Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto 2 May 2012 – On Monday Eureka Funds Management executive director Niall McCarthy told the Property Funds Association annual conference on the Gold Coast that the Tax Breaks for Green Buildings program worth $1 billion would be scrapped. Where he got his information from, he would not say; he would not even confirm he “knew” this to The Fifth Estate, but there it was. By Wednesday the story had broken in the financial press and two more indicators emerged. Read More  
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3 May 2012 – Case study: WT Sustainability wanted to raise the bar when it aimed for a minimum six star NABERS energy rating under the CitySwitch program when it planned its new offices at 181 Miller Street, North Sydney. Director of WTS Stephen Hennessy said: “”WTS is in the business of delivering energy and sustainability advice to a range of clients, obviously we need to practice what we preach, Read More  
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By Imogen Schoots 25 April 2012 – Bruce Mitchell started life as an electrician and did not expect to become a property developer.  Australia’s first enviro industrial estate completed in 2010 saw him win 17 awards and his expertise is now widely sought. Declaring himself a self made man Mitchell is keen to share his experiences and the knowledge he gained by completing the 42,000 square metre industrial estate in Queensland’s Yatala Industrial Precinct at Stapylton, between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. It’s not hard to see why it is called an enviro industrial estate. Just over 14 per cent is set aside to nature, much of the storm water is treated on site via several wetlands and stored in five underground concrete tanks. Rain water provides sufficient potable water for the onsite workers. It is collected from roofs, filtered, then stored in tanks located around the site. The on-site sewage treatment and water collection mean that tenants don’t pay any water or sewage... 
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By Lyn Drummond 19 April 2012 – A Brisbane commercial property has delivered a major profit of 33 per cent for the Harvest group after an energy efficient retrofit using Low Carbon Australia finance. Harvest Property and the Harvest Denison Opportunity Fund are owners and managers of the building, O’Connell’s OBM House, at 26 Wharf Street, Brisbane. Read More  
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18 April 2012 – Many UK tenants who live in the coldest privately rented homes are revolting against their landlords and calling on the government to act to improve conditions.  Their concern highlights the dilemma of many commercial landlords who will face hefty bills to make their properties more energy efficient over the next six years as legislation on minimum standards comes into force. Read More  
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By Jerry Yudelson 3 April 2012 – US green building expert Jerry Yudelson does not mince words. Nature does not care about relative improvements in building performance; it only cares about absolute carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Time to get real, and audacious he says in this extract from his forthcoming book The World’s Greenest Buildings: Promise Vs. Performance in Sustainable Design Read More  
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10 April 2012 – More evidence has emerged that Americans are driving less – showing a massive 23 reduction in car use in the case of young people, and taking to their bicycles instead. Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto 4 April 2012 – The Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark has announced it will partner with the Global Reporting Initiative to enhance disclosure on sustainability reporting Read More  
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3 April 2012 – Company directors facing complex decisions about climate change impacts such as regulations dealing with storm tide erosion will be helped by a guide produced by three companies – DLA Piper, Future Ready and Climate Planning. Titled Climate in the Boardroom, the project is funded by the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility at Queensland’s Griffith University. Special counsel at global law firm, DLA Piper, Mark Baker-Jones said: “”To date, there has been very little good practical guidance available for decision makers and this is affecting corporate decision making both in Australia and globally.  Business leaders are simply finding it too difficult to sift through the rhetoric to access the truly useful information they need to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.” Sydney based Future Ready’s director of adaptability, Gareth Johnston, said: “Recent flooding and extreme weather events both nationally and internationally... 
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By Tina Perinotto 29 March 2012 – ASX listed diversified company FlexiGroup, chaired by former Qantas chairman Margaret Jackson, has partnered with Low Carbon Australia in a new financial model to entice small and medium size businesses to join the low carbon economy. Read More  
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By Lynne Blundell 21 March 2012 ­– Communities must build resilience to natural disasters and can no longer expect governments to step in and save them. Read More  
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21 March 2012 – A $290 million mixed development at 420 George Street, Sydney, owned by Fortius Funds Management and the Lend Lease managed Australian Prime Property Fund, has achieved a five star As Built Green Office rating – one of only six to receive this rating in NSW. It is also designed to achieve a 4.5 Star NABERS energy rating. The building, completed in late 2010, was repositioned in a project built by Lend Lease Project Management and Construction, with Aurecon contracted as part of the Lend Lease project management and construction team Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto 8 March 2012 – Grocon has done it again. This time it’s just wowed the international green giants with the highest LEED award in the world for its Pixel building in Melbourne. But take a bow too the sustainability consultants Umow Lai and architects studio505. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating, from the US Green Building Council, rewards Pixel with 105 points from a possible 110, a full 10 points above its nearest counterparts. The four level building on corner of Bouverie and Queensberry Streets Read More  
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By Lynne Blundell 15 March 2012 – There was a clear message at Green Cities this year –the era of a community revolution powered by technology is here. This message was there in the sessions, it was buzzing in conversations during the tea breaks Read More  
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15 March 2012 – On  lovely low carb(on) diets; some numbers for the bean counters; and revolution and passion storm the financial news hubs of civilized society as we know it. Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto 14 March 2012 -– CarbonSystems, an Australian company barely three years old, has fended off competition from the world’s heavy hitters in technology to win a contract with Microsoft for its global greenhouse gas management and reporting to stakeholders. Read More  
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14 March 2012 – Lend Lease can now claim that the sustainable design of its $500 million Commonwealth Bank Place in Sydney is now matched by the final construction, following the building’s achievement of a six star Green Star office As Built version 3 rating, the first in Sydney. Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto 8 March 2012 – Jones Lang LaSalle has jumped into the flexible sustainable workspace trend with its move to new Sydney headquarters at 420 George Street. Read More  
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7 March 2012 – Sustainability features which have earned a six  star Green Star rating for a GPT Group building at Sydney Olympic Park include a solar installation that contributes 25 per cent of the base-building’s peak load – making it the largest solar installation in an Australian commercial building of this scale. The $60 million 5 Murray Rose development which is the first stage of GPT’s $200 million Murray Rose Business Park also includes: Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto and Lyn Drummond 9 March 2012 – Leightons and Grosvenor invited the NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell to the topping out ceremony for the five star Green Star, five star NABERS Eclipse in Parramatta west of Sydney last week. Leighton Properties managing director Mark Gray said the Eclipse standards were high, but for  Leighton’s  it was business as usual. In an interview with The Fifth Estate after the ceremony, Mr Gray said: “Five star Green Star and five NABERS is quite high in sustainability and it’s probably setting a new benchmark not just for sustainability for architectural excellence in in Parramatta.” From Leighton’s point of view, however, “sustainability is a key driver to all the projects that we do. “All our new buildings are five and six star rated. We probably have more rated commercial buildings in Australia than any other company and we’ve been doing this for quite a while.” Mr Gray... 
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6 March 2012 – The Investa Sustainability Institute has launched a digital tool called Pulse that tracks the patterns of electricity use in office buildings which it updates daily for building operators. The institute’s director, Craig Roussac said: ”This new feature will be of great value to engineers, building landlords and experts striving for low-carbon cities worldwide. “The energy bills for Sydney’s largest buildings are over $1 million a year, so opportunities for large financial returns can be achieved by improving the effectiveness of building management,” he said. “What we are doing here might look simple, but the practice draws from nearly a decade of measuring and monitoring what really makes a building greener. We’ve learnt that sustainability in our sector doesn’t have to mean a fancy façade or expensive technology.” While a few landmark green developments were built each year, there were thousands of office towers which urgently needed to go greener... 
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By Mark Willers 2 March 2012 – The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors today (Friday) launched a new document that will change the game for sustainable property valuation.  Sustainability and the Valuation of Commercial Property, written by Mark Willers of CBRE and John Goddard of John Goddard & Co, with technical assistance and review by Bryon Price of AG Coombs, Stephen Hennessy of WT Sustainability and Davina Rooney of Stockland, is a guide that sets new standards in valuing sustainable property. In this article, Mark Willers explains the thinking that went into its development. Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto 24 February 2012 – In a move that will slay the naysayers, a new valuation guide for sustainable buildings not only accepts that green buildings have a different value to their peers, but urges valuers to make their own assessments of a building’s sustainability profile, rather than rely on ratings or other claims. Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto 1 March 2012- New Zealand is poised to make a decision that will steer the future of its sustainable property industry as it starts the interview process next week to determine who will run its adoption of Australia’s NABERS rating tool. But although the position is open to private and government agencies alike, some Australian industry insiders say that the reason the Australian system has been so successful is because it has been run by a government agency. Read More  
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29 February 2012 – Australia at long last has a sustainability rating tool for infrastructure that promises to be as transforming as the Green Star rating has been for buildings. At least that is the vision of the Australian Green Infrastructure Council which today (Wednesday) unveiled the Infrastructure Sustainability rating tool in Canberra. Read More  
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