Landcom's Precinx tool is a winner By Tina Perinotto In the sustainability revolution, things are getting serious. You can tell by  the  number of  ratings tools that are under way. It’s as if the time for talk and promises and green bling are over and the industry wants “real measures” for “real ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto NABERS, the environmental rating system that today measures the performance of about half of Australia’s CBD office space is under review - and the property industry has been promised full consultation. 11 March 2010 - For many people NABERS, the performance rating tool managed by the NSW Government, is ...Read More > >

By Lynne Blundell India is determined to reduce carbon emissions and to supply renewable power to its enormous population. But with the massive hydro power generation dam projects under way in the sensitive Himalayan foothills, the cost is high. Lynne Blundell recently travelled to the region and here presents a ...Read More > >

by Nicola Woodward - FAVOURITES - 21 April 2009 - Accelerated Depreciation is a core platform of the property industry as a way to green buildings – but there are major flaws in this approach and better ways to achieve the desired outcomes…. “Green depreciation” is a term that has recently been ...Read More > >

By Lynne Blundell After weeks of controversy over its green schemes, The Federal Government recently announced changes to the Renewable Energy Target, the most positive sign yet that it might be serious about promoting investment in the renewable energy sector. But then last week the NSW government announced expansion of two coal-fired ...Read More > >

REPORT- 3 March 2010 - The Global Financial Crisis has sharpened the appetite of investors for sustainable property and driven a new interest in slashing outgoings, according to a new survey from Jones Lang LaSalle. Even more impressive was that 100 per cent of all investors surveyed recognised that sustainability issues ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto Five years after Cbus Property signed up Insurance Australian Group and other tenants to pay about $10 million in extra costs so their new premises at 181 William Street in Melbourne’s CBD would be a 5 Star Green Star building the property industry is still asking does “green” ...Read More > >

by Lynne Blundell The push for urgent action was palpable at Green Cities 2010. It was there in the conference sessions, in calls to remove regulatory barriers preventing the uptake of renewable energy and in the drive to get hard data on green building performance. And it was definitely there in conversations ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto 25 February 2010 - Mandatory Disclosure, expected to take effect later this year was likely to be delayed, delegates at Green Cities 2010 conference heard this week, as a  string of accusations of bad management and program cancellations continue to beset the Federal Government agenda to green the ...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 > >

25 February 2010: If you are confused about the difference between a Green Star rating for buildings and a NABERS rating, you are not alone. One rates the design of a building - the Green Star - and other rates the performance - NABERS - so the numbers of stars ...Read More > >

21 February 2010 - While architects, engineers and developers are learning the “green” game, so too are Australia’s blue collar construction workers. And at the forefront of change will be plumbers who deliver the majority of energy consumed in buildings. According to the Green Building Council of Australia major re-training is ...Read More > >

- By Romilly Madew, chief executive, Green Building Council of Australia - 9 February 2010 - The city synonymous with the skyscraper has turned its attentions to the challenges of sustainable building. The New York City skyline is being transformed by green thinking, with the celebrated Art Deco design of the Chrysler ...Read More > >

From the ABC - 19 February 2010- Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett is scrapping the Government's troubled $2.5 billion home insulation program and the solar hot water program. Mr Garrett says the initiatives will be shut down at close of business today and will be replaced by a renewable energy bonus ...Read More > >

By adjunct Prof Alan Pears AM, RMIT University and Sustainable Solutions Pty Ltd Introduction The 2009 Copenhagen COP/MOP (Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change/Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol) was the culmination of an enormous amount of work and hype. It was framed as ...Read More > >

- 4 February 2010 - It’s hard to go past Matthew Wright’s article in the Sydney Morning Herald this week for a definitive look at the world’s solar race. And guess where Australia is coming, Mr Rudd? Following is an introduction and link: Renewable energy is the fastest growing power ...Read More > >

REPORTS - 3 February 2010 - Following is a second extract from  ASX-Listed Office Trusts: Does "Green" Pay? a definitive new study of green buildings by Citigroup Global Markets’ Elaine Prior and Felipe Faria, with Adrian Dark, Laurence Parisi and Jackie Tin. See Part I -Studies Into "Does Green Pay?" In theory, ...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 > >

- REPORT - 2 February 2010 -In one of the most definitive and widely discussed reports on green buildings in recent years, Citigroup Global Markets last month produced a rare insight into the motivations and impacts of sustainable property from the viewpoint of five leading property companies : Commonwealth Office ...Read More > >

From the New York Times -1 February 2010 - According to The New York Times China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world’s largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year. China has also leapfrogged ...Read More > >

- By Stafford Hopewell, partner, Gadens Lawyers, Brisbane - 31 January 2010 - Climate change is starting to emerge as a significant issue in planning and environment decision-making. Courts and tribunals are increasingly being required to take into account climate change issues and there is an emerging set of cases across ...Read More > >

27 January 2010 - The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors took part in CONSTRU India in Mumbai in December 2009 with a presentation on "Challenges and Opportunities in Green Buildings in India". Following are highlight from that presentation. Sachin Sandhir, Managing Director and Country Head of RICS India stressed ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto Leading Australian climate scientist Andy Pitman has slammed the misuse of an error in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report and the so-called “email scandal” to discredit the science on climate change, and the IPCC report in particular. The IPCC error, revealed last week by New ...Read More > >

27 January 2010 - Vanuatu is one of many Pacific island-nations that are extremely vulnerable to predicted sea-level rises due to climate change. It is a very poor nation, by international standards, and one of its biggest challenges is to raise living standards through sustainable economic and social ...Read More > >

The forestry industry and union have been stirring up controversy on the way Green Star ratings account for timber sustainability certifications. Now Lynne Blundell looks at the underlying sustainability of timber and how it stacks up against other materials.The debate over which construction material is the most sustainable – timber, ...Read More > >

by Lynne Blundell FAVOURITES - 15 July 2010 - Amanda McCluskey is a woman on the move – literally. When she did this interview with The Fifth Estate she was walking between engagements, on her way to an international corporate governance forum, and later attending a forum on the United Nations ...Read More > >

From the Guardian - 30 December 2009 - Mark Lynas was an eye witness at Copenhagen when China flexed it's muscle, insulted US President Barack Obama and single-handedly stopped a world agreement on climate change. Here's what he wrote on 22 December. Copenhagen was a disaster. That much is agreed. ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto - FAVOURITES: 6 April 2010 -Property owners can raise their NABERS energy rating to 4 stars  by better management practices and no major capital investment, the Warren Centre for Advanced Engineering at Sydney University has found in its Low Energy High Rise Building Research Report. The project, which called ...Read More > >

COP-15 - the conference is over, and so is a lot of good will. Here are some of the reactions: Australian Conservation Foundation, executive director Don Henry: “Strong national laws to cut greenhouse pollution and grow clean energy jobs are more important than ever after the Copenhagen climate talks ended in ...Read More > >

From CNN - 17 December 2009- Could China be the world's green champion? It seems unlikely. The vast nation is typically portrayed as a dire threat to the planet, with a booming population and a commitment to that dirtiest of fuels -- coal. But all that might be about to change. In ...Read More > >