Green roofs, massive wetlands with nesting boxes to attract birdlife, locally generated power, on-site bore water and the creation of local employment these are just part of the mix in the regeneration practiced in the UK by Tom Bloxham. By Lynne BlundellFAVOURITES: 29 April 2010 -Tom ...Read More > >

From Bloomberg - 19 August 2010 - Stuart Biggs reports: New Zealand’s sheep farmers are flocking to a government carbon trading program that pays more to plant trees than sell wool and mutton. The system, begun in 2008 and the only one of its kind outside Europe, awards farmers credits that ...Read More > >

By Lynne Blundell In the six years since Melbourne-based LAB Architecture Studio started working in China the sustainability landscape has changed dramatically. Other Australians too have found the country moving fast on its sustainability agenda- especially once the authorities get behind an initiative. Nanjing,  for instance, is almost a forest of ...Read More > >

By Lynne Blundell FAVOURITES: 19 November 2009 -The inaugural conference on Profitable Sustainability in Property, held in Sydney last week, brought together the pointy end of the property industry – decision makers and those with financial influence from valuers to developers, engineers to bureaucrats –all keen to hear whether or not ...Read More > >

From The Age - 18 August 2010 - The Chinese government last week ordered its most outdated, carbon-intensive cement works and steel mills to shut down by the end of September, told 22 provinces to stop discounting the price of electricity to aluminium smelters and that it would set up ...Read More > >

11 August 2010 – A lift that generates kinetic energy is one of the features that helped the Asia Square twin tower development in Singapore win a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design Core & Shell Platinum certification by the US Green Building Council. Developed by MPGA and designed by Denton ...Read More > >

Brief - 10 August 2010 - A conference to be held at the Columbia Law School in New York City will address the legal issues surrounding island nations that are at risk of being wiped off the map due to rising sea levels. A 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on ...Read More > >

By Michael Baker 4 August 2010 - There’s an old joke that speaks to the reliability of information received through our own senses compared with that received from what we think are trusted secondary sources. A man named Andy comes home and finds his wife and best friend Pete in bed together. ...Read More > >

28 July 2010 - The Victorian government is among 14 customers across six countries to order gas-to-electricity BlueGen fuel cells from Ceramic Fuel Cells, according to a company report released today. The demand for the cells comes after a CSIRO report confirmed that significant carbon savings can be made through BlueGen, ...Read More > >

28 July 2010 - The Victorian government is among 14 customers across six countries to order gas-to-electricity BlueGen fuel cells according to a quarterly cashflow report released by their creator Ceramic Fuel Cells. The demand for the cells comes after a CSIRO report confirmed that significant carbon savings can be made ...Read More > >

By Andrew Starc 28 July 2010 - Design team Woods Bagot and Buro Happold have launched a zero energy, carbon neutral sustainable development project to be piloted on China’s Yangtze River. Zero Emissions Design (Zero-E) is designed as a new model for large-scale sustainable developments, aiming to advance the construction industry’s contribution ...Read More > >

26 July 2010 - China has decided it will put a price on carbon, starting next year, it has decided to use a market mechanism because an administrative one is too expensive; and its top 1000 energy consumers have signed contracts to reduce energy consumption according to China Daily. The country ...Read More > >

By Thomas Friedman 21 July 2010 - From The New York Times - The hour is late, but there is still a sliver of time to pass a serious energy bill out of this Congress. To do so, though, would require President Obama to rustle up votes with a passion that ...Read More > >

By Andrew Starc 14 July 2010 - In only four years the world’s business and civil leaders have undergone a “fundamental shift”  in attitude to sustainability, according to a new report from Accenture. Nearly all the surveyed chief executive officers – 93 per cent –said sustainability was important to their company’s future. The ...Read More > >

Artists impression of an Icebergs site in New York City Brief – 13 July, 2010 – Woods Bagot New York has initiated a  “super-green” building system that reimagines and revitalises stalled construction sites as 100 per cent recyclable, high performance inflatable temporary “Icebergs” that can be used for a variety of ...Read More > >

By Simon Carter – 9 July 2010 - Australia’s commercial property sector can now proudly point to a group of property company sustainability programs that are coming of age. These programs are the mechanisms by which companies can make the environmental performance improvements they need and want, but take time ...Read More > >

By Lynne Blundell FAVOURITES: 11 March 2010 -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 ...Read More > >

Brief – 25 July, 2010 – Members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum have agreed to embark on a project to create up to 20 low-carbon model cities using energy-efficient technologies including smart grids and renewable power generation. Announced at APEC’s forum meeting in Japan 19 June, the 21-member body will ...Read More > >

From CBS - 22 June 2010 - The gusher unleashed in the Gulf of Mexico continues to spew crude oil. There are no reliable estimates of how much oil is pouring into the gulf. But it comes to many millions of gallons since the catastrophic blowout. Eleven men were killed ...Read More > >

The Sydney Morning Herald - by John Garnaut - 18 June 2010 - Sledgehammer policies to curb energy use and upgrade China's economic structure pose a new short-term challenge to Australian mining industry profits. Chinese leaders are unveiling campaign-style measures to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, including simply closing companies ...Read More > >

By Ché Wall 15 June 2010 - the Australian Prime Minister’s Task Group on Energy Efficiency wades through the 187 submissions it has received, it would do well to consider discussions in Paris last month about how best to measure and achieve energy efficiency improvements in buildings. All the peak global ...Read More > >

15 June, 2010 - A white paper published by leading green building consultants Yudelson Associates has revealed that sustainable management, design and operations are rapidly growing practices at American universities. Principal of Yudelson Associates Jerry Yudelson said that American campuses now host more than 3000 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design ...Read More > >

Despite causing the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe, BP seems to be planning to pay a dividend this year of more than $10billion. As two US senators have noted, by moving money “off the company’s books and into investors’ pockets”, BP “will make it much more difficult to repay the US ...Read More > >

The seeming decline of the American economy has helped foster a climate of denial with regard to climate change. Colm McNaughton of Eurekastreet.com.au writes that it is our ability to express and understand current global events, including climate change denial, within a new narrative not borrowed from those rooted in ...Read More > >

2 June 2010  - While Australia goes lily-livered on an emissions trading scheme, our New Zealand cousins —and the conservative party at that - is invoking a wartime effort to get its scheme across the line. According to Celsias Weekly today Environment Minister Nick Smith  said: "When our Anzac troops went ...Read More > >

The Papua New Guinea Government has passed legislation that removes the rights of PNG nationals to challenge the government's own approvals for environmentally destructive activities. According to Charles Roche, executive director of the Mineral Policy Institute, the legislation will give the PNG government carte blanche powers to approve future projects without ...Read More > >

Asia Pacific chair of the World Council for Renewable Energy Professor Peter Droege has launched a new book showcasing innovative approaches to sustainable design and planning. Edited with global design and engineering company AECOM, Climate Design explores the current paradigm shift towards low carbon developments, illustrating how ...Read More > >

Brief – 1 June 2010 – The fourth “Future’s So Bright Green Sustainability Conference” will take place in Melbourne 18 June with the theme “Sustainability in Retail.”Hosted by Point of Purchase Advertising International, the conference will feature10 global experts from world leading brands revealing how sustainability can drive growth and ...Read More > >

By Romilly Madew 31 May 2010 - Australia may understand green buildings, but China is building greener cities. I’ve just returned from a week in China, after taking part in the Australian Urban Systems and Austrade delegation to the Shanghai Expo, and then Beijing for the Australia China Sustainable Building and ...Read More > >

From Celsias New Zealand - 26 May 2010 - Keynote speakers during the first morning's proceedings at the Sustainable Build Conference at Te Papa, Wellington have painted a dramatic picture of the daunting challenges facing the sector with the onset of climate change. Setting the context for the next three days of scientific paper ...Read More > >