By Wendy Truong and Edie Mather 3 September 2010 - The success of the Federal Government's Solar Bonus Scheme has seen over 30,000 households generating their own solar energy. Following is an outline of scheme and how it can benefit individual homes. The Australian Government is finally back on the solar bandwagon ...Read More > >

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 Tina Perinotto FAVOURITES: 3 March 2010 - 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 ...Read More > >

FAVOURITES [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 ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto 19 August 2010 - Lend Lease's Chris Carolan is a happy man right now. He's heading up a new company venture that has the potential to transform the average Australian's view of renewable energy, by making it safer, cheaper and easier to have a mini-solar energy plant on ...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 > >

By Tina Perinotto 20 August 2010 - Here’s a hypothetical: The new Federal Government is sworn in on Monday morning. The very first thing it does is convene a "citizen's assembly" from key parts of the sustainable property industry to ask them what are the five most important things that it ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 16 August 2010 - Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited has won a legal action in the Federal Court over poor investment advice in an action prosecuted by IMF Australia Ltd, which funded the case. Ceramic Fuel Cells, which has developed high efficiency and low emission electricity generation units for domestic ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto 12 July 2010 - The GPT Group last week launched the upgrade to its premium-grade office building at 530 Collins Street in Melbourne to an early morning crowd of about 100 people. The tower is expected to score 5 stars for NABERS Energy after a major refurbishment that includes ...Read More > >

What we need is a very fast train By Tina Perinotto 12 August 2010 - They say that in Melbourne tenants have been gazumping each other for five-star office space. Especially in the premium end of town such as Collins Street. True or not, premium space is running out. Not the old-fashioned premium, ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto and Andrew Starc 12 August 2010 - Mandatory disclosure of energy efficiency for large offices will at last take effect on 1 November. After a series of delays and lobbying to head off unforeseen problems, the industry has won itself a year-long transition period and a number of exemptions ...Read More > >

12 August 2010 - The Federal Government's new website for the Commercial Building Disclosure program - the new name for the mandatory disclosure scheme -  includes a list of buildings and their energy ratings, without green power. NABERS Energy certificates come with and without  "green power" in their ...Read More > >

Compromising on the sustainability performance of a residential development may well diminish, rather than preserve, the financial return. By Shauna Coffey 12 August 2010  - Sustainable communities are places where people want to live and work, now and in the future. While the benefits of delivering these new communities are obvious, adoption ...Read More > >

13 July, 2010 - The number of rating tools, policies, reports, incentives and legal rulings on sustainable residential  development has proliferated in recent years. In this comprehensive work, legal firm Herbert Geer has created clear and focused guide through the maze. At least for the eastern seaboard. In 2020, Australian greenhouse ...Read More > >

11 August 2010 - UPDATE - Cundall has introduced a search function to its NABERS/Green Star Google Map that allows users to see which buildings have a NABERS or Green Star rating. Cundall managing director Simon Wild said that the application would assist landlords and tenants now that  mandatory disclosure will ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto 4 August 2010 - Global property giant Lend Lease yesterday signalled green property leadership was back on the strategic business agenda with its appointment of two founders of the world-wide green building movement – Australian Ché Wall and Canadian Joe Van Belleghem. The two will join the global ...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 > >

By Adam Murchie FAVOURITES - 9 July 2010 - Initiatives such as water recycling, photo voltaic cells, tri-generation plants, grey and blackwater recycling and lighting improvements typically take much of the focus as ways to improve the environmental performance of property.  But while all of these outcomes certainly play a significant ...Read More > >

By Nicola Woodward ANALYSIS - 26 July 2010 - It isn’t every Monday you wake up to the fact that a Sunday press release by the incumbent Government in the run up to a general election contains a promising policy. Yesterday the Labor party announced its Tax Breaks for Green Buildings initiative ...Read More > >

25 July 2010 - Updated 26 July 2010 - Last week it was lean pickings for the green property in election promises so far. By Sunday the worm had turned in the sector’s favour with big welcome news from the Labor Party of a 50 per cent tax deduction bonus ...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 Tina Perinotto 22 July 2010 - For the owner of the building the Local Government Super it was the photo opp of a lifetime: Federal ministers Kim Carr and Maxine McKew, both corralled for the mid morning launch just days into a federal election. The venue: the chilly rain-swept roof at ...Read More > >

By Andrew Starc 21 July 2010 - Victoria's shopping centres and other commercial buildings may soon be the first in the country to sport large solar arrays, after the Victorian government today announced plans for the nation's first feed-in tariff for large-scale solar energy and an increase in electricity ...Read More > >

Reports - 20 July 2010 - With the initial phasing in of mandatory disclosure laws commencing in October, Global real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle has issued a report detailing all the major implications of the new laws to help commercial property owners and lessees with the transition: Mandatory Disclosure ...Read More > >

By Andrew Starc 9 July 2010 - Meiny Prins, chief executive officer of Dutch sustainability company Priva BV, has been in Australia recently taking note of Australia’s burgeoning green building initiatives. “In the Netherlands, the building industry is the key to reducing carbon emissions. “I have been in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne and ...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: 1 July 2010 - Romilly Madew has a lot on her plate. As CEO of the Green Building Council of Australia, Madew is leading a major restructure of the organisation, which she acknowledges is at a crossroads and is in the process of redefining itself. It has ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto 1 July 2010 - Here’s a small but powerful pointer to keep in mind if you have any doubt about the way risk management is going in the capital markets: 12 per cent of all institutional and private investment dividends in the UK come from a single company ...Read More > >

By John Goddard 29 June 2010 - As the Green Wave swept through the property industry, new practices and standards saw increased energy and water efficiency in buildings, leading to lower environmental impacts and healthier workplaces. However, as an industry we tend to overlook one area, which by definition produces a ...Read More > >