By Tina Perinotto If the property industry had any doubt that its world was about to be irrevocably changed, then those doubts were dispelled at ‘The Carbon Obligation – Everything you need to know if you buy, sell, lease, develop or manage property’ seminar, hosted by the Property Council of Australia in Sydney last Thursday. In a sweeping wrap up of the events massing on the horizon, the seminar’s panel line up did a thorough demolition job on any lingering hopes that the property industry might soon wake up as if from a bad dream and everything would get back to normal. On the panel were Romilly Madew of the Green Building Council, Rowan Griffin of Colonial First State Global Asset Management, Felicity Rourke of Deacons, Kevin George of Jones Lang LaSalle and Garielle Kuipper of Investa. Opening the proceedings was the Environment Minister Peter Garrett and facilitator was the PCA’s chief executive officer, Peter Verwer. Setting the scene for the new business environment was... 
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By Lynne Blundell The head of the world’s carbon trading association has urged Australian businesses and consumers to focus on the benefits of an emissions trading scheme and to make some decisions ahead of the international meeting in Copenhagen. Henry Derwent,  chief executive officer of the International Emissions Trading Association, was in Australia last week to talk with government and business about the impending introduction of the Australian ETS and to offer some tips from the European experience. Formerly the international climate change director for the UK Government and the man responsible for overseeing the introduction of Britain’s ETS scheme in 2005, he had a lot of useful advice to pass on. Mr Derwent spoke to media representatives at a joint conference with KPMG last week about the implications of delaying the ETS scheme in Australia, emphasising the importance of certainty for business. He said the rise in energy prices was inevitable and putting a definite price... 
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by Charmian Barton Significant changes to the Contaminated Land Management Act 1997 (NSW) came into effect on 1 July 2009.  Businesses who own, lease or manage contaminated land in New South Wales may find themselves liable for contamination where they previously had no responsibility. Changes under the Contaminated Land Management Amendment Act 2008 (NSW) relating to the removal of the ‘no knowledge’ defence, a new offence of providing false or misleading information, and the introduction of offset arrangements came into force on 10 December 2008.  The remainder of the provisions took effect on 1 July 2009, including the removal of the ‘significant risk of harm’ test. The changes give the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) broader powers to issue investigation and clean up orders and cast a wider net in terms of those with responsibility for reporting contamination in New South Wales. ‘Significant risk of harm’ test replaced The EPA now has power to regulate contaminated... 
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By Tina Perinotto We all know that throwing away the partitions, carpets, furniture and sometimes even the stairwell that’s been punched through to the next floor in office building at the end of each lease is a big waste of resources. Hard to believe it happens.  But it’s all part of the Make Good clauses in a commercial lease, that force the tenant to return the premises fairly closely to the condition they were at the start of the lease. This might even mean removing an energy efficient piece of equipment so that the tenancy matches the rest of the building, old and inefficient as it might be. Now the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has produced a document designed to avoid such waste. Entitled Greening Make Good, the document is a companion piece to a new guide for green leases, a Guide to Environmental Performance Clauses. (Contact Info@rics.org.au for information about the guides.) Both reports have been produced by RIC’s sustainability committee, comprising chair... 
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By Tina Perinotto We all know that throwing away the partitions, carpets, furniture and sometimes even the stairwell that’s been punched through to the next floor in office building at the end of each lease is a big waste of resources. Hard to believe it happens.  But it’s all part of the Make Good clauses in a commercial lease, that force the tenant to return the premises fairly closely to the condition they were at the start of the lease. This might even mean removing an energy efficient piece of equipment so that the tenancy matches the rest of the building, old and inefficient as it might be. Now the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has produced a document designed to avoid such waste. Entitled Greening Make Good, the document is a companion piece to a new guide for green leases, a Guide to Environmental Performance Clauses. (Contact Info@rics.org.au for information about the guides.) Both reports have been produced by RIC’s sustainability committee, comprising chair... 
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by James Paton It may not be part of the Rudd Government’s plan, but laws designed to tackle climate change are turning into a highly welcome economic stimulus for lawyers and accountants. While a number of these professional firms are shooing redundancy victims out the back door, inside they are strengthening specialist teams to deal with the impact of what one source said was a regulatory change that would be as big as the introduction of the GST. Everyone agrees the proposal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has huge implications. “It’s a very significant business opportunity for all firms simply because the legislation is far reaching and because the legislation is complex,” said Grant Anderson, a Melbourne-based partner at the law firm Allens Arthur Robinson. “It will have a transformative effect as Australia moves from a high carbon economy to a low carbon economy.” Firms have published stacks of reports on their Web sites, created a mini boom in seminars and made key... 
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By Philip Pollard Chapter One: From garbage tip to bio-diverse wetlands Philip Pollard’s Phd thesis, Campus as Place, on the transformation of  the University of Newcastle into one of the world’s leading sustainability exemplars, is a rare insight into the enormous complexities – human and technological – that need to managed, nurtured and coaxed into a creative outcome. In the last issue of The Fifth Estate, the thesis together with observations by Mr Pollard, backed by Glenn Murcutt, one of Australia’s leading architects, formed the basis of an explosive story that claimed recent actions by the university administration had caused vast environmental damage. The former University of Newcastle was amalgamated with the Hunter Institute of Higher Education and the Newcastle Conservatorium of Music in late 1989, a move strongly encouraged (in essence compelled) by the Federal Minister for Education at the time, John Dawkins. As I learned firsthand when I joined the newly amalgamated... 
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From the New York Times - 10 August 2009 -  GDP measures activity not benefit, like a cheque book that records all activity, including repairs to damaged property. It tells you nothing about whether you are better off this year or worse. And the value of natural capital, such as drying your washing in the sun, or the lost New Orleans wetlands, carved up for development, that could have prevented some of the $82 billion of damages from Hurricane Katrina, is not counted at all, argues Eric Zencey  Read more >>>  
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5 August 2009 – The Property Council of Australia has released for public consultation a new do-it-yourself guide to sustainability and corporate responsibility for property companies. Launched by Assistant Treasurer Senator Nick Sherry, A Guide to Corporate Responsibility Reporting in the Property Sector, will standardise the metrics the industry uses to report corporate responsibility, according to Property Council chief executive officer, Peter Verwer. “It provides a simple, voluntary, entry level template for property companies that can be easily customised to the needs of individual corporations,” Mr Verwer said. “While the rules for financial accounting are (relatively) well accepted, there is no cut-out-and-keep guide to reporting for the property sector. “This guide will revolutionise corporate responsibility (CR) reporting in our industry, and ensure non-financial performance is transparent, meaningful and comparable,” Mr Verwer said. The move comes ahead of an... 
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Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan with the Allsafe team By Lynne Blundell One company that is bucking the trend of business caution and retraction right now is Townsville-based business, Allsafe Energy Efficient Products, poised to create hundreds of new green jobs across the country. The company has boomed on the back of the Federal Government’s rebates for insulation and solar hot water systems, recently opening a new administration centre in Brisbane and about to open a string of franchises. The opening of the new centre was a feel-good moment for Treasurer Wayne Swan, who spends much of his time talking about rising unemployment and tough economic conditions these days. This story was the opposite, with Allsafe’s expansion expected to create jobs both here and in New Zealand. When opening the centre Mr Swan said he was positive about the creation of jobs through the government’s energy efficient homes package. “Jobs are being created everywhere … we should all celebrate... 
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by Lynne Blundell As the effects of global economic conditions continue to impact across Australian office markets, with rising vacancies and increasing incentives, two government departments in Melbourne are taking the opportunity to strike new property deals and move to more sustainable buildings. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and Melbourne Water are both engaging property consultants to find larger premises that allow them to amalgamate current offices and that also meet the government’s sustainability requirements. The ATO has appointed property consultant United Group Services to run an expressions of interest campaign to find new 25,000 square metre headquarters. An ATO spokesperson told TFE the only stipulation for the new space was that it was located in the Melbourne CBD, which could extend as far as the new Dockland developments. In terms of sustainability, the ATO would be seeking a building that reflected current government policy and benchmarks. “Currently the Department... 
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A dizzying array grants by Russell Fortmeyer… FAVOURITES – 18 July 2009 -The Australian federal and state governments offer a wide range of grants for sustainable design, but weeding through the mix can be a confusing exercise… As much as the private sector thinks it can do just fine without government support, the dirty secret of so much innovative building technology is that it owes its very existence to public subsidies. Nearly every country’s solar photovoltaics industry is driven by government subsidies—when the grant matching stops, so do sales. The Australian federal and state governments offer a dizzying array of grants and alternative funding mechanisms to support sustainable design. Institutions, particularly the universities, and private property developers are increasingly using these to fund innovative things like black water treatment plants with sewer mining and solar thermal cooling systems, in addition to more conventional green approaches like... 
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By Tina Perinotto - 24 July 2009 – Investa has established a leading reputation for greening its existing building stock. Now it wants to share its knowledge through its initiative, the Investa Sustainability Institute, launched on Wednesday. . According to Craig Roussac, Investa’s General Manager, Sustainability, Safety & Environment, the Institute will create a platform for deeper research into what makes a property tick more sustainably and it will be available to “everyone and anyone.” He said the Institute would collaborate with research, academics, industry, professional bodies and government organisations to better understand the processes and results of greening existing buildings. The move followed a growing demand to share results of environmentally friendly work on buildings, Mr Roussac said. “It came about because over the years we’ve had a lot of researchers wanting to get hold of our data and lamenting that they couldn’t. “We realised we could partner... 
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By Liz Morgan Let me ask you a question: what do you think is the best way to help tackle global warming? It can be a behavioural or technological/scientific solution; your imagination is the sole limiting factor. It’s a really worthwhile question to ask, but it’s not mine, sad to say. I don’t know who first posed it, but the Manchester International Festival in England, in conjunction with The Guardian newspaper, is in search of the brightest and best ideas for saving Earth from overheating (or should that be saving us from ourselves?). On July 13, the proponents of 20 different ideas each got 15 minutes to spruik their vision before a panel of experts, who will whittle down the list to 10. These 10 ideas will form the basis of the Manchester Report that will be sent to (presumably British) policy-makers, as food for thought, before December’s global summit on climate change in Copenhagen. The top-20 ideas are as follows: 1. Methane and artificial photosynthesis: feed carbon dioxide... 
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By Tina Perinotto The property industry might be in the clutches of the global financial crisis but this hasn’t stopped the biggest commercial property owners – and many not so big – digging deep to in order to qualify for a 50:50 green building fund grant from the Federal Government to improve the energy efficiency of existing buildings. Most of the well known names were there – AMP, ISPT, Abacus, GPT and Mirvac, Valad, Westpac and FKP – claiming the maximum or close to the maximum grant of $500,000 – in the first two rounds of grants. But one property owner stood out – Commonwealth Property Office Fund. Not only did it pull out the stops to claim funding for three of its buildings but it managed to lodge a successful case to snare a special grant of nearly $3 million in order to install a wind array scheme on the roof of its 385 Bourke Street, Melbourne. Bronwyn Williams, manager, Green Building Fund, which is being administered by AusIndustry,the program... 
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by Lynne Blundell 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 Prinicples for Sustainable Investing.This is how she likes it – fast moving and thinking on her feet. It is no surprise that McCluskey, sustainability manager for Colonial First State Global Funds Management, ended up as a sustainability crusader. Passionate about environmental issues since she was a child (she chose to write about the Exxon Valdez oil spoil for one of her first primary school projects) she went on to study environmental economics and international relations at the University of Sydney. Instead of attending her graduation ceremony, she joined a protest outside the AGM of a prominent Australian company that was performing badly on environmental issues. “It was a very exciting thing to do. I was a ratbag... 
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By Tina Perinotto With climate change, “maps are political bombshells”. The speaker is Donovan Burton, head of local government and urban planning for Climate Risk Pty Ltd. Burton is talking about the type of maps institutional property infrastructure owners are now commissioning to assess their specific risk in the medium term with climate change. A general climate change map produced, by organisations such as CSIRO, that shows the potential rise in water levels, storm surges or rainfall patterns can be misleading if it not tailored to the specific locations and requirements of the client, Burton says. “They might see lines drawn in the sand and make a decision without looking at the inherent uncertainties associated with it. “It impacts on property values.” On 29 July Climate Risk will host a high level conference in North Sydney for professionals in the insurance, legal and infrastructure fields to better understand the risks that are emerging for infrastructure, in particular... 
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16 July 2009 – If you are wondering about the power of the coal miners and the other giant polluters in running the emissions trading scheme debate, this article from Crikey’s Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane, earlier this month is worth putting on the record… Amid the email-related shenanigans of the weekend before last, one of the more extraordinary articles in the entire climate change debate appeared in The Weekend Australian. It was, in essence, an attack on, and warning to, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Australian Climate Justice Program by News Ltd business writer Matthew Stevens, on behalf of some of the country’s biggest polluters. The ACF and the ACJP had got up the noses of Boral, BlueScope Steel, Caltex, Rio Tinto, Woodside and Xstrata by noting the remarkable disparity between the apocalyptic rhetoric coming from those companies about the impact of the Government’s “no-polluter-left-behind” emissions trading scheme, and... 
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By Tina Perinotto 13 July 2009 – Japanese developer, Sekisui House’s recent majority purchase of Australian residential developer Payce Consolidated, promises a long awaited sustainable shakeup of the local multi-housing industry in Australia if all goes according to plan. The company has bought a 75 per cent stake in the Payce’s existing development pipeline at Waterfront in Homebush in Sydney’s inner west, which still has another 1900 apartments to be developed as well as 173 hectares at Ripley Valley near Ipswich in Queensland, together worth around $190 million and replacing Babcock & Brown as Payce’s joint venture partner. But in separate deals Sekisui is understood to be buying up additional parcels of land throughout Sydney and Queensland. Payce Consolidated sales manager, Jim Keats, told The Fifth Estate on Friday that it was early days and that the company was still investigating what would be considered the appropriate level of sustainable investment for Australian... 
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by Lynne Blundell FAVOURITES – 4 July 2009 – The merit of investing in sustainable buildings would seem to be a no brainer – lower energy consumption, good design and, hopefully, a more pleasant, productive workplace. But for one of the most sophisticated property sectors in the world where more than 70 per cent of institutional grade commercial property is in listed trusts, the Australian investment sector has been slow to target sustainable property as a specialist area of investment. There is just one standalone fund dedicated to sustainable buildings – the Drapac Sustainability Fund, and it contains only one 6 Star building in Melbourne. On the listed side, while there are a number of property funds with a sustainable overlay, there are none purely focused on green buildings. So is this a sign that the investment sector doesn’t believe in the earnings potential of sustainable property? According to Adam Murchie, director of capital and funds with Drapac, the problem... 
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by Tina Perinotto Think of it like this: 3000 commercial buildings throughout Australia – a total of 11 million square metres of space. Get these using less water, less energy and making less waste, and that’s not a bad set of environmental outcomes you can credit to your job. Add the ability to influence 1500 property professionals and associated staff and this particular job offer starts to look irresistible. At least for Anita Mitchell, it did. Even though it meant leaving Bovis Lend Lease where she was working under the tutelage of Graham Carter, a man she describes as one of great quiet achievers in the engineering design heros of sustainable buildings. Today, as Jones Lang LaSalle’s Head of Energy and Sustainability Services, Australasia and Strategy, Asia Pacific, Mitchell is well into her mandate to influence not only the risk profile of client portfolios but the “DNA” as she puts it of how business is done in one of the “big four” commercial real estate agencies... 
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By Tina Perinotto FAVOURITES – 13 July 2009 - Japanese developer, Sekisui House’s recent majority purchase of Australian residential developer Payce Consolidated, promises a long awaited sustainable shakeup of the local multi-housing industry in Australia if all goes according to plan. The company has bought a 75 per cent stake in the Payce’s existing development pipeline at Waterfront in Homebush in Sydney’s inner west, which still has another 1900 apartments to be developed as well as 173 hectares at Ripley Valley near Ipswich in Queensland, together worth around $190 million and replacing Babcock & Brown as Payce’s joint venture partner. But in separate deals Sekisui is understood to be buying up additional parcels of land throughout Sydney and Queensland. Payce Consolidated sales manager, Jim Keats, told The Fifth Estate on Friday that it was early days and that the company was still investigating what would be considered the appropriate level of sustainable investment... 
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by Dariel De Sousa and Barnaby Chessell ... 18 June – The effects of climate change on our physical environment are varied and many.  One consequence of climate change of particular relevance for the planning system is sea level rise. Climate change contributes to sea level rise in two main ways: •    the melting of ice stored in glaciers and the polar ice sheets increases the amount of water in the ocean; and •    as the oceans warm, water expands, thereby raising the sea level. As our climate changes, and sea levels continue to rise, there will be an increasing incidence of coastal flooding and erosion. A recent case before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal highlighted the importance of addressing the effects of climate change, including sea level rise, in planning decisions.  Gippsland Coastal Board v South Gippsland concerned applications for permits for residential dwellings on rural allotments, outside the township of Toora in a farming zone. The... 
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by Nicola Woodward - 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 coined for providing accelerated tax depreciation for property related capital expenditure that provides a green payback. Tax depreciation is a tax deferral mechanism that already provides capital allowance deductions for refurbishment works as well as write offs for any plant or building items that are demolished or disposed of as part of the project. The rationale for the introduction of green depreciation has been this: there is an environmental need for existing buildings to be brought into the “green” fold but there is a cost premium in refurbishing an existing building to green standards over traditional design. There is an existing framework for providing tax deferrals for capital... 
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by Lynne Blundell The stick and carrot approach is proving a good one for pushing sustainability globally. As governments around the globe respond to the climate change challenge with stricter building codes, together with incentives, green buildings and technologies are booming. In the US, the introduction of California’s Green Buildings Standards Code is expected to result in a significant growth in green technologies and homes. A 2007 report by McGraw Hill Construction, Green Homeowner SmartMarket predicted the market for green homes to increase 10-fold over the next five years and to account for 10 per cent of all new building starts by 2010. According to the report, green products are already used in 40 per cent of all US home renovations. The new Californian code calls for a 20 per cent improvement in water use efficiency, 50 per cent increase in water conservation, and 15 per cent reduction in energy consumption in all new construction. The code is voluntary until 2010, when... 
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18 June – BRIEF: Changes to the guidelines contained in the new s 60 of the Contaminated Land Management Act 1997  in NSW, have provided some breathing space to property owners. The maximum penalty for failing to report a contaminated site to DECC is $165,000 with a further penalty of $77,000 for each day the offence continues. An alert issued by Clayton Utz partner Peter Brigss and special counsel Claire Smith said that the guidelines would now come into force on 1 December instead of 1 July, after industry  representation to the Department of Environment and Climate Change. “Following a recent meeting with DECC we understand that the guidelines will be released on or prior to 1 July 2009 and they will not be gazetted until 1 December 2009,” the alert said. “The effect will be that the new reporting regime will take effect in December; and other changes to the CLM Act will come into force on 1 July 2009. “The basic concept of the guidelines will remain unchanged from the... 
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By Tina Perinotto The Department of Climate Change will take a soft approach to businesses who have accidental trouble managing their compliance the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007. Not so if the behaviour is deliberate or criminal, according to an advisory note published in May by Clayton Utz special council Claire Smith and partner Peter Briggs that discusses the newly released Compliance and Enforcement Policy NGER Act that specifies how compliance with the new Act will be managed. The Act requires that by 31 August 2009, eligible Australian corporations that emit prescribed levels of greenhouse gasses or which produce or consume specified amounts of energy, register with the Greenhouse and Energy Data Officer. Reports for the 2008-2009 reporting year are due by 31 October 2009. According to the Clayton Utz note, the GEDO will encourage stakeholders to voluntarily comply with the Act, but understands that this will present challenges to stakeholders, particularly during... 
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By Tina Perinotto The Department of Climate Change will take a soft approach to businesses who have accidental trouble managing their compliance the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007. Not so if the behaviour is deliberate or criminal, according to an advisory note published in May by Clayton Utz special council Claire Smith and partner Peter Briggs that discusses the newly released Compliance and Enforcement Policy NGER Act that specifies how compliance with the new Act will be managed. The Act requires that by 31 August 2009, eligible Australian corporations that emit prescribed levels of greenhouse gasses or which produce or consume specified amounts of energy, register with the Greenhouse and Energy Data Officer. Reports for the 2008-2009 reporting year are due by 31 October 2009. According to the Clayton Utz note, the GEDO will encourage stakeholders to voluntarily comply with the Act, but understands that this will present challenges to stakeholders, particularly during... 
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by Lynne Blundell As social awareness of climate change grows around the world so does the power of green marketing and branding. But there is growing concern that some organisations promoting their green credentials are engaging in unjustified claims, also known as ‘greenwashing’. According to law firm, Maddocks, in its latest newsletter on sustainability and climate change, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has taken steps to address the risk of greenwashing by issuing a set of guidelines. Entitled Green Marketing and the Trade Practices Act, the Guidelines are aimed at helping businesses understand their legal obligations when making environmental claims. Under the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Act), the ACCC is responsible for ensuring that consumers of goods and services, including green products, are not misled and deceived. The Act applies to all forms of marketing and across all mediums, including labelling, packaging, advertising and promotions. The Act... 
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By Lynne Blundell The Climate Institute report released on 25 May shows that renewable energy projects under construction or planned in response to the proposed emissions trading scheme could create a boom in jobs. The research shows that nationally $31 billion worth of clean renewable energy investments are underway or are planned, which will create over 26,000 jobs, the vast majority in regional Australia. “The good news is that taking action on climate change will create tens of thousands of jobs, many of them in regional Australia, as we shift gears to a less polluting and more efficient economy,” Climate Institute CEO, John Connor. “This research shows that if climate change and renewable energy legislation passes through Federal Parliament without being weakened it will help drive the industrial shift that can put Australia at the front of a global renewable energy boom, which already employs more people worldwide than those directly employed in oil and gas,” The findings... 
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