23 February 2011 – The weather is turning bad, with disastrous consequences for food supplies, prices and political stability. Russia, Brazil and most worryingly China, are facing food shortages and soaring prices.
Writing powerfully on this topic in...
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By Tina Perinotto
15 April 2011 – It could be a tale of two cities. Again.
Sydney City Council last week rejected the tender for its deep sea plunge into the brave new world of large scale trigeneration – the gas-sourced, low-carbon energy that it...
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By Tina Perinotto
11 March 2011 – Chairman of Frasers Property Australia, Stanley Quek, last week said that sustainability features at the massive Central Park project on Sydney CBD fringe would add between five and eight per cent Read More > >
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14 April 2011 – Energy Conservation Systems, the company founded by the later Peter Szental in 1983 has been absorbed by Schneider Electric.
ECS national manager business development Trevor Stork said ECS was among Australia’s top contractors in the...
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By Tina Perinotto
11 November 2010 - Favourites: Siobhan Toohill is the highly regarded sustainability leader for Stockland. We first interviewed Toohill in May last year for the first in a series of profiles of high achieving women in the sustainability...
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By Lyn Drummond
13 April 2011 – Climate risk assessment of sea level rises changed the height of a bridge in Canada according to a report by two Australian scientists for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, whose findings...
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14 April 2011 – Google said it will invest US$168 million investment in Brightsource Energy’s Ivanpah solar power plant in the Mojave desert in California.
According to Treehugger, the the solar farm will have a capacity of 392 MW, or the equivalent...
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By Leon Gettler
31 March 2011 – The federal government’s Australian Carbon Trust is targeting Australia’s $1.2 trillion superannuation sector for partnership funding. If it succeeds, it will potentially create an enormous funding pool for sustainable...
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By Tina Perinotto
31 March 2011 – GPT boss Michael Cameron himself dipped out of his job “making money”, as he put it, to host a sneak preview of the new, six star Green Star-targeted head office of the giant property trust this week.
Also...
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30 March 2011 – China Reform Commission Vice Chairman Xied Zhenhua, spoke at a media conference at the Australian National University, Canberra on climate change today.
Following are highlights of the transcript from the office of Federal Climate Change...
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In energy efficiency land they’re really busy
By Tina Perinotto
31 March 2011 – Busy? That isn’t the word for it, says Paul Bannister, highly regarded building engineer, managing director of energy efficiency experts Exergy and a key...
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By Nicola Woodward
24 March – As it is currently proposed, the Tax Breaks for Green Buildings has several design features that render it at best a consultant’s windfall and at worst, a $1billion buffer for a government under intense pressure from...
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Leon Gettler
24 March 2100 – A centre-piece of the ALP campaign in last year’s election was its promise of $1 billion in tax breaks for businesses on investments in energy-saving measures for commercial building, one of a number of climate...
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By Lynne Blundell
25 March 2010 -FAVOURITES: The Green Building Council of Australia’s Green Star rating system for buildings is undergoing a fundamental shift. It is a philosophical shift that involves working more closely with industry, particularly...
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24 March – – Ribena is developing a new strain of climate change resistant blackcurrants as part of a world wide response by the world’s biggest companies to adapt to climate change and seize opportunities, The Economist Intelligence Unit and...
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By Lynne Blundell
24 March 2011 – We live in tumultuous times. Daily we are bombarded with news and images of disaster – floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, social unrest and impending nuclear catastrophe, all against a backdrop of a warming planet....
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23 March 2011 –Udated 24 March 2011 – Commercial real estate agencies Colliers International and CB Richard Ellis, Jones Lang LaSalle and architectural firm Woodhead will be among the many property industry companies to once again support Earth...
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23 March – From The New York Times: When Macarena Chiriboga came to Bali in 2009, she had just finished a master’s degree in architecture in the US doing her thesis on the use of bamboo as a building material.
The trip was meant to be a vacation....
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24 March –The Difference, a magazine to help Australia’s richest make a difference to its poorest, has been launched in Melbourne by Simon McKeon, 2011 Australian of the Year.
The magazine is a report card of poverty indicators – disadvantage, poverty...
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23 March 2011– The Warren Centre for Advanced Engineering has produced a Handbook for Reform to guide a new NSW Government after Saturday’s election towards the successful infrastructure needed for continuing economic growth.
“Last year’s...
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By Caroline Noller
Caroline Noller has delved into the secrets of six of our world’s most important materials and found elements of genius, commercial know-how, colourful characters and the nasty truth about their embodied carbon. This...
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By Simon Wild
The US Green Building Council is being sued for false advertising about its rating tool LEEDS. Let’s not allow fear of litigation to stand in the way of innovation in Australia, argues Simon Wild.
18 March 2011 – Opinion: The...
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16 March 2011 – As the bleak news from Japan continues and a nuclear catastrophe threatens, Prudential Financial today said its foundation, The Prudential Foundation, will contribute 500 million yen, $6.1 million, to support relief efforts.
“Our thoughts...
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By Craig Roussac
10 March 2011 – Electricity use in Sydney office buildings can more than double in extreme heat, but responsive management can keep a lid on greenhouse emission, research by conducted by the Green Buildings Alive project has found
Growing...
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By Tina Perinotto
11 November 2010 - Kate Langan comes with impeccable credentials. She has headed ANZ’s property operations since 2009, is an architect by training, and in her previous role was a regional director for Jones Lang LaSalle, with...
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By Lynne Blundell
8 March 2011 – This was the year of the revamp for Green Cities. And the annual conference, jointly organised by the Green Building Council of Australia and the Property Council of Australia, was much better for the makeover.
With...
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11 March 2011 – Updated 7 April 2011 – The bar for sustainable construction has just been raised. Australia now has the first scientifically reliable and independently validated database for life cycle assessment of building products and its developers...
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The federal government has promised a tax break program for green buildings worth up to to $1billion. How the program will work in practice may change following a call for public submissions, now closed. Following are details of original proposals for...
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By Ronald Wood
10 March 2011 – The claims for green plants in buildings are that they help to improve indoor life. From a single plant on a desk, container plants throughout the space, planted foyers, to landscaped atriums and bioclimatic skyscraper...
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10 March 2011 – From The Economist. Australian mammalogist and palaeontologist, Tim Flannery is an environmental celebrity. His 2005 book,The Weather Makers, about climate science and global warming, was a bestseller. His latest Here on Earth is his...
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