By Tina Perinotto 2 September 2010 - Daniel Grollo is only a few minutes late for our interview. But then that’s to be expected. These days he sandwiches his time between his new home base in New York with his wife Kat and two children, and running Grocon, the huge private ...Read More > >

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 > >

2 September 2010 - Human city-makers know less than ants when it comes to cooling and warming our cities. When it knows (we don’t know how) the coming summer will be hot the meat ant gathers white and pale pebbles and carries them to cover the ground above its nest.  For ...Read More > >

 by Lynne Blundell Climate change has emerged as a key issue in determining which of Australia’s two major political parties forms government with the Independents. Renewable energy is high on the agenda, with at least two of the Independents and the Greens’ Adam Brandt pushing for increased investment in renewable energy. Here ...Read More > >

The Five Stages of Grief By Michael Baker This series of articles by retail analyst Michael Baker explores a retail format that is far more sustainable than its energy guzzling cousins at the mall. In her famous 1969 book, entitled “On Death and Dying”, Elizabeth Kübler-Ross identified the five stages of grief through ...Read More > >

Our top stories for the month ending 31 August 2010. News From The Front Lend Lease Solar has very big ambitions CBD energy ratings: how your building compares People and Jobs Lend Lease’s solar tilt - another leap onto the bright side News from the front desk: Issue No 35 Sydney could soon have a Frank Gehry ...Read More > >

by Lynne Blundell     FAVOURITES - 1 October 2009 - The construction of GPT's sustainable office tower at 111 Eagle St Brisbane is another vote of confidence in the ability of premium sustainable buildings to attract tenants in difficult economic times. The building, touted to be one of Australia’s most sustainable office developments ...Read More > >

    By Lynne Blundell The lowdown on lighting is far more complex than meets the eye. Greater efficiency might come with dangerous levels of mercury, or metals that need to be disposed of.Read our  TFE SPECIAL INVESTIGATION. 20 July 2010  - Lighting is hot right now. Every week, it seems, there is ...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 > >

In the midst of a densely urban setting in downtown Pasadena, California, radical change is taking root. For over 20 years, the Dervaes family has transformed its home into an urban homestead and a model for sustainable agriculture and urban living. Calling this project, “Path to Freedom,” the Dervaes Family ...Read More > >

FAVOURITES -  20 May 2010 - Early this year leading Sydney planner and vocal advocate for planning reform in NSW Julie Bindon joined The Fifth Estate on a mini scouting expedition to Melbourne to see if the Victorians could shed any light on better planning systems. As part of this expedition ...Read More > >

18 August 2010 - Landcom was a key contributor to the voluntary code for universal housing adopted last month by coalition of property, housing, social services and government agencies. The voluntary guidelines, which aim to influence all new house constructed by 2020, are expected to make good social and economic sense. See ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto 15 July 2010 - According to GPT sustainability manager Bruce Precious there are perhaps only six people in Australia he would trust with serious upgrades to his company’s prized assets. Steve Hennessy is one of them. As head of operations for Steensen Varming, Hennessy is an insider’s choice: an ...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 > >

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 > >

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 Liz Morgan FAVOURTIES 16 July 2009 -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 ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto FAVOURITES 17 December 2009 - Greg Paramor might well be known as one of property’s original Midas men. He has founded a string of successful property companies – Growth Equities Mutual, Paladin and James Fielding and headed the giant Mirvac for four years until 2008. Better still, he seems ...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 Lynne Blundell FAVOURITES - 21 April 2010 - Carbon neutrality, the sustainable holy grail for buildings, is likely to remain just as elusive as that legendary object unless those who design and operate them up the ante. This was the message in a session on carbon emissions at the Australian ...Read More > >

On senseless acts of rational behaviour, architects, systems analysis, buildings that “live and breathe” and the population debate that goes top of the pops. By Tina Perinotto 29 July 2010 - Could it be that greening property ends up being the climate change policy you get when you’re not getting a climate-change ...Read More > >

By Lynne Blundell FAVOURITES - 15 April 2010 -Susan Roaf doesn’t have much time for architects. She thinks that most are little more than “building hairdressers” and she accuses the profession of undermining the fight against climate change. Roaf, a well known architect, author on sustainable buildings, and a professor of architectural ...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 17 March 2010 - Australians could be on the cusp of “getting it” in terms of downsizing their houses to more sustainable and affordable levels, if you take note of Stockland chief executive Matthew Quinn. Mr Quinn, who heads Australia’s biggest residential developer, said the evidence was coming through ...Read More > >

By Lynne Blundell FAVOURITES - 2 OCTOBER 2009 - A new life cycle assessment tool being developed by a consortium of industry and government bodies is set to raise the sustainability bar for building materials and to push manufacturers to be more competitive and innovative. It should also help cut through the ...Read More > >

By Maria Taylor "Scientists have warned about the 'greenhouse effect' for years. Now it is no longer a scientific nightmare; it has arrived." FAVOURITES - 27 January 2010 - Are these lines, you might ask, from Al Gore's famous movie or maybe from Tim Flannery's influential 2005 book The Weather Makers, or ...Read More > >

- 8 February 2010 - Australian homes may soon be able to buy fuel cell technology and save up to $1100 off their energy bills each year through Australian company Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd, a publicly listed company that was spun out of a CSIRO technology and now has ...Read More > >

By Genevieve Lilley FAVOURITES - 19 November 2009 - The thing about rural Australia that most of its inhabitants don’t really understand is that it is so big. Travelling by road from, say, Adelaide to Sydney, is a sobering trip. Hours can pass before one sees another ...Read More > >

Chapter 3: Monarchists and Republicans - mown weeds versus mounds and swales By Philip Pollard FAVOURITES - 21 January 2010 - 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 ...Read More > >