8 February 2012 – From The Atlantic: I’m holding a bowl of dirt up to my nose in hopes of getting high on the fumes of my backyard compost pile. The microbe that I’m after today is M. vaccae, a living creature that acts like a mind-altering...
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7 September 2012 – From Treehugger: Brooklyn Botanic Garden captured the early-autumn installation of its new Visitor Center’s living roof in 3,600 individual photographs. With a soundtrack by Brooklyn-based artist Terence Bernardo (terencebernardo.com),...
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By Lyn Drummond
28 November 2011 – Buying nutritious produce grown on your supermarket’s roof could be the order soon if Australia adopts similar concepts to New York based companies Bright Farms and Gotham Greens. Read More > >
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21 November 2011 – An urban sustainable design project aimed at transforming how indigenous people live has begun in Warburton, in Western Australia, led by technical services consultancy AECOM, the University of Western Australia and the...
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24 November 2011: Total Environment Centre has won the National Canon Environmental Grant for its “Cool Streets” project in Chippendale Sydney, created in association with Michael Mobbs, a columnist with The Fifth Estate. Read More >...
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By Dick Clarke
9 November 2011 – Australia used to be one big farm. Before the days when our wealth grew like sheaves of wheat, and we were rich from riding the sheep’s back, the country grew enough to create a varied diet of vegetables, and sweet...
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By Michael Mobbs
7 November 2011 – Bali’s rice farms may be Earth’s most sustainable food system.
The 260,000 farms have renewed their soil and water and maintained production for a thousand years. The farmers have built and maintain a highly...
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12 October 2011 – from Terra Daily – New research by scientists at the University of Southampton has shown how London’s trees can improve air quality by filtering out pollution particulates, which are damaging to human health.
A paper published...
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23 September 2011 – Foodwriter, chef and restaurateur Stephanie Alexander yesterday launched Kitchen Garden Week at The GPT Group’s Rouse Hill Town Centre as part of a movement to bring fresh food awareness to more people.
According to Ms Alexander...
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By Amanda McCluskey
8 September 2011 – Colonial First State’s Amanda McCluskey, head of responsible investment and sustainability, and David Gait, senior portfolio manager of emerging markets recently travelled to India to examine key sustainability...
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31 August 2011 – They’re in our lives every day. Whether it’s the helicoptered observer, his staticky radio voice saying they’re “at a stand still”, or “blocked”, or “a free run’, or “avoid at all costs”. Read More > >
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The IPD Green Property Index shows commercial property assets with Green Star or high NABERS energy ratings again outperform non-rated assets.
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3 August 2011 – From Brisbane Times: Kingscliff beach and foreshore in northern NSW has been eroded by a rising tide.
The parkland has joined the beach and crumbled into the ocean as the pandanus and casuarina trees that once lined the foreshore were...
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27 June 2011 – Meteorologist Jeff Masters of internet weather service wundergound.com says The astonishing number of weather disasters and unprecedented wild swings in Earth’s atmospheric circulation were like nothing he’s even seen in...
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Philip Pollard’s Phd thesis, Campus as Place, details the the transformation of Newcastle University into one of the world’s leading sustainability exemplars.
See Chapter One here.
Chapter 2: A collaborative approach to delivering the...
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By Ronald Wood, Innovative Plant Technology
11 February 2011 – The new glazing standards in Section J of the Building Code are based on energy savings and not on the health and wellbeing of building occupants. But we can do both, with a better understanding...
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By Jane Jose 15 June 2011
Five simple engagement lessons
In seeking to bottle the mystery ingredients in the fourth dimension of place-making here are a few lessons.
Lesson 1: keep it authentic
The authenticity of a place keeps it alive because...
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6 June 2011 – A program called Trees for Tomorrow is being used to set new standards in sustainable funding so carbon sink plantations also recognise biodiversity and reckless monoculture planting is stopped, organisers say.
The program is the idea...
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By Tina Perinotto
3 June 2011 – Tony Arnel, chair of the GBCA and World GBC, Victorian Building and Plumbing Commissioner, plus holder of a string of other leadership positions including with the Melbourne Comedy Festival, never fails to both inspire...
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31 May 2011 – US Newsweek’s Sharon Begley says even climate change doubters can’t dispute evidence.
Even those who deny the existence of global climate change are having trouble dismissing the evidence of the last year.
In the US alone,...
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24 May 2011 –
Three-storey high vertical gardens are the focal point of the atrium at Auckland’s Britomart East building which has a five star rating from New Zealand’s Green Building Council, and houses tenants including Ernst & Young and...
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From Treehugger.com, here is a handy guide to selecting the right bike for you. See the slideshow here
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17 May 2011 – Creative maintenance of a 33 metre high green wall adorning a Sydney apartment building has won Phillip Johnson Landscapes the highest award for commercial landscaping.
The Victorian based company collaborated with French botanist...
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By Tina Perinotto
19 April 2011 – Property industry lobbyist Caryn Kakas was among the long line up of people today announced by the Gillard Government to sit on the Land Sector Working Group to examine the benefits and opportunities for the land...
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By Tina Perinotto
1 February 2011 – In some ways Patrick Blanc, the designer of superior vertical gardens, doesn’t mind the many imitations of his work that have sprung up around the world over the past three to five years.
In Sydney last...
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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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By Michael Mobbs
3 March 2011 –
In April 2004, the hypothesis that the Gulf Stream is switching off received a boost when a retrospective analysis of U.S. satellite data seemed to show a slowing of the North Atlantic Gyre, the northern swirl of the...
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By Michael Mobbs
17 February 2011 – Australia’s councils are perhaps the most ignorant and contemptuous of indigenous culture of any part of our society.
Councils manifest their damaged psyche unintentionally in their development approvals every...
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