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 > >

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 > >

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 > >

Brief - 17 August 2010 - The Australian Conservation Foundation has welcomed Labor’s $10 million commitment to create large green corridors connecting national parks and reserves but says more could be spent to support Australia’s natural life support systems. According to a recent Auspoll survey commissioned by the ACF and WWF, ...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 Tina Perinotto 5 August 2010 - Lend Lease today launched a new solar company to roll out photovoltaic installations across the residential and commercial sectors of the property industry, tapping into federal and state governments policies to fast track the rapidly emerging sector. The move is another strong signal that one ...Read More > >

4 August 2010 - The winners of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects international ideas competition SEA-CHANGE 2030+ have been announced. The competition invited design proposals to protect the Sydney harbour foreshore from rising water or to make modifications to the environment to ensure sea level rise does not adversely affect ...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 Michael Mobbs 9 July 2010 Last Sunday I overheard this comment while coming out of the movie, Inception: “ . . . a constant stream of over-wrought nonsense . . .” * And my thoughts turned to gardening. Here are10  things we can do today in the road gardens in front of ...Read More > >

By Michael Mobbs 27 July 2010 - Early mornings now in the valley where I live are crisp, a cool gift that smacks me in the face when I walk out my front door. And such a little song in my heart the other morning as I went in search for ...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 > >

21 July 2010 - City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore will today report on how the ambitious 2030 plan for Sydney has progressed at a seminar for stakeholders at Sydney Town Hall. As part of the grand scheme, the council also yesterday called for tenders to develop a master plan ...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 Lynne Blundell FAVOURITES: 11 March 2010 -India is determined to reduce carbon emissions and to supply renewable power to its enormous population. But with the massive hydro power generation dam projects under way in the sensitive Himalayan foothills, the cost is high. Lynne Blundell recently travelled to the region ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto 5 July 2010 - Frasers Property has copped a $1500 fine from the City of Sydney for stormwater runnoff at its huge Broadway site on the edge of the CBD during heavy rains in June. The site and runnoff problems, which Frasers said were the result of unusally heavy ...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 Michael Mobbs 1 July 2010 - Chippendale, a small Sydney inner suburb, is using Earth’s energy and water unsustainably and increasing its pollution of Sydney harbour and local air. The trends for increasing pollution and resource use show that this little suburb, home to some 4500 people, is declining and getting ...Read More > >

From CBS - 22 June 2010 - The gusher unleashed in the Gulf of Mexico continues to spew crude oil. There are no reliable estimates of how much oil is pouring into the gulf. But it comes to many millions of gallons since the catastrophic blowout. Eleven men were killed ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto 18 June 2010 - The Federal Government has ceded ground in the battle to water down the provisions of the mandatory disclosure scheme for commercial buildings, which is about to face Parliament in the final two weeks of sitting before the long winter break, and possibly a federal ...Read More > >

By Michael Mobbs 18 June 2010 - Is the Frasers Property Group to become Sydney's BP? Frasers is excavating six hectares of a huge project at Broadway on the fringe of the CBD — more than 1600 units; more than 2000 car parking spaces; a shopping centre, several buildings over 30 storeys ...Read More > >

by Andrew Starc 15 June, 2010 - The Australian Conservation Foundation's first sustainable cities index today nominated Darwin as Australia's most liveable city among a list of 20. But though Darwin was a clear winner on several measures, particularly biodiversity and air quality,  the index ranked the city amongst the worst performing ...Read More > >

By Michael Mobbs This Burr has some soft tips, prickly spikes, an oddity here and there, and some speechless wonder. Enjoy. Count the spikes:  500 million farmers can’t be wrong La Via Campesina,  an international peasant’s movement is visiting Australia, and Robert Pekin the founder of Brisbane’s Food Connect Foundation has organised some farmers ...Read More > >

By Adrian McGregor, McGregor Coxall FAVOURITES - 7 October 2009 - "The so-called global economy was not a permanent institution, but a set of transient circumstances peculiar to a time, the Indian Summer of the fossil fuel era". – James Kunstler, The Long Emergency: surviving the converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century ...Read More > >

The Papua New Guinea Government has passed legislation that removes the rights of PNG nationals to challenge the government's own approvals for environmentally destructive activities. According to Charles Roche, executive director of the Mineral Policy Institute, the legislation will give the PNG government carte blanche powers to approve future projects without ...Read More > >

By Greg Paine PROBLEM 21 May 2010 - The understanding within systems thinking of connections – causality and implications - is important if we are to derive solutions which are sustainable.  It “... completely saddens me you can’t go up a creek or a lagoon without severe poisoning ... Perhaps if ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto 17 May 2010 - The NSW Government today announced the country’s first legally binding bio-banking covenant to protect environmentally sensitive land in return for development rights over similar land. But The Greens have slammed the scheme, saying it will enable the destruction of endangered species. “Biobanking is a backward step ...Read More > >

28 April 2010 - From Business Spectator - It may take until the next election to judge if the decision to abandon attempts to forge a sensible climate policy and a carbon price for another three years is sound politics. But two things should already be abundantly clear: it’s not good ...Read More > >

By Lynne Blundell 31 March 2010 - public discussion paper on the federal government’s proposed framework for setting energy efficiency standards for buildings has been released for public consultation. The discussion paper presents the National Building Energy Standard-Setting, Assessment and Rating Framework, which is part of the National Strategy on Energy ...Read More > >

By Michael Mobbs Every time I wake up there’s a new rating scheme. Enough is enough. It’s cold shower time. Remember when we were invited to spray DDT on our food and in our houses because it "harmlessly" killed bugs? (If you’re too young to remember, do an internet search on “DDT ...Read More > >