by Lynne Blundell FAVOURITES - 26 August 2010 - Summer is on the way – well it certainly feels that way with Sydney last week experiencing the warmest August temperatures on record - and we haven’t even got to spring yet. And there’s a lot of talk of record high temperatures, ...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 Lynne Blundell The smart grid is a “much riskier business model, beyond poles and wires, as it’s now about a customer response. Letting customer response drive initiatives is riskier. We have to break the existing business model and build a new one. And it’s a riskier model because there is ...Read More > >

by Lynne Blundell Four consortia put in some high quality bids for the Smart Grid, Smart City pilot project last week. The Federal Government will announce the winning bid in April, with funds to be released in July 2010. The pilot, announced in the May 2009 Federal Budget as part of the ...Read More > >

- 4 February 2010 - It’s hard to go past Matthew Wright’s article in the Sydney Morning Herald this week for a definitive look at the world’s solar race. And guess where Australia is coming, Mr Rudd? Following is an introduction and link: Renewable energy is the fastest growing power ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto FAVOURITES - 15 January 2010 - The Green Building Council of Australia is seeking public comment on its revised PVC credit, which paves the way for some PVC products used in flooring, pipes and conduit to contribute to a green star rating. GBCA chief executive, Romilly Madew, said ...Read More > >

by Peter Fagan FAVOURITES - 3 June 2009 - According to a recent study by researchers at James Cook University and the Australian National University, the Murray Darling Basin, which drives the rural economy of eastern Australia, has lost approximately 200 cubic kilometres of water since 2001. This water loss – equivalent ...Read More > >

FAVOURITES: 21 October 2009 - Consulting engineer, Cundall, has launched a Google map that shows the location of every NABERS and Green Star rated building in Australia. The facility will allow any prospective tenant or member of the public to find out if a building is rated and what the ratings ...Read More > >

Brief - 23 November 2009 - Minerals Corporation has received its first commercial sales order for its low carbon cement that the company claims reduces carbon emissions by 80 per cent from international building materials company CRH plc. Minerals Corporation claims its technology is “revolutionary” given that cement production is the ...Read More > >

by Tina Perinotto Comment (and fact sheet)- 12 November 2009 - NSW may yet become a leader again, with the Premier, Nathan Rees on Tuesday announcing a gross feed in tariff for solar energy installations that could pay householders up to $10,000 over a seven year period. The scheme would place the ...Read More > >

Producing a single, accurate digital map of proposed urban developments requires collaboration on an unprecedented scale by Davina Jackson The Commonwealth Government is considering a proposal for two new national research co-ordination organisations to support a future industry of professionals applying automatic digital technologies to create and manage smart cities. Emerging tools include ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 16 October 2009 - Energy and water rating tool, NABERS, is on a growth path. Not only is it hunting for two new senior project officers ahead of the mandatory disclosure requirements coming next year but it is also expanding its suite of tools to shopping centres and ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 21 October 2009 - University facility managers now have a rating tool they can rely on, thanks to the Aurecon and Monash University-developed tool which has just won an award at the 2009 Tertiary Education Facility Managers Association conference held in Melbourne last month. The Model ESD (environmentally sustainable ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto If you put your prize building up for regular public monitoring, you have to be prepared for results to sometimes let you down. At first glance that seems to be the case, according to Peter Szental, owner and developer of one of Australia’s most closely monitored buildings, the Szencorp ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto FAVOURITES - 14 October 2009 - A company that has pioneered low cost solar desalination systems for industry and the home is about to start production of the units by November and already has around 5000 units on order. Peter Johnstone, the inventor of the Carosell desalination system and ...Read More > >

FAVOURITES- From The Atlantic magazine, some excerpts from the article, The Elusive Green Economy, by Joshua Green: “The best way to get an idea of what a green future might look like is to visit Silicon Valley. It’s impossible to convey how otherworldly the place felt this spring. While the rest ...Read More > >

By Lynne Blundell While politicians continue to huff and puff about whether or not we need a carbon emissions trading scheme businesses are not waiting around to see what happens. Many are busily taking steps to more effectively manage both their energy use and their carbon footprint in anticipation of new ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 23 September 2009 - At last curious householders can go and see what a real live green house looks like and talk to the architect, thanks to the City of Sydney’s sustainable house project which will be open to the public 15-18 October at Taylor Square in inner ...Read More > >

by Damien Leclercq and Shannon Mason - Small scale wind energy has recently gained a lot of interest, particularly in the urban context, due to the general drive for sustainability and the appeal of the technology. But there are limits to what it can do. Wind energy is one way of generating ...Read More > >

by Lynne Blundell While Australia continues to flounder on the issue of fast-tracking independent power generators (see our story on cogeneration), elsewhere in the world cogeneration systems, also referred to as decentralised power, are bypassing the grid altogether. The small city of Woking in the UK has been at the forefront of ...Read More > >

by Lynne Blundell Cogeneration plants can generate their own power, they have lower carbon emissions and property developers and building owners want them. But tell that to the energy agencies who are doing everything they can to hold them back. A key problem is feeding the energy into the grid. With cogeneration, and trigeneration, ...Read More > >

by Lynne Blundell Australia’s chances of cutting greenhouse gas emissions cost-effectively are being seriously undermined by Energy  Ministers and bureaucrats who are maintaining a system that encourages inefficiency and high usage, according to energy efficiency expert Alan Pears. Winner of the Centenary Medal for contribution to climate change and environment policy in ...Read More > >

BRIEF: 15 July 2009 - Two Victorian Green Precinct projects have received funding for their water and energy-saving initiatives through the Rudd government’s Green Precincts funding program The Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies (CERES), located on the banks of the Merri Creek in East Brunswick, Melbourne has received ...Read More > >

by Patrick Fogarty... 19 May 2009 - Few people understand the impact that the computing world has on our carbon footprint. This is despite the fact that data centres, the work horses that support the internet and the growth in remote computing, are massive power users. The good news is that ...Read More > >

"The Design Hub will be a centre for collaboration – a place to develop world-class concepts and initiatives that will raise this city’s and Victoria’s international profile"- RMIT Vice Chancellor, Professor Margaret Gardner by Lynne Blundell July 5, 2009: With the appointment today of building contractor Watpac Construction (Vic), work will soon ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto Melbourne’s Wholesale produce market has slashed $10,000 from its monthly water bill after commissioning a water metering system through Sydney based company, Watersave Australia. Managing director of Watersave, Paul Marsh, said his company’s Smart Meter resulted in a water use dropping from 93 million litres a day to less ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 2 JULY 2009 - Refurbish your existing building to green standards and you could add 10 per cent to your investment, a new report published by the Property Council of Australia and conducted by Arup and Davis Langdon, has claimed. The study, Existing Buildings Survival Strategies: Making it Happen, ...Read More > >

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 ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto 9 June - The weekend newspaper advertisement promised savings of $13,000 on a new solar power system. “Millions of years of sunlight. Less than a month left to capture it for FREE,” it said. But that was Sunday. By Tuesday the federal government's solar panel rebates that had created a boom ...Read More > >

by Lynne Blundell When Mary-Anne Kyriakou, founder and artistic director of Smart Light Sydney talks about the future of sustainable lighting in cities her voice buzzes with the same sort of energy that emanates from the light sculptures in her show. “This show is about the expression of urban space through ...Read More > >