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 there are ways we can dramatically improve the energy efficiency of data centres. Innovation in data centre engineering is helping us to find ways to significantly reduce the amount of energy needed to run them. These developments can dramatically reduce the cost base and carbon footprint of a business. The invisible problem The impact data centres have on the environment is one that many people underestimate. Take a medium-size data centre that is typical of what is being built at the moment (such as a 2000 square metre, 4 mega watt facility). Such a data centre would have an annual energy consumption of about the same as 3000 houses. A 5 KW rack, typical of racks in new high density computing,... 
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BRIEF – 3 July 2009 – The Council of Australian Governments yesterday released a communique, “Dealing with Climate Change Through Energy Efficiency”. Reproduced here is the section dealing with energy efficiency for the built environment. For the first time, Australian Governments have agreed a comprehensive 10-year strategy to accelerate energy efficiency improvements for householders and businesses across all sectors of the economy.  Accelerating energy efficiency is a key plank in the strategy to combat climate change, reduce the cost of emissions abatement and improve the productivity of the economy.  The strategy will complement the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme by addressing the barriers that are preventing the efficient uptake of energy efficient opportunities, such as split incentives and information failures. COAG today signed the National Partnership Agreement on Energy Efficiency, which will deliver a nationally-consistent and cooperative approach to energy... 
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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 in solar power systems had been suddenly scrapped and suppliers were in chaos. Environment Minister Peter Garrett said the scheme had cost around four times the budgeted amount and would be replaced by a “Solar Credits” system that would be more widely available, but which industry sources said would be cost around $5000 less. Managing director of Clear Solar Paul Wilson, whose company had placed the advertisement, was frantic when TFE spoke to him at around 4 pm. “We’ve got staff working till midnight, customers queuing up the staircase,” Mr Wilson said. With just hours to go before the rebate became redundant at midnight, his company had already taken around... 
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We’re used to hearing about the need to reduce the number of cars on the world’s roads if we’re serious about reducing carbon emissions. What we don’t expect is for a petrol company to be pushing that line. But that’s exactly what Portugal’s largest gas and petrol company, Galp Energia, is doing with a new car pooling scheme. Springwise business ideas newsletter reports that Galp Energia has launched a carpooling platform where commuters create a profile to match up with others using the same travel route. Called Galpshare, it allows users to list their musical preferences and interests to help them find people they’d enjoy sharing a ride with. While it might seem counterproductive for a gas company to get cars off the road, most petrochemical behemoths are actively branching out into renewable energy sources and sustainable energy consumption, according to Springwise. Galpshare’s launch was widely promoted to commuters through an ad campaign, and the service is available... 
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by Lynne Blundell Mildura on the Murray River in northern Victorian could be the location for two new solar power plants after the Federal Government’ announcement to invest $1.5 billion over six years in solar energy. As part of its clean energy initiative, the government promised a new Solar Flagships program, which will invest in up to four solar electricity generation plants, with Mildura believed to be one of the potential locations. The town has already been named as a site for Australia’s first solar thermal power station of 80MW capacity by Solar Energy Company Pty Ltd also known as Solenco. The Federal Government’s announcement is for an extra 1000 megaWatts of solar generation capacity. Together, the four plants are expected to generate as much power as a large coal-fired power station, making them the largest solar energy project in the world. Prime Minister Rudd, said that the plants’ generating capacity would be “three times the size of the largest solar energy... 
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By Lynne Blundell The Coalition may not be scoring many points for its refusal to budge on the Government’s emissions trading scheme but its push for a voluntary carbon market has met with approval from the green building sector and organisations keen to see greater recognition of voluntary action to reduce emissions. Under the Coalition’s proposed scheme a government-authorised voluntary carbon market would start from 1 January 2010. Based on the Chicago Climate Exchange, the scheme would allow individuals and businesses to bank carbon credits and use them when and if emissions trading starts. Individuals and communities, agriculture, various forms of bio sequestration, additional energy efficiency measures by business, and the commercial building sector would all get immediate recognition for their emissions cuts. GBCA chief executive Romilly Madew said that a Voluntary Carbon Market would allow the commercial building sector to fully participate in reducing its carbon emissions... 
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Fifteen households in Mt Gambier watched the power meter rotate backwards, when they installed a solar photo-voltaic system for just over $2000 after government subsidies and renewable energy credits, according to an item posted by the ABC. Read more  http://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2009/05/solar-neighbour.html  
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By Maria Atkinson… Dear Prime Minister, I am writing to alert you to serious flaws in Federal Government data on emissions from buildings and to request urgent action to establish accurate data, to ensure Australia’s carbon pollution reduction responses are soundly based. My specific concern is that inaccurate data from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural & Resource Economics (ABARE) and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which in turn is based on inaccurate methodology adopted by the Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO), has been used as the basis of calculations which suggest buildings are responsible for 23 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. Yet the United Nations and many other international authorities put buildings’ contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions in the order of 40 per cent or higher. The data in question appears to date back to an erroneous assumption adopted in the 2002 report by George Wilkenfeld to the AGO: Australia’s... 
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by Lynne Blundell… With the deadline passed for submissions to the Federal Government on its proposed mandatory disclosure scheme for commercial building energy efficiency, the jury is out on what the final result will be. Many of the submissions have called for fundamental changes to the scheme. The most common objection is that building owners will be answerable for the energy use of tenants. Another key concern is the way the scheme will assess energy use of tenants. Under the proposed scheme tenant and base building energy efficiency ratings are being considered. The NABERS rating system, which is suggested for use in the scheme, looks at base building, tenancy and whole building. Base building ratings provide an indication of the efficiency of all house services such as air conditioning, common lighting, lifts, pumps, core facilities and carparking. NABERS tenancy ratings assess tenant lighting, supplementary airconditioning, communications, computers and other equipment associated... 
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By Michael Mobbs… What if the fuss over making rules to stop climate change was a waste of time? What if the rules would not make a difference, simply because they address the wrong pollution? Let’s put to one side the self-aggrandisement we exhibit in this debate – that we humans know how to control Earth’s climate, even though we have never done it before.  (I think the only person who knows how to make it rain is the Wizard of Id whose king directs him to go to the beach without an umbrella when he wants to make rain.) And let’s also ignore the fact that the rules being discussed will not take away the pollution we’ve already put into the atmosphere which, if the proponents of the new rules are to be believed, is what’s causing Earth’s climate to spiral out of control. Those wishing to set strategies or to take practical actions to achieve sustainable use of energy, water and land need data about all the energy and water used. Without accurate data it’s unlikely... 
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By Tina Perinotto… In a sign that the sustainable building industry is coming of age,  developer and energy consultancy Szencorp has revealed a “warts and all” report on its refurbished 6 star Green Star building in South Melbourne. According to Peter Szental, managing director of Szencorp, (a TFE sponsor) the Building Use Study benchmarked the premises in the top 4 per cent for overall building performance in Australia. But although the report found tenants were not happy with the air-conditioning system, they were forgiving because of the building’s “green” credentials. Mr Szental said said that while the building at 40 Albert Road, South Melbourne,  achieved excellent results in a number of areas including design, image, and perceived productivity and health, the study uncovered that 86 per cent of staff were unhappy with the temperature within the building. The results also showed that tenants’ reported perceived productivity was in the top 9 per cent of Australian... 
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Built environment plays Cinderella at the Carbon Ball By Tina Perinotto So the mining lobby wins again. The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, flawed and ineffectual as it may be, set back another year. Make no mistake, the enemy here is the coal lobby. And its cohorts in the fossil fuel industry. Left out of the spotlight for serious action is the built environment, capable of delivering $38 billion a year in savings by 2050 – and the tax payer footing the bill to compensate the big emitters. Oh and the other big loser is the Australian public, the people who voted for Kevin Rudd because he made some great noises about climate change. Rudd might be wise to heed the Greens who say their offices have been flooded with inquiries from people asking how they can register a protest. With a double dissolution making the news items, they might not have long to wait to find out. On the packed-out political agenda in the last week or so was also the Senate Select Committee on Climate Policy... 
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KPMG and Macquarie Bank Limited have joined forces to create a carbon trading simulation to assist businesses prepare for the CPRS. Jennifer Westacott, head of KPMG’s climate change, sustainability and water practice, said participating in the simulation would reduce the risk of making costly errors when it came to the real CPRS auctions. “With the CPRS set to go live in less than two years and a potential first permit auction in early 2010, business can’t afford to be sitting on its hands,” Westacott said. The simulation would help identify the gaps in strategy and the areas that require greater focus. The auction simulation will be run by KPMG professionals who have experience in conducting similar programs in the UK in the lead up to the introduction of the EU Emission Trading Scheme. Macquarie Bank has designed and built the online auction platform for the simulation in line with the Government’s proposed auction design. Participants will receive feedback on their performance... 
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Pixel on Grocon’s Melbourne Carlton brewery site, designed by Studio 505: a laboratory for new green architecture … “Nobody can tell you accurately what the financial impost will be of the cost of a carbon constrained economy,” says David Waldren by Tina Perinotto FAVOURITES – 6 May 2009 – Private developer Grocon is pushing ahead with its “laboratory” style environmental showcase building on Melbourne’s former Carton brewery site in Melbourne, in a move that it says anticipates a carbon constrained economy. “Pixel,” on the northern fringe of the CBD, will be small in footprint, just 1000 square metres, but giant in the strides it will demonstrate to the construction and development industry, Grocon development manager, David Waldren, told TFE in a telephone interview from Melbourne. “It will be a world first, not just an Australian first,” Waldren said. Waldren said that in Europe many of the offsets claimed by carbon neutral buildings... 
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by Lynne Blundell and Tina Perinotto Kevin Rudd’s spectacular backflip on the carbon pollution reduction scheme (CPRS), delaying its introduction by a year looks to backfire on a number of fronts. While the scheme is unlikely to get passed in the senate, the scheme has split the environmental movement in two, and the built environment lobby says a great opportunity for cheap fast emissions savings has been missed by not factoring in the powerful potential contribution of the building sector. Rudd announced on Monday (4 May) that the scheme would be delayed by a year, and a one year fixed price period will be introduced. Permits will cost $10 a tonne of carbon in 2011-2012 with full market trading to begin on 1 July 2012. The only concession to a call for higher emissions cuts target is a change in the upper limit, which has been increased to 25 per cent; the minimum target for emissions reductions remains unchanged at 5 per cent. Emissions intensive trade-exposed industries would also... 
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FAVOURITES – 6 MAY 2009 -The second and final part of an article on rooftop gardens by Liz Morgan. What is a green roof? Variously called green roofs, eco-roofs, rooftop gardens, vegetated rooftops, sky gardens, and so on, all rooftop green spaces are basically lightweight, engineered roofing systems that enable the growth of vegetation on conventional rooftops, whether factored in as part of the design of a new building or the retrofitting of an old one. Green roofs come in all shapes and sizes. Perhaps the smallest in the world is a bus shelter roof in Sheffield, South Yorkshire at six square metres (although I am contemplating green roofing my letterbox, 240 square centimetres). The largest is the Ford Motor Company’s Rouge Manufacturing Plant in Dearborn, Michigan, covering an area of 4.2 hectares. Landscape architects tend to put green roofs into two categories: Extensive: These roof gardens, like that of Parliament House in Canberra and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music,... 
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By Romilly Madew… Commercial and residential buildings account for 23 per cent of Australia’s annual emissions – making the built environment sector vital in any carbon pollution reduction scheme. The Australian Government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) won’t have an impact on Australia’s built environment, and so won’t achieve reductions in the very sector where emissions are both significant and most easily achieved. This means a range of other measures to achieve those reductions are required. The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said that buildings offer the single largest source of greenhouse gas abatement – more than the industry, transport and energy sectors combined. The IPCC’s research is backed up by McKinsey and Company’s Pathways to a Low-Carbon Economy, which has demonstrated that this abatement comes at negative cost to GDP – that is, abatement in the built environment... 
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by Lynne Blundell 6 May – There are some claims that you just shouldn’t bank on. Especially when it involves the coal industry, which in the US is every bit as dominant and influential as in Australia. In the US Barack Obama has been criticised for falling for the “coal can be clean line” which others, including Robert F Kennedy Jr and former US vice president Al Gore, say is a “dirty big lie”. President Obama has proposed $3.4 billion in stimulus legislation to fund continued research on clean coal projects. “Clean coal is like healthy cigarettes, it does not exist,” says former vice president Al Gore in US media reports. Obama used in coal ads The US coal industry has cashed in on Obama’s comments, using one of his campaign speeches in its multi-million dollar advertising campaign: “You can’t tell me we can’t figure out a way to burn coal that we mine right here in the United States and make it work,” says Obama in the... 
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by Peter Szental The Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) draft National Strategy on Energy Efficiency makes important steps, but leaves the building sector out in the cold and Australia’s greatest energy efficiency opportunities untapped. Investing in energy efficiency is more than a double-dividend. Energy efficiency creates green jobs, improves Australia’s economic competitiveness, cuts greenhouse pollution and saves money. Australia is currently one of the worst performers in energy efficiency in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). That puts our economy at tremendous risk. The largest and cheapest opportunities for energy efficiency are in existing commercial buildings and industry, but COAG seems to be ignoring these opportunities. Existing commercial buildings account for 98 per cent of office space each year, and are a gold mine of potential energy savings. The strategy will fail to unlock these savings. A report by the Australian Sustainable... 
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By Gavin Gilchrist Think about this. Just over 50 years ago when President Eisenhower and the US Congress realised they had a serious technological and political challenge – matching the Soviet Union in the space race – did they respond by imposing a new tax on non-space travel in the hope that “market forces” would somehow respond by delivering more space travel? No way. They created a new national agency, one that was well-funded, prestigious, and attractive to the best and the brightest US scientists, managers and engineers. And they gave it a clear goal: beat the USSR in space. So they created NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Australia in 2009 doesn’t need a NASA. But it desperately needs a NESA. A National Energy Savings Agency. Here’s why. The cheapest, fastest way to cut Australia’s greenhouse emissions is by saving energy through the accelerated adoption of energy-effective processes and practices. Like better lighting control in offices,... 
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by Lynne Blundell Higher energy efficiency standards for both residential and commercial buildings got the tick of approval at this year’s Coalition of Australian Governments’ (COAG) meeting but builders and energy groups argue the scheme needs further changes and sustainability experts would like to see it go further. COAG agreed that from 2011 the energy efficiency rating for houses will increase from 5 to 6 stars. Mandatory disclosure of energy efficiency for commercial buildings will commence in 2010 and for residential buildings by 2011. Five key measures were agreed on to improve the energy efficiency of residential and commercial buildings across Australia: · increasing the stringency of energy efficiency requirements for all classes of commercial buildings in the Building Code of Australia from 2010 · phasing in the mandatory disclosure of the energy efficiency of commercial buildings and tenancies from 2010 · increasing energy efficiency requirements for new residential... 
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By Peter Droege The confusion around building a “carbon economy” around emissions trading has served to disguise for too long that countries, regions and cities need crash programs to replace their entire energy supply systems, and exchange coal and oil for renewable power. The longer this is postponed, the more difficult the ultimate effort will be, yet it is necessary for our survival and to help other countries make this inevitable change. It will also address the inexorable arrival of oil, gas and uranium peaks. Roughly three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions that are produced by human activities result from burning fossil fuels for power generation and transport, almost one-quarter from industrial agricultural practices, and (this includes) another significant portion from cement production. At present, there is a 40 per cent excess of carbon pollution in the atmosphere already, warming the world to melt polar caps and permafrost, and acidifying oceans. Yet instead of focusing... 
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The property sector joined the angry chorus criticising the federal governments Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) with Lend Lease’s global head of sustainability, Maria Atkinson telling The Australian Financial Review in March (Home and hearth to bear brunt of ETS, 11/03/09) that home owners would bear the brunt of the ETS through increased electricity costs. Under the ETS developers and commercial building owners would have no incentive to improve energy efficiency of new or existing buildings because they do not pay for electricity use, Atkinson said. “The [scheme] will do nothing to drive more efficient, healthier or greener buildings,” Atkinson said. “Nothing. We’re speaking for a sector that wants to be involved…. and is ready and willing to go in and change the performance of buildings.” Lend Lease, together with engineering consultants Lincolne Scott and law firm Freehills, has proposed an “efficient building scheme” to complement... 
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By Lynne Blundell When Kevin Rudd and his government swept to power in late 2007 his promise to take strong action on climate change rang loud in voters’ ears. Eighteen months down the track the central platform of Labor’s policy, the emissions trading scheme (ETS), has become a political hot potato, failing to pass through the Senate, and criticised by everyone from business through to the Greens. Here, we examine the policy and look at alternatives proposed by key political parties and industry bodies. Carbon reduction Central to the Labor Government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) is the emissions trading scheme, also called a cap and trade scheme. Under the scheme businesses will pay to pollute the atmosphere, thus putting a price on carbon emissions. The Government has set a target of a 5 to 15 per cent reduction in emissions from 2000 levels by the end of 2020, with a long term aim of a 60 per cent reduction by 2050. The lower target represents a minimum commitment,... 
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