24 April 2013 — The Australian Government has issued its investment mandate for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to invest at the “demonstration, commercialisation and deployment stages of innovation” to a limit of $300 million a year. CEFC chair Jillian Broadbent: “We are now fully staffed and operational, ready to commence making investment decisions and to contract investments to be funded from July 1, 2013”. The mandate says the corporation is a mechanism to help mobilise investment... 
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17 April 2013 — Record confidence in the residential sector and positive project funding expectations have driven sentiment within Australia’s property industry to an 18-month high, new research has found. The Property Council-ANZ Property Industry Confidence Survey shows the confidence index for the June 2013 quarter jumped from 107 to 124, the second consecutive quarter of growth. Read More  
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 26 March 2013 — A new funding relationship between Commonwealth Bank and Low Carbon Australia will help two companies, Radevski Coolstores and the Labelmakers Group, reduce their power bills. Radevski Coolstores, a family owned and operated business at Shepparton East, Victoria, is undertaking a $1.15 million refrigeration upgrade for its cool rooms. A major Goulburn Valley supplier of apples and pears to Coles supermarkets, Radevski expects to reduce its refrigeration energy bills and carbon... 
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By Tina Perinotto 8 March 2013  – [UPDATED]– Plans for the future of Frasers Property Australia, joint venture developer of one of Australia’s most ambitious sustainable projects at Broadway in Sydney are in play following the recent dramatic takeover and privatisation of parent company Frasers & Neave by Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi. Read More  
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By Matthew Rimmer, Australian National University 1 March 2013 –  From The Conversation: After a year long public campaign, the Future Fund has announced it plans to end its $222 million investment in tobacco. The decision follows much debate about whether the Future Fund should engage in ethical or socially responsible investments. In announcing the move today, the chair of the Future Fund David Gonski commented: The board noted tobacco’s very particular characteristics including its damaging... 
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By Tina Perinotto 19 February 2013 – Westpac last night (Monday) launched a dramatic new sustainability strategy it says will be worth $8 billion over the next five years, doubling its investments in clean technology, environmental services and including $2 billion for social and affordable housing. The announcement signals that for corporate Australia, sustainability is now firmly back on the agenda, after slipping from the radar last year. Read More  
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By Sarah Boulter 6 February 2013 — From The Conversation. Following several years of devastation in Queensland, the state’s premier believes it’s time to “flood and disaster proof” as many towns and communities as possible. In Mr Newman’s words: “We can’t accept that’s how life has to be lived.” But climate change throws us into a world where the unacceptable may become unavoidable. So where do you start? Read More  
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5 December 2012 — Local Government Super has won Best Green Super Fund for 2013 at this year’s Money Magazine “Best of the Best” awards. LGS chief executive officer Peter Lambert said having a strong sustainability strategy was core to the fund’s main aim of achieving strong, long-term investment returns for members. “The bottom line is that we believe that sustainability must be a key consideration in any investment approach that aims to deliver returns to investors over timeframes... 
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By Donna Kelly 30 October 2012 — David Whitfield, co-founder and chief executive officer of Sydney-based LED lighting supplier enLighten, which targets the growing building retrofit market, has a problem with the company’s growth. Read More  
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16 November 2012 – GreenBuild 2012, San Francisco — An investment grade green property index is close to completion, in a collaboration between the US FTSE Group, the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts and the US Green Building Council. Read More  
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7 November 2012 — New Zealand’s new green property index has proved that over the ditch too, green is good for the bottom line. The inaugural Property Council New Zealand/IPD Green Property Investment Index released on Wednesday shows Green Star rated office buildings Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto 26 October 2012 – UPDATED: Parramatta City Council has announced  NSW’s first Environmental Upgrade Agreement, for Australian Unity’s 10 Valentine Avenue, Parramatta, in a  deal, initiated by the tenant, the NSW Property Authority. The move comes as The Fifth Estate last week launched the EUA ebook,  a step-by-step guide to the program being rolled in Melbourne, in NSW and other states. Read More  
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22 October 2012 – Updated: The Fifth Estate will on Tuesday this week in Sydney and Wednesday in Melbourne launch Australia’s first guide to the extraordinary potential of Environmental Upgrade Agreements. Read More  
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By Denise McNabb 4 October 2012 – Climate bonds that aggregate energy efficiencies and are targeted to institutional investors could fund climate solutions in coming years. Read More  
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20 September 2012 — Energy efficiency upgrades to 247 Adelaide Street, Brisbane, will take the 1980s office block from a 0 NABERS rating to targeting 4 Stars. Low Carbon Australia finance is helping the 1980s office block cut its base building electricity consumption by nearly 50 per cent through $1.23 million in improvements. Development manager Trans Action Property Services director Marc Stuart said the old equipment’s power consumption was “staggeringly inefficient and nearing the end of... 
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18 September 2012 —Australand Property Group’s Keysborough Spec 1 development, in Victoria, achieved a 5 Star Green Star – Industrial Design v1 rating, the 500th Green Star project certified by the Green Building Council of Australia. The rating is for an industrial development, comprising two warehouses and office space, has 27,000 square metres of floor space. Australand sustainability manager Paolo Bevilacqua said the rating demonstrated how market transformation was extending beyond the... 
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19 September 2012 —Investa Property Group has shifted to continuous reporting on the environmental performance of all buildings in its office portfolio. The reports provide: Quarterly figures of the electricity, gas and water use per square metre of the portfolio, nine months earlier than is typical www.investa.com.au/sustainability/results/performance Separate building scorecards for buildings within Investa’s office portfolio quarterly, in the public domain; www.investa.com.au/office/portfolio A... 
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19 September 2012 — Almost one third of the major players in the property industry, who took part in the Australian Property Institute Australian Property Directions Survey, are making provisions for the carbon tax. Of those, most said their provisions related to managing building outgoings and installing energy efficient equipment. The survey, conducted by the Australian Property Institute NSW Division Read More  
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Denise McNabb 11 September 2012 – Favourites: Two new sustainable property funds will soon be launched in Australia and green bonds are on the way.  Low Carbon Australia’s Meg McDonald tips  governments  and local authorities will lead the charge in a green investment revolution. Denise McNabb reports. on McDonald, Nathan Fabian; Russell Investments, The Australian Venture Capital Association; Deloitte and more. Read More  
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28 August 2012 —Office buildings rated by Green Star and NABERS energy four star and above continue to outperform low and unrated assets, Investment Property Databank Australia’s Property Investment Results for the financial year 2012 show. The company’s research, released in early August, found the stronger returns were currently driven by stability in capital values, which reflected strong tenant demand for sustainable product. “The results indicate that owners who improve the sustainability... 
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By Denise McNabb 17 August 2012 – “Every day 500,000 young, university-educated, professional Filipinos get out of bed to work for United States companies.” Australia faces similar challenges  as the global economy grows and a thriving educated workforce emerges on our doorstep at massive discounts to local costs. Read More  
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By Leon Gettler 16 August 2012 – Solar energy, once regarded as a laggard, is now way out in front as the technology du jour. The critical issue here is how this will affect developers and the housing industry which are driving the growth in PV installations. The reality is solar installations are now getting cheaper. Read More  
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15 August 2012 – Green building companies and related technology businesses dominated the semi-finals of the Australian Clean Technologies Competition 2012 with the winner to be announced in October. Thirty semi-finalists were chosen from clean technology activity which includes transportation, smart power, green grid, energy storage, green building, Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto 19 July 2012 – When The Fifth Estate met Tania Melikian it was aboard the Knight Frank entry, Sydney Crystal, in the Property Industry Foundation regatta in March . It was late in the day and Melikian was enjoying the perfect sunshine and harbour breezes, not so keen to be distracted from this rare time-out. But it didn’t take long Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto 6 July 2012 – Former ISIS executive Geoff Gourley, a builder, designer, sustainability consultant and social entrepreneur, believes his personal investment to take a shareholding in retrofit start-up NuGreen Solutions is a winner. Read More  
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By Donna Kelly 28 June 2012  – The issue of sustainability for chartered accountants in Australia was a “massive topic”, but it meant different things to different people, The Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia Sustainability and Regional Australia manager Geraldine Magarey told delegates at RMIT University’s recent Accounting for Sustainability Conference. “We believe very firmly in the idea that the institute and its members have an important role in the community,”... 
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By Donna Kelly 21 June 2012  – Simons Green Energy has been awarded the contract to supply and install a 70 kiloWatt natural gas fired cogeneration unit at the soon-to-be-completed Rydges Sydney’s Airport Hotel (pictured). The installation of the cogeneration unit will reduce the hotel’s energy costs significantly and its energy usage by 360,000 kWh a year, the company said. Read More  
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21 June 2012 – The City of Melbourne and Sustainable Melbourne Fund have released fact sheets on three properties that have been retrofitted under environmental upgrade finance. The fact sheets highlight targeted energy and emissions savings and other key project details. The properties are: Kings Business Park At 80–100 Dorcas St & 99–111 Coventry St, South Melbourne, owned by the Asian Pacific Group; 460 Collins Street, Melbourne, owned by Varga Brothers; and 123 Queen Street, owned... 
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By Tina Perinotto 19 June 2012 – Origin is experiencing a mini boom in demand for energy retrofit projects in commercial buildings, with business doubling in the past 12 months. The energy retailer’s new business unit Encompass, established 18 months ago, has carried out work in 2000 sites, for more than 800 customers, Read More  
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By Scott Elliott 13 June 2012 – The Total Environment Centre is presenting a powerful business case in support of retrofitting low-grade office buildings based on six real life examples where an environmental upgrade boosted the value of an asset or significantly lowered operating costs. The Sydney-based case studies include a selection of B, C and D-grade office buildings where the owners embarked on capital works and improvements to boost the NABERS ratings of their assets. The majority of the... 
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