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News From The Front

30 August 2011 – Dexus chief executive officer Victor Hoog Antink donned harness and a liberal dose of courage to abseil down the 28 floor atrium of 1 Bligh Street in Sydney on Monday ahead of Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s official opening... 
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By Tina Perinotto 29 August 2011 – Severe weather events as a result of climate change are already taking a huge toll on communities, including extreme stress, emotional injury and despair, leading to self harm and suicide at rates higher... 
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27 August 2011 – A new green rebuild assessment tool for Christchurch is being developed by the New Zealand Green Building Council and industry specialists as part of the rebuilding program after the massive earthquake February. The tool is being... 
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24 August 2011: Low Carbon Australia Ltd on Wednesday made good its promise to become another source of energy efficiency project with an announcement a “request for proposals” for projects from businesses, property owners and organisations. ... 
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Architects move against gongs for bling, NABERS goes 6 star and green is Go, of course 24 August – Who says architects are quiet types? You don’t normally expect architects to create a seething cauldron of controversy but in recent times they’ve... 
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24 August 2011 – The City of Sydney expects to save $1.3 million a year by overhauling the energy and water performance of its major buildings. Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the $6.9 million project would also be a big step to achieving the City’s... 
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By Tina Perinotto 24 August 2011 – [Updated] The Australian Institute of Architects has taken the controversial decision to drop its sustainability awards as a separate category, in a move designed to rid the awards of “green bling” and... 
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By Lyn Drummond 24 August 2011 – Global water issues, such as scarcity, maintaining quality, energy and nexus, and developing the nation’s water and sanitation cannot be combated without supporting global alliances, says Tom Mollenkopf, chief executive... 
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24 August 2011 – Queensland’s economy would grow by 41 per cent with carbon pricing by 2019-20 says the State’s Treasurer, Andrew Fraser. The state’s Treasury modelling, tabled in Parliament, showed that the impact on output across Queensland... 
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24 August 2011 – How do you design walkable neighbourhoods? What are the principles in play? The US’s Congress for the New Urbanism program director Heather Smith has co-author of a manual to deliver these, Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares:... 
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By Lynne Blundell 19 August 2011 – NABERS yesterday launched a new 6-star energy and water rating for buildings and announced new ratings tools for transport, data centres and hospitals. But while the launch was lauded by many in the industry, others... 
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By Lyn Drummond 24 August 2011 – Sustainable features which can double as educational tools have been incorporated in the design of the $20 million Mabel Fidler Resources Hub Building for Ravenswood School for Girls in the northern Sydney suburb of... 
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By Tina Perinotto 22 August 2011 – Two reports today confirmed what the smart money has been thinking for a while – houses are getting smaller, especially if the rise in apartments living are taken into consideration, and home owners are... 
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By Tina Perinotto 23 August 2011 – Sustainability is the number one opportunity for the property industry over the next five years, according to the latest Construction Sentiment Monitor from Davis Langdon. In fact one of the biggest risk to the industry... 
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By Tina Perinotto 22 August 2011 – Davis Langdon has released a report analysing the impact of the carbon price on the cost of construction materials. The upshot? Not much at all, especially after industry assistance, the company said. The big question... 
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16 August 2011 – The National Heart Foundation has compiled guidelines about food sensitive planning and urban design. Food Sensitive Planning and Urban Design: A conceptual framework for achieving a sustainable and just food system is a framework... 
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16 August  2011 – Global projects firm, Sinclair, Knight and Merz has launched a clean development fund to reduce or offset carbon emissions. It has invited its staff to identify innovative projects worthy of investment by the fund to reduce... 
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It’s a mad mad world 11 August 2011 – Johnny Depp has nothing on this tea party. Much of the world has dived down the rabbit hole and earlier in the week Australia and the US drank something labelled “Big” but now look like joining... 
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By Tina Perinotto 11August 2011 – Comment: The Productivity Commission again took a stick to zoning issues with its draft retail report released last Thursday on 4 August, recommending, among other things, that the retail industry would be more... 
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By Lyn Drummond 11 August 2011 – What will it take to regenerate greyfield precincts in Australia’s major cities to achieve medium density housing with better health and environmental impacts? The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute... 
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10 August 2011– Womad Earth Station is a new arts and sustainability festival planned for Adelaide which has the Environment Institute and the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists aboard as well as a host of high profile people such as ABC... 
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By Leon Gettler 9 August 2011 – John Bond, son of ’80s entrepeneur Alan Bond, and director of the $1.5 billion wholesale property syndicator Primewest, is just one satisfied client of Ian Knox’s HFM Asset Management. Bond’s entire... 
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9 August 2011 – The federal government is seeking public input into the design of its draft carbon communities program which will provide funding of up to $5 million to local government and community projects. The scheme, which will be managed by the... 
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8 August 2011 – In The Long Emergency, James  Kunstler forecasts a future of smaller cities, centred around traditionally important natural features such as ports, not airports, and localised food and services. One of his biggest challenges, though,... 
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By Tina Perinotto 17 February 2011 – Favourites: A glittering line-up of speakers at a Property Council of Australia lunch in Sydney in November last year provided a rare glimpse into the problem-solving, decision-making and sometimes heart-stopping... 
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By Tina Perinotto 4 December 2011 – Berkeley and Maastricht universities’ academic Nils Kok arrived in Australia last week to confirm what every sane investor knew all along, that sustainable and energy efficient buildings are better buildings... 
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By Tina Perinotto 3 August 2011 – Following hot on the heels of our story last issue on the mass retrenchment of four staff at the NSW chapter office has come some of the reasoning behind the move and an indication of the pressure architects are... 
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There’s good news and there’s bad news: Green value shifts downmarket; tropical designs and the WorldGBCA; carbon tax and tough love parenting; US and rampant teenagers. 4 August 2011 – In Australia academic Nils Kok arrived from the US... 
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2 August 2011 – The Investor Group on Climate Change responsible for investments totalling $600 billion is concerned at what it describes as “the misleading anti carbon price campaign being run by a number of industry associations and supported by... 
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1 August 2011 – An innovative program that has helped small to medium sized Sydney businesses save more than 80 Olympic pools of water and more than $800,000 in annual bills is being expanded to slash energy and waste. The Smart Green Business program,... 
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