2 September 2010 - Human city-makers know less than ants when it comes to cooling and warming our cities. When it knows (we don’t know how) the coming summer will be hot the meat ant gathers white and pale pebbles and carries them to cover the ground above its nest.  For ...Read More > >

By Michael Mobbs 28 August 2010 - Another day. More dreams of what might be, more steps on the footpath of the here and now, the broken-off branches from last night's windy-as-hell storm all over the place, the noise of it in my ears still as I side-step the bigger ones. In my ...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 > >

By Boris Kelly 13 August 2010 - With only days left in the federal election campaign and with both major parties poncing around the point on climate change, 2000 people packed the Sydney Town Hall for the launch of a plan to achieve zero emissions in Australia by 2020 by re-powering ...Read More > >

 By Luke Walladge     From the ABC’s The Drum - 6 July 2010 - So, the leader Labor installed to win an election has now asked for the help of the leader they dumped (because he couldn't win the election) because she needs him to win the election. The leader who got 38 ...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 > >

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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 Ché Wall 15 June 2010 - the Australian Prime Minister’s Task Group on Energy Efficiency wades through the 187 submissions it has received, it would do well to consider discussions in Paris last month about how best to measure and achieve energy efficiency improvements in buildings. All the peak global ...Read More > >

By Michael Mobbs 21 May 2010 - In his searing, timeless essay, “A hanging”, George Orwell describes an execution he witnessed when he was a policeman in Burma. I read it when I was about nine, during a year when I devoured a book a day and read the Forbes town ...Read More > >

- By Marcus Spiller - 9 March 2010 - Vision and Plan for Social Housing" is a report on the future of affordable social housing in Australia, commissioned by PowerHousing Australia last year and undertaken by SGS Economics and Planning,  Following is an introduction to the report by Dr Spiller who ...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 > >

By Lynne Blundell The Senate has rejected the Efficient Building Scheme proposed by Lend Lease and WSP Lincolne Scott. The Property Council’s Peter Verwer has lambasted the scheme and has pinned the PCA strategy for sustainable building upgrades on accelerated depreciation, despite doubts that it will be effective. The Senate’s rejection yesterday ...Read More > >

By Michel Mobbs 25 March 2010 - You go to an island, spend some time alone, and you can see things a little more clearly. That’s how it turned out for me. The idea was to visit Cockatoo Island and do nothing; maybe read, eat and walk a bit. But just sitting ...Read More > >

by Nicola Woodward - FAVOURITES - 21 April 2009 - Accelerated Depreciation is a core platform of the property industry as a way to green buildings – but there are major flaws in this approach and better ways to achieve the desired outcomes…. “Green depreciation” is a term that has recently been ...Read More > >

by Michael Mobbs - 10 March 2010 - Ah! As I write this, it’s such a perfect day for a Burr. A beauty of sun, clear light and, here and there, drops of silence. But Burrs will be burrs, so buckle up. We have here a classic case of do-gooders who, in ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto 17 March 2010 - Australians could be on the cusp of “getting it” in terms of downsizing their houses to more sustainable and affordable levels, if you take note of Stockland chief executive Matthew Quinn. Mr Quinn, who heads Australia’s biggest residential developer, said the evidence was coming through ...Read More > >

FAVOURITES: 4 March 2010 - Susan Roaf  is a UK academic who designed and lives in the well known Oxford Ecohouse. Her passion is help blend the architecture and engineering professions to achieve buildings that operate on a tenth of energy for comparable buildings; a single payment package might help. ...Read More > >

- By Greg Budworth - HOUSING - 3 March 2010 - Superannuation funds in Singapore, Canada, Europe and North America are partly channelled into building the economy of the future. Australian super funds could do the same. And they could start with one of the most critical elements  in the national ...Read More > >

By Michael Mobbs 25 February 2010 - Councils are the biggest obstacle preventing us from living sustainably. They design, build and maintain the roads; they control most development. But they are creatures spawned by state and federal governments and dance to their tunes. Getting rid of councils would not automatically open the ...Read More > >

By Michael Mobbs - 8 February 2010 - The waste and pollution from 26,000 gas and coal drills holes is polluting the rivers in the Murray Darling system. Miners are drilling 26,000 exploratory holes to assess how much coal and gas there is to mine in over 25,000 hectares of farming land ...Read More > >

- By Brian Moore - FAVOURITES - 27 July 2009 - Sustainability is at the forefront of every significant commercial development. Building owners understand only too well that there is no point building projects for the future using yesterday’s technology and a sustainable building represents the future more than ...Read More > >

- By Michael Mobbs - FAVOURITES - 1 October 2009 - No city can be sustainable until it is a "city of villages". Only in a village can we walk to work, or buy and carry home our food. Only in a village can new businesses be easily born ...Read More > >

By Andrew Pettifer FAVOURITES - 20 June 2009 - Fans of Dr Seuss who have looked past the Cat in the Hat may be familiar with the story of the inept Sneetches and the competitive instincts aroused between those with “stars upon thars”  and those whose bellies are not so endowed. I ...Read More > >

Brief - 5 November 2009 - Local government councillors say there could be enough forward buying power for electricity from local government areas to fund a thermal solar plant. A unanimous resolution passed at the Local Government Association of NSW Annual Conference at Tamworth in regional NSW, 24-28 October, promised to  ...Read More > >

There are critical issues to be faced by the meeting of the Environment Protection and Heritage Council in Perth on 5 November - not least the collapse of the valuable recycling industry and the scandal of our export of toxic rubber tyres to Asia, says Ruth Hessey. The stigma around the ...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 > >

by Tina Perinotto UPDATED 19 October 2009 - Green group GetUp has raised $162,000 since last Monday (12 October 2009) to fund a television advertisement to counter the huge public relations campaign by the coal industry in federal marginal electorates. The GetUp ad, featured here, will be used to parody claims by ...Read More > >

INSTALLATION - 8 October 2009 - “Today 2/6/09 it was reported that the oceans are becoming more acidic. This is yet another in a series of markers on the road to irreversible damage of our environment. “When the oceans reach a certain point in this cycle all life within the water ...Read More > >