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... 
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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... 
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…By Brian Moore… 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... 
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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... 
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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... 
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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... 
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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... 
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- 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, ... 
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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... 
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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... 
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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.... 
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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... 
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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,... 
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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... 
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- 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... 
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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... 
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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... 
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– 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... 
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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... 
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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... 
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- 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... 
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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,... 
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By Tina Perinotto 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... 
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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... 
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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... 
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By Michael Mobbs One wish for music for the end of time.  (1)  Seven wishes for the end of cities. Burr makes these wishes having just read what is forecast for the Earth’s cities in the next 30 years: “Take all the cities that are currently in... 
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- By Michael Mobbs - We citizens can cut 20 per cent of our individual climate pollution this month.  (Four times what the government wants to do by 2020 with their Kyoto Dreaming.) It’s easy for each of us to cut our climate pollution. We need only... 
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- By Michael Mobbs - We citizens can cut 20 per cent of our individual climate pollution this month.  (Four times what the government wants to do by 2020 with their Kyoto Dreaming.) It’s easy for each of us to cut our climate pollution. We need only... 
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- Germaine Greer has been at it again, prodding conventional thinking. This time she says old houses in the Scotland need to be knocked down and rebuilt sustainably because the building fabric is too poor to be retrofitted. And she makes a case for high... 
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