By Andrew Starc 21 October 2010 - People and communities will take precedence in the long awaited transport oriented design guidelines released this month by the Queensland government. Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto 23 September 2010 – Melbourne City Council may just have found the holy grail of how to fund retrofits in older buildings. In a breakthrough move Victoria has passed Australia’s first legislation to enable a municipal council to recoup targeted retrofit funding through its rates collection. The loans will enable retrofits for buildings in the City of Melbourne’s 1200 Buildings program, which aims to achieve energy and water savings and cut carbon emissions. According to Lord Mayor Robert Doyle the program will also be a huge economic boost for the city and the state. “We estimate that the 1200 Buildings Program will generate up to $2 billion in new investment and around 8000 extra green jobs over the life of the program,” he said. Under an amendment to the City of Melbourne Act the council will help building owners obtain finance from financial institutions to enable retrofits. A council spokeswoman said the model was loosely based on a US scheme known... 
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By Tina Perinotto and Andrew Starc 12 August 2010 - Mandatory disclosure of energy efficiency for large offices will at last take effect on 1 November. After a series of delays and lobbying to head off unforeseen problems, the industry has won itself a year-long transition period and a number of exemptions and exceptions. The full scheme won’t be effective until November 1, 2011. Just over a week ago, the Federal Government launched a new website for the program – and a new name – Commercial Building Disclosure. (See www.cbd.gov.au). It also carried out a series of “webinars” to inform assessors that would be working with the scheme. But there is still a lot to work out. Parts of the website, with critical information and guidance, are still being developed and some key industry advisers are working with the Government on the final version of the scheme. For now, office tenancies won’t have to bother at all with an energy certificate. Only the base buidling, or the whole building,... 
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by Jeff Angel 17 December 2009 -Price rises for electricity are attracting headlines at the moment for all the wrong reasons.Erroneous reports of hugely inflated power bills as a result of the Emission Trading Scheme overlook one important point: the energy industry wants to boost its infrastructure so we all use more electricity instead of implementing efficiency and thrift measures – even though the power stations are one of our biggest greenhouse polluters. What we have is a bankrupt electricity supply system and a regulatory framework that is out of synch with modern needs. Read More  
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BRIEF: 1 December 2009 - Clean Up Australia Chairman and Founder Ian Kiernan yesterday (10 December 2009) joined Auburn and Parramatta City Councils on Sydney’s west for the launch of Streamline, a new sustainability initiative targeting the business community. The collaboration between the two councils has already engaged 45 business that have signed up to reduce water and energy use and minimise waste production in one of Sydney’s biggest industrial hubs. The program, assisted with funding from the NSW Environment Trust, will help businesses in the Camellia and Silverwater areas of the Duck River Catchment achieve financial, social and environmental sustainability. As part of the program the Institute for Sustainable Futures has been commissioned to develop a waste exchange program, so that networks can be set up to recycle waste between businesses. Other activities will include a business mentoring program, a sustainable transport program supported by Bicycle NSW, and capital works... 
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By Professor Ralph Horne, Director of the Centre for Design at RMIT - FAVOURITES – 21 June 2009 – The bushfires in Victoria are tangible evidence of the sort of extreme weather events climate scientists have been predicting and they underline the need for significant action now to cut our greenhouse emissions. Meanwhile, the economic downturn provides a golden opportunity to stimulate the economy intelligently – in other words, invest in the green technologies of the future rather than simply repeat the resource over-consumption mistakes of the past. We have an immediate opportunity to make environmentally sustainable housing for the future – including through the rebuilding effort in fire ravaged areas. Here I will concentrate on the thermal efficiency of housing, although there is also a strong case for cutting household energy and water use, through better appliances, household practices, consideration of embodied energy, and so on. The question is, should we be talking... 
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Producing a single, accurate digital map of proposed urban developments requires collaboration on an unprecedented scale by Davina Jackson The Commonwealth Government is considering a proposal for two new national research co-ordination organisations to support a future industry of professionals applying automatic digital technologies to create and manage smart cities. Emerging tools include GIS (geographic information system) mapping, GPS satellite monitoring, satellite video imaging, 3D laser and radar scanning, photogrammetry, remote sensing, free agent modelling, cellular automata, mobile telephony and tracking, auto-pilot systems (reminiscent of navigating the Star Trek Enterprise), serious gaming, evolutionary (SimCity) modelling, virtual prototyping and algorithmically generated building models. Many of these next-generation 3D spatial information technologies were originally developed in the aerospatial sector and are now flowing through to built environment professions via the... 
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By Lynne Blundell FAVOURITES: 5 November 2009 – The Southport Broadwater Parklands project may well be a blueprint for adaptive planning solutions to combat sea level rise and storm surge on our coastlines. It involved some creative methods, including raising ground levels in some places by two metres. With its spectacular Nerang River frontage and proximity to the Southport CBD, Southport Broadwater Parklands has long been a popular community gathering place on the Gold Coast. It is the location for many Gold Coast major public events. The Gold Coast City Council applied for funding through the Queensland 150th Legacy Infrastructure program (Q150 LIP) for master planning works and the first stage of construction. Following the allocation of funding from the Queensland Government, matched by the Council, EDAW (AECOM) was commissioned to develop the master plan for the Parklands, through to the delivery of the first stage of construction. Stage One is now complete and includes a... 
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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, says Ruth Hessey. The stigma around the waste humans generate where ever they venture, from the kitchen to outer space, is fast dropping away as our society creates so much of it we can no longer pretend it magically disappears in a hygienic white flash. Not only must we face it, we have to do something about it. Urban landfills are turning into mountains of contaminated mush emitting greenhouse gases and leaching toxins into the soil and water tables. Container loads of reject waste are filling the world’s shipping lanes as harbour authorities reject permission to dump, and even those who are getting away with using the ocean as an illicit dumping ground are coming up against increased international surveillance. We are running out of... 
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by Lynne Blundell The federal government this week announced the next step in its plan to overhaul Australia’s energy grid, which it says will reduce home energy bills, reduce carbon pollution and help tackle climate change. But, while green groups have welcomed the government’s national energy efficiency initiatives, they are pushing for a greater focus on household energy efficiency through retrofitting. According to the government, the $100 million Smart Grid, Smart City initiative will see government and energy and communications sectors working in partnership to rollout Australia’s first commercial-scale smart grid. Smart grids help energy suppliers to better manage peak loads, reduce the risk of black-outs during peak-use periods, improve the reliability of electricity supply, and more effectively incorporate renewable and distributed energies such as wind, solar and cogeneration. The government hopes smart meters, pricing and tariff programs, intelligent appliances and... 
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As the era of carbon trading draws near, a new guide has been developed to help companies manage the financial and reporting impacts of carbon emissions. The guide, Managing Financial Impacts and Reporting of Carbon Emissions – A Guide for CFOs, has been launched by KPMG and the Group of 100, an organisation representing senior finance executives of some of Australia’s largest companies. Tony Reeves, National President of the Group of 100, said the guide is a starting point for chief financial officers (CFOs) and their finance teams to assist in the management of the financial impacts and reporting under climate change regulations. “As governments introduce new regulations globally in response to climate change, the responsibilities of the CFO will broaden to include new obligations essential to enable accurate measuring and monitoring of their organisation’s emissions. “It’s time for CFOs to get fully up to speed on emissions reporting in order to overview the outputs... 
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By Tina Perinotto Last summer 374 people died in Victoria, almost certainly because of heat stress, more than double those who died in the tragic bushfires of 7 February. This year Melbourne has its hottest day on record with a temperature of 46.4C and maximum temperatures in the state were 12-15 degrees above normal. According to a new report from a coalition of green groups, Towards climate safe homes, the Case for Zero Emissions and Water Saving Homes and Neighbourhoods, housing is at the front line of dealing with major climate  impact. It is also one of the fastest growing emitters of greenhouse gasses. On the flip side the sector has massive potential to turn the tables. These views are contained in a new report, which has been produced by Environment Victoria in partnership with The Alternative Technology Association, Australian Conservation Foundation, Friends of the Earth Australia and Moreland Energy Foundation, and authored by former ACF campaigner, Kate Noble, now principal,... 
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by Peter Robinson, Sustainable Urbanism September 25, 2009 - It’s indisputable that we are going to have to be incredibly busy if we are to reduce our CO2 emissions, or achieve the 20 per cent renewable energy target. And we are going to need some very serious action from governments, at all levels.  Whatever target we are talking about, each building adds to the task. Even if every building reduces emissions by the 25 per cent target, which is reasonable, this still represents a 75 per cent increase of that building’s emissions to the existing base case, and so we continue to expand our CO2 production.  Even if each building or urban area reduces its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent  (currently world’s best practice at the large precinct scale), that is still an increase, albeit a small one, on the base case.  Both Bruce Taper and  Che Wall (Cogeneration via precincts is the way forward say experts) are correct in saying there are enormous bureaucratic... 
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by Lynne Blundell Renewable energy is for many the great hope for fixing climate change. They imagine a day when the hills are dotted with wind towers, solar panels adorn every building and are spread across vast tracts of desert. The energy of ocean waves will be converted into electricity and we’ll heat and power our homes using geothermal technology. Heavy polluting coal fired power stations will be a thing of the distant past (or any that are still there will be burying their carbon) along with petrol fuelled cars. This may come to pass. But, based on the evidence, it’s not going to be any time soon. As ABC TV Four Corner’s reporter Liz Jackson discovered when she began to explore the story of clean coal technology (The Coal Nightmare 7 September), there is a lot of murky business that goes on behind the scenes and carbon capture and storage has so far been a bit of a furphy. Nobody knows how to do it and even the scientists who are at the forefront of developing CCS technology... 
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by Tony Rose The National Greenhouse and Energy Act requires certain businesses to report on their energy use, production, and greenhouse gas emissions. Property groups will be affected by many aspects of the legislation — particularly as contractor and joint venture GHG emissions need to be considered as well as the corporation’s own. Here is a brief guide to the NGER Act, how it will affect property groups, and some of the opportunities to be seized. Background Australia ratified the Kyoto Protocol in March 2008. Signatories to the protocol have agreed to reduce their GHG emissions, commencing July 2011. The first two years of the scheme (2011 and 2012) are essentially a trial/trade-in period, with the scheme starting full operation in 2013. The targets set are for reductions in GHG emissions of 25 per cent below year 2000 levels by 2020 and 60 per cent below year 2000 levels by 2050. The 25 per cent reduction target is a little flexible, depending on the outcome of the United... 
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By Lynne Blundell The head of the world’s carbon trading association has urged Australian businesses and consumers to focus on the benefits of an emissions trading scheme and to make some decisions ahead of the international meeting in Copenhagen. Henry Derwent,  chief executive officer of the International Emissions Trading Association, was in Australia last week to talk with government and business about the impending introduction of the Australian ETS and to offer some tips from the European experience. Formerly the international climate change director for the UK Government and the man responsible for overseeing the introduction of Britain’s ETS scheme in 2005, he had a lot of useful advice to pass on. Mr Derwent spoke to media representatives at a joint conference with KPMG last week about the implications of delaying the ETS scheme in Australia, emphasising the importance of certainty for business. He said the rise in energy prices was inevitable and putting a definite price... 
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by Lynne Blundell While Australia continues to flounder on the issue of fast-tracking independent power generators (see our story on cogeneration), elsewhere in the world cogeneration systems, also referred to as decentralised power, are bypassing the grid altogether. The small city of Woking in the UK has been at the forefront of decentralised energy, which has allowed Woking Council to slash energy use by nearly half, and council CO2 emissions by 77 per cent, since 1990. There, the generators are connected to users via private electricity wires owned and operated by Thameswey Energy Ltd – a company set up and partly owned by Thameswey Ltd, a municipal energy and environmental services company itself wholly owned by Woking Borough Council. Woking raised capital for energy infrastructure development initially through energy efficiency savings. These savings then allowed the council to invest millions in energy supply innovation and also attracted investment from Danish pension companies... 
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BRIEF: The Rudd Government’s National Energy Initiative kicked off recently when industry consultation workshops were held in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The initiative comes at a time when energy and sustainability consultants are expressing growing concern over the entrenched inefficiency of the energy network (see our story). Announced in the May Federal Budget, the National Energy Initiative involves the Rudd government investing up to $100 million in partnership with the energy sector to create a more efficient energy network. The initiative aims to build on the Government’s investment in the National Broadband Network, household energy efficiency and renewable energy, the new Solar Credits Scheme supporting home micro-generation, and the expanded Solar Cities program. The plan is to use smart grid technology to monitor electricity supply across distribution networks using communications networks, such as broadband technology. Smart grids help to more easily integrate... 
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BRIEF – 4 August 2009 -The Alternative Technology Association has called on the federal government to stand by its commitment to include the carbon saving contribution of households, businesses and community organisations in the design of the carbon pollution reduction scheme. The current design of the scheme, due to go before Parliament on 11 August, ignores the contribution of nearly one million Australians, ATA energy policy manager, Damien Moyse, said today. “The government has failed to deliver on its May announcement that the contribution households, businesses and community organisations make to reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions would be included in the CPRS,” Mr Moyse said. “Only GreenPower purchases above 2009 levels will be directly recognised when the government sets caps limiting greenhouse gas emissions. “In March 2009 there were 984,024 GreenPower customers and by the end of 2009 approximately one million households and businesses across the... 
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BRIEF: 16 July 2009 – Environmental impact assessments for new developments are expected to be more streamlined following bilateral agreements between the Commonwealth and all Australian states and territories, with Victoria and the ACT both signing agreements in the past month. The signing of the agreements fulfils a goal set out by COAG. Minister for the Environment, Peter Garrett, said there would also be room to further minimise red tape. “This is a great step forward and I am very pleased that more streamlined environmental processes are now in place Australia wide,” Minister Garrett said. Victoria and the ACT can now run a single environmental assessment process for projects that require environmental approval at both a federal and a state/territory level. This assessment can then be used by both levels of government in making separate approval decisions. “Bilateral assessment agreements cut out unnecessary duplication and are a more efficient way of ensuring we uphold... 
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BRIEF: 15 July 2009 – Two Victorian Green Precinct projects have received funding for their water and energy-saving initiatives through the Rudd government’s Green Precincts funding program The Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies (CERES), located on the banks of the Merri Creek in East Brunswick, Melbourne has received $1.15 million to help implement its Zero Emission by 2012 project. Manningham City Council received $1.5 million for its Hill Green Civic Project which will help support the development of a sustainability education hub to be integrated into a new multi-purpose community centre and regional library. Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, said CERES had a proud reputation for leadership in sustainability. “This $1.15 million commitment will assist the Centre to further build on a great record by installing wind turbines, solar panels, a solar thermal energy generator, electric vehicle charging stations and even a biogas powered barbeque,”... 
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By Rob Murray-Leach, chief executive officer, Energy Efficiency Council. The Energy Efficiency Council believes the Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) National Strategy on Energy Efficiency is an important step forward, and calls for more action on industrial and commercial energy efficiency. [see TFE  post on this] The National Strategy shows that Australian governments are waking up to the massive potential of energy efficiency. To meet the Commonwealth’s target to put Australia at the forefront of OECD energy efficiency improvement we’ll need to build on the Strategy with serious programs to retrofit commercial buildings and drive industrial energy efficiency. There is no doubt that the largest and cheapest opportunities for energy efficiency are in commercial buildings and industry. There are huge savings available in manufacturing and mining, with Australia’s top 215 energy users spending over $25 billion on energy per year, around 65 per cent of all business energy... 
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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 South Australia’s Sustainability and Climate Change Division has a unique problem – not how to spread its message, but how to field the daily flood of web hits and red hot telephone traffic. This small state is leading Australia on an impressive number of environmental fronts – on wind energy, geothermal exploration, tree planting, solar energy on a huge number of schools and other public buildings, the banning of plastic bags, feed-in laws which pay the owners of solar power for excess energy and even a sustainable burial ground. This is not to mention the widespread educational programs in both community and schools water, energy and general sustainability issues. Nor the state’s strategic target to outperform every other state and territory in renewable energy – by far. For Premier Mike Rann this is as it should be. “Climate change is something I’m passionate about,” he told The Fifth Estate in an interview last Friday. “I was the first... 
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by Lynne Blundell In a perfect world Sam Capelli, environment manager with City of Ryde Council, would like to see local government sustainability requirements for developments pushed much higher. But in this far from perfect world, where developers and residents baulk at paying extra for green, he knows he has to settle for compromise. After all, he points out to The Fifth Estate, sustainability is about people as well as the environment. The City of Ryde is part of a growing body of NSW local councils pushing for higher standards of sustainable development through its updated Local Environment Plan (LEP), incorporating a raft of energy and water conservation measures as well as incentives for developers to be more sustainable. The Ryde precinct contains the Macquarie Park region, targeted in the NSW government’s Sydney Metropolitan Strategy for significant growth. Under the planning strategy the “global economic corridor” stretching from Macquarie Park to the CBD and through to... 
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by Lynne Blundell The stick and carrot approach is proving a good one for pushing sustainability globally. As governments around the globe respond to the climate change challenge with stricter building codes, together with incentives, green buildings and technologies are booming. In the US, the introduction of California’s Green Buildings Standards Code is expected to result in a significant growth in green technologies and homes. A 2007 report by McGraw Hill Construction, Green Homeowner SmartMarket predicted the market for green homes to increase 10-fold over the next five years and to account for 10 per cent of all new building starts by 2010. According to the report, green products are already used in 40 per cent of all US home renovations. The new Californian code calls for a 20 per cent improvement in water use efficiency, 50 per cent increase in water conservation, and 15 per cent reduction in energy consumption in all new construction. The code is voluntary until 2010, when... 
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By Lynne Blundell 4 June – The Federal Government this week announced new guidelines aimed at making it easier for Australians to install ceiling insulation in their homes. Environment Minister Peter Garrett announced the guidelines on the first day of winter at an event with one of Australia’s major manufacturers of ceiling insulation, Fletcher Insulation, Mr Garrett said that from 1 July 2009 householders simply needed to select a provider from the Installer Provider Register which will be available online from 1 July 2009. Installers will need to register with the Government through a simple registration process which will open in the coming weeks. After installation, the installer will receive their payments direct from the Government so householders will only need to meet any costs above the amount of Government assistance. There are two programs focusing on ceiling insulation: Homeowner Insulation Program – provides assistance of up to $1600 to eligible owner-occupiers... 
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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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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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