by Lynne Blundell 17 June 2010 - The Senate committee conducting the inquiry into the Building Energy Efficiency Disclosure Bill last month delivered its final report, recommending that the Bill be passed, with some changes. In doing so it appears to have glossed over opposition to the proposed scheme, claiming it has “widespread support” despite key industry players expressing concern that the scheme has major flaws. Both the Property Council of Australia and Lend Lease/WSP Lincolne Scott were outspoken in their opposition to key aspects of the Bill during the inquiry process, in particular the scheme’s use of the NABERS rating tool in its current form. However, NABERS’ Matthew Clark from NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water – which is managing the tool – flagged in an extensive interview with The Fifth Estate in March that a major review of the rating tool was underway partly in response to industry criticisms. This week Mr Clark told The Fifth Estate... 
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By Tina Perinotto 18 June 2010 – The Federal Government has ceded ground in the battle to water down the provisions of the mandatory disclosure scheme for commercial buildings, which is about to face Parliament in the final two weeks of sitting before the long winter break, and possibly a federal election. Inside sources say both hurdles – Parliament and a federal election – could derail the hard-fought bill, which has the potential to transform the property industry’s energy profile, especially at the lower end of the market, namely – the estimated 80 per cent of laggard property owners who property insiders say simply “don’t care” about energy efficiency. Adding to the hurdles will be lobbying by the Property Council of Australia, which has signalled that the concessions may not be enough and that it wants changes to the NABERS energy rating tool on which the scheme will rely. (See our story on this) Under the scheme, owners of offices of more than 2000 square... 
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17 June 2010 – The fact that Sydney wasn’t listed first or second on the KPMG audit of major cities’ planning systems probably says as much as you need to know about whether or not some action is urgently needed, the audience at the Built Environment Meets Parliament summit in Canberra this week heard. Melbourne, by contrast, came out at the top of the league tables, as befits Australia’s second major city. However, even the top results in the survey bring no room for complacency. The report, entitled Spotlight on Australian Cities, was a response by the Built Environment Meets Parliament summit  – comprising the Property Council of Australia, the Australian Institute of Architects, the Planning Institute of Australia, Consult Australia and the Green Building Council Australia – to the “very welcome” move by the Council of Australian Governments to take an interest in capital city strategic planning systems. In essence the report seeks to “facilitate a constructive... 
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26 May 2010 – The Shopping Centre Council of Australia says  that sustainability drivers for shopping centres “do not exist”, and that there are huge barriers to energy efficiency investment  that warrant government funding and changes to the law to recover capital investment in these areas The claims, made in a  submission to the Prime Minister’s the Task Group on Energy Efficiency recommend that mandatory disclosure for the retail sector be delayed until 2015. The statement was made as part of the SCCA’s comments on the Task Group’s latest Energy Efficiency Issues Paper, delivered via email on 5 May. The submission emphasised “the unique characteristics of the retail property sector, in comparison with other commercial property asset classes.” There were unique impediments to energy efficiency measures in retail property compared with other aspects of the commercial property sector, the SCCA said , including that: The landlord/tenant relationship is a highly regulated... 
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By Boris Kelly 3 May 2010 – In its submission to the Senate Inquiry into the federal government’s failed home insulation scheme, the Australia Institute drew on the results of its survey of home owners eligible for the scheme. The results appear to confirm media reports of aggressive and misleading marketing used by some insulation suppliers. Sixteen per cent of all householders contacted by providers were told that roof insulation needed to be replaced regularly and that, even if the home already had insulation in place, the owner would be wise to take advantage of the scheme. This information, the survey authors maintain, was false and misleading. Alarmingly, if the numbers were extrapolated nationwide, it could mean that 400,000 home owners eligible under the scheme were similarly misinformed. More than four per cent of respondents, representing 260,000 homes, reported that they in fact had insulation new installed despite already having it. One million households participated... 
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2 May 2010 – UPDATED 3 May 2010  – The Henry Tax Review has been released today and with it some lengthy responses to the huge number of property items it considered.  Among these items – and of significant concern is the review’s apparent acceptance of the arguments pushed by the  competition/deregulated zoning property lobby that wants to see planning and zoning  set aside in favour of short-term single-issue price considerations. (see our recent coverage on this in the search button under “zoning”). Note this comment from the review: “Higher house prices are likely to result from restrictions on the supply of housing that result from zoning, lengthy approvals processes and building code and other standards imposed on building quality.” Following is a selection of responses contained in media releases issued from Sunday. The Greens 3 May 2010 – The Greens will move in the Senate for a sensible sovereign fund from the resource tax to invest... 
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From the Council of Australian Governments – 22 April 2010 – COAG said this week it would look at competition issues in land supply as part of its inquriy to target the slow supply of new housing, house price pressures, population growth and “a healthy economy continuing to add to strong housing demand.” “Housing supply has not responded as strongly as it could have to this demand.  Unless demand-side pressures are well understood and supply-side constraints are identified and addressed it is likely there will be greater pressure on house prices,” COAG said. Following is an extract for its statement of intention. “The housing supply pipeline comprises the stages of housing development from land identification, release and zoning, through to infrastructure planning and subdivision approval, construction and titling of the subdivision, and finally dwelling approval and construction. “The National Housing Supply Council has found significant variation across jurisdictions... 
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By Tina Perinotto 22 April 2010- Planners have reacted angrily to widescale moves to deregulate zoning controls, create land “competition” and fast track more urban sprawl that emerged in an avalanche of government announcements in the past week. Leading sustainability and planning authority Professor Peter Newman of Curtin University said more low-density housing would actually cost the economy money and would lead to significant productivity losses. RMIT’s environment and planning commentator Michael Buxton said Australia had the lowest housing densities in the world and it was a furphy, especially in Melbourne, that there was a shortage of residential land. Governments bodies such as the Productivity Commission were being railroaded by developer lobby arguments and lacked the capability for independent analysis of their claims, he said. The Planning Institute of Australia also said the moves were the result of one-sided lobbying that did not factor in total costs such as to the... 
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By Lynne Blundell 31 March 2010 – public discussion paper on the federal government’s proposed framework for setting energy efficiency standards for buildings has been released for public consultation. The discussion paper presents the National Building Energy Standard-Setting, Assessment and Rating Framework, which is part of the National Strategy on Energy Efficiency. After analysis of public comments, The National Buildings Framework Subgroup, which prepared the discussion paper, will develop a final framework document for consideration by governments later in 2010. According to the government, the framework is expected to drive significant improvement in the energy efficiency of new buildings by delivering national consistency in minimum standards and in the assessment and rating of environmental performance. It will apply to both new and existing building stock and to all classes of commercial and residential buildings. The framework has three key elements: development of... 
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By Andrew Starc - 31 March 2010 – The formation of the Prime Minister’s Task Group on Energy Efficiency has been welcomed by environment and green groups for its promises of economic benefits and emissions reduction. The Task Group, which will make recommendations for generating a step-change improvement in Australia’s energy efficiency, also released for public discussion an Issues Paper that outlines strategies on how to achieve ambitious improvements in energy efficiency. See Lynne Blundell’s report on the Issues Paper Nine industry and non-government sector experts will act as advisers to the Task Group, including John Connor from The Climate Institute, Greg Bourne from WWF, Sharan Burrow from the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Neil Marshman from Rio Tinto, Clare Martin from the Australian Council of Social Service, Karen Moses from Origin Energy, Rob Murray-Leach from the Energy Efficiency Council, Cameron O’Reilly from the Energy Retailers Association of Australia... 
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By Tina Perinotto 16 March 2010 – Six key sectors of the Australian economy have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent by 2020 levels for the cost to householders of a cup of coffee, according to a new report released today. The Low Carbon Growth Plan for Australia received a mixed response. The Greens thought it should have been braver and the Energy Efficiency Council said it proved that energy savings had a direct economic benefit. Produced by ClimateWorks Australia, a partnership between The Myer Foundation and Monash University, the report shows that power, forestry, buildings, agriculture and transport could save 249 millioin tonnes of carbon dioxide through a combination of a carbon price and targeted actions, for not much more than the the cost of a cup of coffee or a total of about $185 a year for each household. The report uses data from the The report uses data from the McKinsey & Company greenhouse gas abatement cost curve methodology and... 
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By Tina Perinotto The Green Building Council of Australia said the Australian Government’s State of Australian Cities 2010 report would support the property and construction sector’s drive to Sustainability. GBCA chief executive Romilly Madews said the new Green Star –Communities environmental rating tool, which is under development would help address the key findings in the report that Australian cities face significant challenges in terms of population growth and demographic change, transport congestion, living affordability, infrastructure development, productivity growth, climate change and ecological sustainability. The report comes only weeks after the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council’s Cities for the future report released at the Green Cities 2010 conference in Melbourne, found that transport-related greenhouse gas emissions in Australian cities will increase by almost 50 per cent within thirty years, with travel times expected to increase by a quarter. “Decisive... 
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By Tina Perinotto REPORT – 2 March 2010 – Less than 200 corporation operating in Australia account for a whopping 30 per cent of total greenhouse emissions and 44 per cent of all energy related emissions. And of those, only 20 companies are responsible for half all emissions measured through the group Yet only the first tranche of energy savings identified by these companies equate to 1.4 million households not using any energy at all for a year. These are some of the startling findings contained in a report released today by the Federal Department of Resources Energy and Tourism, First Opportunities, a look at results from 2006-2008  for the Energy Efficiency Opportunities Program In response to the report chief executive officer of the Energy Efficiency Council, Rob Murray-Leach, said:  “Energy efficiency in industry is the sleeping giant of climate change. “For years we’ve neglected one of the biggest and most cost-effective sources of immediate emission cuts. This... 
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By Maria Atkinson… Dear Prime Minister, I am writing to alert you to serious flaws in Federal Government data on emissions from buildings and to request urgent action to establish accurate data, to ensure Australia’s carbon pollution reduction responses are soundly based. My specific concern is that inaccurate data from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural & Resource Economics (ABARE) and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which in turn is based on inaccurate methodology adopted by the Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO), has been used as the basis of calculations which suggest buildings are responsible for 23 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. Yet the United Nations and many other international authorities put buildings’ contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions in the order of 40 per cent or higher. The data in question appears to date back to an erroneous assumption adopted in the 2002 report by George Wilkenfeld to the AGO: Australia’s... 
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By Romilly Madew… Commercial and residential buildings account for 23 per cent of Australia’s annual emissions – making the built environment sector vital in any carbon pollution reduction scheme. The Australian Government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) won’t have an impact on Australia’s built environment, and so won’t achieve reductions in the very sector where emissions are both significant and most easily achieved. This means a range of other measures to achieve those reductions are required. The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said that buildings offer the single largest source of greenhouse gas abatement – more than the industry, transport and energy sectors combined. The IPCC’s research is backed up by McKinsey and Company’s Pathways to a Low-Carbon Economy, which has demonstrated that this abatement comes at negative cost to GDP – that is, abatement in the built environment... 
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by Peter Szental The Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) draft National Strategy on Energy Efficiency makes important steps, but leaves the building sector out in the cold and Australia’s greatest energy efficiency opportunities untapped. Investing in energy efficiency is more than a double-dividend. Energy efficiency creates green jobs, improves Australia’s economic competitiveness, cuts greenhouse pollution and saves money. Australia is currently one of the worst performers in energy efficiency in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). That puts our economy at tremendous risk. The largest and cheapest opportunities for energy efficiency are in existing commercial buildings and industry, but COAG seems to be ignoring these opportunities. Existing commercial buildings account for 98 per cent of office space each year, and are a gold mine of potential energy savings. The strategy will fail to unlock these savings. A report by the Australian Sustainable... 
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