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 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 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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Businesses are being urged to join the green building revolution and boost their productivity through a new joint-funded Rudd and Brumby Government public awareness campaign and a dedicated website. Building and Plumbing Industry Commissioner and Chair of the World Green Buildings Council, Tony Arnel, said the campaign would help businesses improve their profitability by thinking green when leasing or refurbishing offices. “The CSIRO estimates that lost productivity from poor office environments costs Australia up to $21 billion a year,” Arnel said. “Green offices make commercial sense because they create a healthier, more productive workplace and employees take less sick leave.” Arnel launched the joint State and Federal government funded campaign with the chief executive of Sustainability Victoria, Anita Roper, at 500 Bourke Street, Melbourne. The building at 500 Bourke Street has undergone one of Australia’s largest sustainability refurbishments over the last two years. Features... 
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by Lynne Blundell… Small businesses are keen to reduce their carbon footprint, not to mention their energy bills, if the early morning turnout at North Sydney Council’s breakfast launch of its Green Business Energy $aving Program is anything to go by. More than 32 local businesses turned up at the 8am launch on May 12 and 112 have signed up to the program since mid March. Project officer for the North Sydney Council program, Larissa Miller, told TFE the Council was impressed with the response from local businesses: “We were really pleased with the turnout – it shows that businesses are committed to reducing their carbon footprint. We already knew households were because of the high participation in our residential program but it’s good to see businesses are also very keen.” Miller said the council is aiming to have 200 businesses enrolled in the program by June next year. The energy saving program aims to help local businesses reduce their energy use and costs by providing... 
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By Tina Perinotto… In a sign that the sustainable building industry is coming of age,  developer and energy consultancy Szencorp has revealed a “warts and all” report on its refurbished 6 star Green Star building in South Melbourne. According to Peter Szental, managing director of Szencorp, (a TFE sponsor) the Building Use Study benchmarked the premises in the top 4 per cent for overall building performance in Australia. But although the report found tenants were not happy with the air-conditioning system, they were forgiving because of the building’s “green” credentials. Mr Szental said said that while the building at 40 Albert Road, South Melbourne,  achieved excellent results in a number of areas including design, image, and perceived productivity and health, the study uncovered that 86 per cent of staff were unhappy with the temperature within the building. The results also showed that tenants’ reported perceived productivity was in the top 9 per cent of Australian... 
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By Tina Perinotto… It’s amazing how quickly a targeted discussion about an important issue can gain momentum. At the Green Cities conference in Brisbane in early March this year, inevitable musings over the question of where to next for the green building movement have sparked what looks like a new wave of enthusiasm from a huge range of individual industry practitioners to take forward the green building agenda. At the centre of the talks is Thinc Projects’consultant, Elena Bondareva, who first contributed an article to our inaugural edition of The Fifth Estate’s newsletter, Movement Looking for Direction. Bondareva tells us that “over coffee and in informal gatherings more than 100 industry professionals have met in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra and Brisbane are exploring where the next quantum shift towards sustainability might come from, and how they can help catalyse it.” The meetings are designed purely for individuals to ”constructively... 
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By Tina Perinotto… It’s amazing how quickly a targeted discussion about an important issue can gain momentum. At the Green Cities conference in Brisbane in early March this year, inevitable musings over the question of where to next for the green building movement have sparked what looks like a new wave of enthusiasm from a huge range of individual industry practitioners to take forward the green building agenda. At the centre of the talks is Thinc Projects’consultant, Elena Bondareva, who first contributed an article to our inaugural edition of The Fifth Estate’s newsletter, Movement Looking for Direction. Bondareva tells us that “over coffee and in informal gatherings more than 100 industry professionals have met in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra and Brisbane are exploring where the next quantum shift towards sustainability might come from, and how they can help catalyse it.” The meetings are designed purely for individuals to ”constructively... 
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KPMG and Macquarie Bank Limited have joined forces to create a carbon trading simulation to assist businesses prepare for the CPRS. Jennifer Westacott, head of KPMG’s climate change, sustainability and water practice, said participating in the simulation would reduce the risk of making costly errors when it came to the real CPRS auctions. “With the CPRS set to go live in less than two years and a potential first permit auction in early 2010, business can’t afford to be sitting on its hands,” Westacott said. The simulation would help identify the gaps in strategy and the areas that require greater focus. The auction simulation will be run by KPMG professionals who have experience in conducting similar programs in the UK in the lead up to the introduction of the EU Emission Trading Scheme. Macquarie Bank has designed and built the online auction platform for the simulation in line with the Government’s proposed auction design. Participants will receive feedback on their performance... 
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by Tina Perinotto John Thwaites is the sort of man you instantly want on your side. Charming, practiced eyeball-to-eyeball networker, he cuts a swathe through any room. At one of the more difficult technical sessions at the Green Cities Conference in Brisbane this year, Thwaites looked every bit as if this was the most fascinating engagement he’s had. For Thwaites, former Victorian deputy premier,  planning, environment and climate change minister and barrister, there’s no faking it. Thwaites was frustrated in the shackles of his roles as a politician and his current commitments reveals this. Squeezing in an interview with TFE before rushing off to meet with climate scientists, Thwaites now holds as many action-driven climate change roles as he can handle. He is Professorial Fellow at Monash University and Chair of the Monash Sustainability Institute as well as of the The Climate Group in Australia and a member of the board of the Green Building Council of Australia. Recently he... 
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by Lynne Blundell and Tina Perinotto Kevin Rudd’s spectacular backflip on the carbon pollution reduction scheme (CPRS), delaying its introduction by a year looks to backfire on a number of fronts. While the scheme is unlikely to get passed in the senate, the scheme has split the environmental movement in two, and the built environment lobby says a great opportunity for cheap fast emissions savings has been missed by not factoring in the powerful potential contribution of the building sector. Rudd announced on Monday (4 May) that the scheme would be delayed by a year, and a one year fixed price period will be introduced. Permits will cost $10 a tonne of carbon in 2011-2012 with full market trading to begin on 1 July 2012. The only concession to a call for higher emissions cuts target is a change in the upper limit, which has been increased to 25 per cent; the minimum target for emissions reductions remains unchanged at 5 per cent. Emissions intensive trade-exposed industries would also... 
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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 Lynne Blundell 6 May – There are some claims that you just shouldn’t bank on. Especially when it involves the coal industry, which in the US is every bit as dominant and influential as in Australia. In the US Barack Obama has been criticised for falling for the “coal can be clean line” which others, including Robert F Kennedy Jr and former US vice president Al Gore, say is a “dirty big lie”. President Obama has proposed $3.4 billion in stimulus legislation to fund continued research on clean coal projects. “Clean coal is like healthy cigarettes, it does not exist,” says former vice president Al Gore in US media reports. Obama used in coal ads The US coal industry has cashed in on Obama’s comments, using one of his campaign speeches in its multi-million dollar advertising campaign: “You can’t tell me we can’t figure out a way to burn coal that we mine right here in the United States and make it work,” says Obama in the... 
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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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Local government action: Darebin Council in Victoria is working with the local community and businesses to implement a Community Climate Change Action Plan to reduce community greenhouse emissions across its municipality. To help develop the plan the Council has established a Community Climate Change Reference Group with representatives of diverse community organisations. It has also held a series of focus groups, staged a Community Leaders Forum and undertaken public consultation, including a web-based survey. The action plan will be considered by Council on 15 June and, if approved, will be rolled out over the next four years. Some of the key actions proposed include: • a zero net greenhouse gas emissions target for the Darebin community and businesses by 2020 • finding the best solar or high efficiency gas hot water systems for residents and scoping financing options to allow residents to pay off the new system through the savings they make on their energy bills • a Darebin... 
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By Gavin Gilchrist Think about this. Just over 50 years ago when President Eisenhower and the US Congress realised they had a serious technological and political challenge – matching the Soviet Union in the space race – did they respond by imposing a new tax on non-space travel in the hope that “market forces” would somehow respond by delivering more space travel? No way. They created a new national agency, one that was well-funded, prestigious, and attractive to the best and the brightest US scientists, managers and engineers. And they gave it a clear goal: beat the USSR in space. So they created NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Australia in 2009 doesn’t need a NASA. But it desperately needs a NESA. A National Energy Savings Agency. Here’s why. The cheapest, fastest way to cut Australia’s greenhouse emissions is by saving energy through the accelerated adoption of energy-effective processes and practices. Like better lighting control in offices,... 
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by Lynne Blundell Higher energy efficiency standards for both residential and commercial buildings got the tick of approval at this year’s Coalition of Australian Governments’ (COAG) meeting but builders and energy groups argue the scheme needs further changes and sustainability experts would like to see it go further. COAG agreed that from 2011 the energy efficiency rating for houses will increase from 5 to 6 stars. Mandatory disclosure of energy efficiency for commercial buildings will commence in 2010 and for residential buildings by 2011. Five key measures were agreed on to improve the energy efficiency of residential and commercial buildings across Australia: · increasing the stringency of energy efficiency requirements for all classes of commercial buildings in the Building Code of Australia from 2010 · phasing in the mandatory disclosure of the energy efficiency of commercial buildings and tenancies from 2010 · increasing energy efficiency requirements for new residential... 
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by Lynne Blundell The Sydney Coastal Councils Group’s (SCCG) recently released report on adapting to climate change outlines the difficulties councils face in tackling rising sea levels, flooding, storm damage and increased bushfire incidence. The report, Case Studies of Adaptive Capacity is the result of a two year project by CSIRO, the University of the Sunshine Coast and WWF Australia. It contains numerous in-depth, anonymous interviews with local government workers on the front-line of climate change adaptation in three municipalities – Mosman, Leichhardt and Sutherland Shire. The report makes six key recommendations for councils: • “Know Your Enemy” – improve understanding of social and ecological vulnerability • “Plan for Change” – build climate change into planning frameworks • “Get Smart” – develop education and outreach programs • “Act, Watch and Learn” – monitor, evaluate and report • “Put the House in Order” – develop internal... 
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Welcome to The Fifth Estate By Tina Perinotto This is a website for optimists. Its spirit comes from the centre of Australia. The Dead Centre it’s often called. Yet it is anything but dead. Beneath the surface sandy-glare it teems with life of the most tenacious kind. New saplings growing out of dead trunks. Brilliant fruits ripen quickly, almost surreptitiously, to beat the predators. No water? Dig the dry pool beds and find fish that can hibernate for eight years until the rains come, when they wake up, spawn, then go back to sleep. It’s a land of inventiveness and adaptation. Now, in the same spirit of determination as this amazing land, it’s time to set a new target: to  limit warming as much as possible. We’ve probably missed the first target – to stop the ratchet-up of global temperatures to less than 2 degrees. That’s the negative scientific consensus that came out the recent meeting in Copenhagen. Not because we “can’t” meet better targets. We have the technology,... 
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By Michael Mobbs Rating systems rate the wrong things. If you asked me, “What’s the best thing I can do to cut climate change for my kids?” I would answer, grow your own food and buy from local farmers.  I would not say, build a sustainable house or office. The climate impacts of the Australian food system are more than three times those of the housing and construction sector. Food takes over 50 per cent of Australia’s water, and housing just 11 per cent. At least 23 per cent of Australia’s climate pollution comes from its food system. It’s more effective to have a sustainability target for food than it is for the water and energy used in houses and offices. Even if every new or renovated building scores 100 out of 100 points or the maximum number of stars the amount of energy and water saved and the impact on climate change pollution is so minor as to be insignificant compared to that used to make the food eaten in those buildings. What good is it if we cut 10 per cent... 
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Green projects will be fast tracked as part of NSW’s bid to attract green investment and create green jobs in NSW. At the NSW Jobs Summit in March, NSW Premier Nathan Rees, announced a a list of measures: Renewable energy precincts A key part of the plan is the creation of new Renewable Energy Precincts for wind energy, including the NSW central tablelands. Renewable energy projects generating more than 30 megawatts of power will benefit from “critical infrastructure” status. Formerly it was 250 megawatts. “This means that green, renewable energy projects will benefit from the same priority as other important infrastructure, such as major road or hospital upgrades,” said Mr Rees. Green go-to people The Government plans to improve relationships with industry by creating dedicated green go-to people to assist renewable energy investors to see investment flow and jobs created. Green Skills The GreenSkills Taskforce has been established to turn the ideas raised at the summit into... 
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by Lynne Blundell Sustainable property insiders say that NSW has stolen the march on its rivals with a forward thinking GreenSkills Taskforce to challenge the shortfall in the greening property industry. The move follows the NSW Jobs and Green Skills Summit, held in March and has a budget of $5 million to encourage businesses to green up their workforce. NSW climate change and environment minister, Carmel Tebbutt, said the high-level taskforce would develop an action plan to drive the training of the State’s workforce in green skills and drive green jobs. A move to a green economy would provide job opportunities, create new jobs in the areas of renewable energy as well as in traditional industries such as plumbing, electrical and building, Ms Tebbutt said. “A report by the Australian Conservation Foundation and the ACTU found that some 500,000 new jobs could be created in Australia by 2030 on top of the business-as-usual baseline. This could translate into an additional 180,000... 
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Pittwater Council has placed its draft Learning for Sustainability Plan on public exhibition. The draft plan outlines a number of actions to improve sustainability in the local area. Pittwater mayor David James said that the plan would help guide Council and residents in making informed decisions about leading a more sustainable lifestyle. He said the Council and the local community had defined sustainability as “development that improves the quality of life, both now and in the future, in a way that maintains the ecological processes on which life depends”. “As a community we have many environmental programs already in place including those that focus on saving energy and water,” said James. “This plan will offer further clarity on how we take further steps to reduce our carbon footprint.” Some of the outcomes that the draft plan recommends include: · improved access to high-quality learning for sustainability for all Pittwater residents · better training for those delivering... 
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by Lynne Blundell At the national level a lion’s share of government resources and energy is being spent on designing an ideal carbon trading system that may or may not do anything to stop dangerous climate change. At the ground level, where the climate impact will be felt, insurers and local councils don’t bother with esoteric talk of climate policy. The main game for them is working out how to cope with the human toll and cost of property damage that will be caused by rising sea levels and wild dangerous weather, in other words, adaptation. The outlook is not good. The insurance industry, for one, has been at the forefront of warning the business community and government that climate change is a real threat. Its members are appalled at the prospect of what lies ahead. Insurance Australia Group’s (IAG) chief risk officer, Tony Coleman, said in a recent report by the Australian Climate Group: “Australia is tolerating a level of climate change risk that would be unthinkable if the... 
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By Peter Droege The confusion around building a “carbon economy” around emissions trading has served to disguise for too long that countries, regions and cities need crash programs to replace their entire energy supply systems, and exchange coal and oil for renewable power. The longer this is postponed, the more difficult the ultimate effort will be, yet it is necessary for our survival and to help other countries make this inevitable change. It will also address the inexorable arrival of oil, gas and uranium peaks. Roughly three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions that are produced by human activities result from burning fossil fuels for power generation and transport, almost one-quarter from industrial agricultural practices, and (this includes) another significant portion from cement production. At present, there is a 40 per cent excess of carbon pollution in the atmosphere already, warming the world to melt polar caps and permafrost, and acidifying oceans. Yet instead of focusing... 
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By Simon Carter We are businesses and people who live by incremental change. But we now enter a time of transformation in which we are being forced to examine the full systems that inhibit us existing sustainably, rather than just addressing the symptoms of our unsustainability. It is clearly a time of reinvention. Our global financial system needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. Obama has declared his commitment to have the US no longer importing oil from the Middle East or Venezuela within 10 years and America’s previously mighty automotive industry is going back to the drawing board. It’s clear 2009 is proving to be the turning point from which many of the rules of the old industrial economy will go out the window and the rules of the post industrial era are created. So, what might this profound shift in the world mean for the Australian property industry and our green building movement? Even pre Global Financial Crisis, our green building movement had found itself at an interesting... 
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By Elena Bondareva Shortly after Green Cities 09 (a major Asia Pacific green building conference run jointly by the Green Building Council of Australia and the Property Council of Australia), I was having a drink with a couple of colleagues and they mentioned that they felt  that the green building movement is not strategic. Interestingly enough, this conversation mirrored scores of other similar conversations I have had recently, (although, for some reason, no one is raising this issue publicly). This has started me thinking: would the movement have its inarguable success if these people were right? How do we reconcile a ‘no’ with the evidence mounting from these conversations, and the calibre and range of people concerned? Perhaps the expectation for ‘strategic’ has changed. Perhaps today, it needs to come with a vision which is focused on our future. In the beginning of the green building movement in Australia, arguably signified by the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the strategy was... 
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By Michael Mobbs Why have one policy about something simple when you can have 140 or more and make it really complicated? How many policies does it take to control the parking of car share cars in NSW? One for each council, or over 140 policies. Just to park a car. I calculate that the time; cost and paper this policy mania produces is: 140 different policies across NSW on the one subject Over 50,000 pages of printing just to make one draft policy for the councils Over 840 months or six years of policy making time to make the 141 policies Over 50,000 printed pages to make the final form of the policies Over $280,000 of council officers salaries to make the draft policies An additional $500 per developer per development application to address the policy in one project per council per year or over 70,000 a year just to deal with it in 140 development proposals across the state. These are conservative figures and probably underestimate the costs and time by 50 per cent. In... 
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