By Shaila Divakaria and Stephen Driscoll 20 February 2012 –This joint paper was presented to the Solar 2011 conference in December 2011 on the experience of building Landcom’s eco-living range of display homes at The Ponds in north-west... 
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By Dick Clarke 14 February 2012 – The design and construction industry was given a preview of proposed upgrades to the BASIX sustainability regulations last week. The changes look good on the whole, and are long overdue, bringing something like a 6... 
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By Lynne Blundell 9 February 2012 – Investment group Questus Limited will make use of its $20 million funding under the National Rental Affordability Scheme to push housing sustainability standards in remote areas of Western Australia, Questus... 
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By Lyn Drummond 9 February 2012 – Case Study: Building a community out of an eight star apartment building in Melbourne rather than having a home as “your own little box” was how the architects envisioned designing the 24-apartment building,... 
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By Lyn Drummond 10 February 2012  – Convincing customers to buy an apartment in the Commons, an eight star apartment building in Melbourne was an education in sustainability for real estate agent Onder Ozmetin. Now, the agent admitted to The Fifth... 
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By Tina Perinotto 10 February 2012 – In most display homes the signs say “No photographs”. But at the Landcom eco-living range of display homes built by Clarendon Homes at The Ponds in Sydney’s north-west, photographs are encouraged... 
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By Tina Perinotto 3 February 2012 – Could John Brogden be the man to save Sydney? The Urban Taskforce thinks so. The developers’ lobby group leapt on this week’s appointment of the former Liberal Leader as chairman of Landcom to say this... 
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3 February 2012 – Following is a list – and map – of 43 properties that will be considered for fast tracking by the NSW Planning Minister Brad Hazzard.  But not their owners. The Fifth Estate asked the planning minister’s office for the... 
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By Tina Perinotto 27 January 2012 – Stockland has claimed the energy costs of its new homes can shave more than $2000 a year off the energy bill for an average four bedroom suburban home in Sydney’s outer western suburb of Penrith. A new three... 
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By Lyn Drummond 18 January 2012 – ACT has radically overhauled its strata legislation, especially in relation to sustainability retrofits. Now the NSW Government is undertaking its own review. NSW Minister for Fair Trading, Anthony Roberts told The... 
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By Jacqueline McArthur 7 December 2011  – Carrot or stick are the two options architects, body corporates and government policy makers have at their disposal when protecting their green credentials. But in these straightened times it seems the stick... 
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By Ben O’Callaghan and Richard Hyde 20 December 2011–This is an edited version of their paper, presented at the World Sustainable Building Conference 2011 in Helsinki. 20 December 2011 – Significant effort, capital and time are being invested by... 
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By Scott Willey 13 December 2011 – The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology’s Centre For Design is working with the UK entrepreneurial charity Bioregional to extend BioRegional’s portfolio of leading demonstration projects. Read More > >  
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5 December 2011 – The Sunshine Coast is pursuing an affordable living plan to deal with more than 1 million people expected to settle in South East Queensland in the next 20 years and a projection of 98,000 new dwellings on the Coast. The Sunshine Coast... 
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By Lyn Drummond 22 November 2011 – With three new projects now certified under the latest EnviroDevelopment standards, national manager Kirsty Chessher says she hopes more than 50 to have qualified within 12 months. Read More > >  
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By Lyn Drummond 30  November 2011 – The developers of a planned ecovillage at Cape Paterson, 150 kilometres south east of Melbourne, claim that financial modelling shows residents could save $300,000 and shave eight years off a typical mortgage through... 
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By Jacqueline McArthur 23 November 2011 – When the news broke that the world’s highest profile multi-millionaire environmentalist was a US$30,000 annual utility bill shy of a carbon neutral lifestyle, even ardent fans of former US Vice-President... 
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By Lyn Drummond 20 November 2011 – Architect Nicholas Perren whose company has designed a sustainable modular home believes there is a big opportunity for the housing industry to reinvent itself. “Looking at the development of homes over the... 
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By Lindsay Bevege 14 November 2011 – Thriving communities will always be about the “‘ability to renew”:  they are resilient, thus able to adapt creatively to changes and shocks, such as climate change, population growth, social upheaval, economic... 
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By Lynne Blundell 10 November 2011 – Landcom has opened its second Eco-Living Display Home, Greencycle, one of three homes it is developing to promote sustainable building products and construction methods (see our earlier story on this) Read... 
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3 November 2011 –Victoria has revamped its urban planning authority with a change of name to Places Victoria and the appointment of acting chief executive Sam Sangster to the role on a permanent basis. The Victorian Government yesterday launched... 
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By Lyn Drummond 4 October 2011 – While young families look for house size and type, older and single-person households are more likely to think the characteristics of where they live are more important, a survey by The Grattan Institute on housing... 
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6 September 2011 – Favourites – A new worldwide study of sustainable precincts commissioned by Sustainability Victoria has unearthed some of the drivers to the most successful sustainable communities Read More > >  
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By Tina Perinotto 29 September 2011 – When the owners of a two-bedroom waterfront property on Lake Macquarie on the NSW Central Coast were offered $430,000 recently they jumped at it. Read More > >  
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21 September 2011 – The City of Sydney has launched a new program to help apartment dwellers green their buildings, said to consume twice the energy of single dwellings. The program helps owners’ corporations by providing sustainability assessments... 
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By Richard Nicol 7 September 2011 – An opportunity for adequate and accurate information about residential building efficiency lies with the continually postponed Residential Building Mandatory Disclosure Proposed Measure . Read More > >  
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6 September 2011 – The Sydney Morning Herald recently published a story on energy-hungry, high-rise apartments and the challenges they face. (It just happens to mention The Fifth Estate) High-rise apartments typically use more energy than a detached... 
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By Tina Perinotto 22 August 2011 – Two reports today confirmed what the smart money has been thinking for a while – houses are getting smaller, especially if the rise in apartments living are taken into consideration, and home owners are... 
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By Lyn Drummond 11 August 2011 – What will it take to regenerate greyfield precincts in Australia’s major cities to achieve medium density housing with better health and environmental impacts? The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute... 
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By Lyn Drummond 27 July 2011 – Burbank hopes to achieve a 7-star House Energy Rating for its high density apartment building within Victoria’s revitalised Dandenong project, 30 kilometres west of Melbourne. Work will begin by mid 2012 on the $300... 
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