By Tina Perinotto 9 May 2013 — Early this year GPT Group was lead investor* for almost $6 million into a San Francisco start up that provides an online platform for sourcing co-working spaces. It’s part of a promise to GPT shareholders to find new sources of income other than traditional commercial and retail rents and capital gains. So how’s this rather unusual challenge going? Read More  
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By Lynne Blundell 29 November 2012 – The recent revamping of the NABERS retail rating standard coincides with a watershed era for retail as the sector battles against online shopping, fickle consumers and a changing perception of the role of shopping centres. The ratings could well have to change again in the near future to keep up with social and technology trends that are altering the design, function and energy use of shopping centres. Read More  
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By  Jonathan Hills, CBRE  29 November 2012 —  In the West a number of larger retailers have woken up to the challenges of sustainability and several groups have begun to build and operate green shops in the US and Europe. Read More  
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By Leon Gettler 23 October 2012 – Collaborative consumption is a new form of business that transforms rampant consumerism and makes commerce more sustainable. It has taken off in a very big way, particularly in Melbourne. It’s environmentally sustainable commerce that could reshape business. It’s the answer to hyper consumption. Read More  
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20 September 2012 — The GPT Group has received international recognition for shopping centre Charlestown Square – winning a gold award for sustainable design and a silver award for development and design, at the International Council of Shopping Centres Asia Pacific Shopping Centre Awards last week. The judges were impressed by Charlestown Square’s overall sustainability, drawing attention to GPT’s care in minimising the redevelopment’s ongoing environmental impact, and its focus on the... 
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By Denise McNabb 31 July 2012 – Hundreds of independent stores and supermarkets in the Metcash group have signed up for an energy conservation scheme to cut their power bills by up to 20 per cent annually. The grocery and liquor wholesale distributor and marketer has begun rolling out its sustainability program after actively recruiting participants at road shows in recent months. Metcash sustainability manager Louise Rhodes created the program in 2009. She said it had since been finely tuned... 
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9 November 2011 – Westfield’s Sydney development in Pitt Street Mall was last night awarded a five star Green Star Retail Centre v1 rating, making it the largest Green Star certified retail project in Australia, and paving the way for a raft of green star shopping centres. And according to  Westfield Group Australia and New Zealand managing director Robert Jordan Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto 11August 2011 – Comment: The Productivity Commission again took a stick to zoning issues with its draft retail report released last Thursday on 4 August, recommending, among other things, that the retail industry would be more competitive and presumably create lower prices if it relaxed restrictions on where shops could locate. Read More  
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2 February 2011 – The massive US retailer Walmart  has attracted huge media attention for its stated efforts to transform its operations to a greener lower carbon profile, such as its goals to greatly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and its work with the Rocky Mountain Institute to improve the efficiency of its truck flee. But a lengthy report from Treehugger questions the claims and says that on some measures the company is failing. On social sustainability its new stores bring with... 
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By Kirsty Máté, 11 May – In the US Walmart, not just the biggest retailer in the world but the biggest company, is going green. Or at least greener. In Canada a small van sells food with no prices attached. Customers pay using the honour system. And they do: the business is expanding. In the UK Marks and Spencer’s Plan A (because there is no plan B) is insulating the homes of its employees in  a powerful gesture of social sustainability. These are just some of the fasinating trends that... 
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9 February 2011 – The Erina Fair shopping Centre on the NSW Central Coast has installed a world first on-site compost system in its bid to improve sustainable outcomes. According to owners Lend Lease and GPT and manager Australian Prime Property Fund Retail, the composting system for waste food products, aptly named Hungry Pig® in-vessel composting system will process 250 tonnes of waste, equivalent to 20 garbage trucks, with an in-vessel aerobic composting technology.” Compost produced... 
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By Lyn Drummond 19 January 2011 – Architects will propose to the Queensland government that building design be considered in its terms of reference for its Commission of Inquiry into the Queensland floods, as industry bodies respond to the crisis. According to the chief executive officer of the Australian Institute of Architects David Parken a preferred system of designing and building resilient homes is essential in the terms of reference. The interim report is due in August this year and due... 
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By Michael Baker 4 August 2010 – There’s an old joke that speaks to the reliability of information received through our own senses compared with that received from what we think are trusted secondary sources. A man named Andy comes home and finds his wife and best friend Pete in bed together. The friend leaps out of the bed and says “Wait, Andy!  Before you jump to any conclusions, what are you going to believe, old buddy – me, or your own eyes?” What has this got to do with town... 
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