By Michael Mobbs This Burr has some soft tips, prickly spikes, an oddity here and there, and some speechless wonder. Enjoy. Count the spikes:  500 million farmers can’t be wrong La Via Campesina,  an international peasant’s movement is visiting Australia, and Robert Pekin the founder of Brisbane’s Food Connect Foundation has organised some farmers ...Read More > >

By Adrian McGregor, McGregor Coxall FAVOURITES - 7 October 2009 - "The so-called global economy was not a permanent institution, but a set of transient circumstances peculiar to a time, the Indian Summer of the fossil fuel era". – James Kunstler, The Long Emergency: surviving the converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century ...Read More > >

- By Stafford Hopewell, partner, Gadens Lawyers, Brisbane - FAVOURITES - 31 January 2010 - Climate change is starting to emerge as a significant issue in planning and environment decision-making. Courts and tribunals are increasingly being required to take into account climate change issues and there is an emerging set of ...Read More > >

By Ann Burns, head of utilities, Accenture Australia FAVOURITES  - 1 June 2010 - Smart meters are going in and smart grids are receiving government funding. But will consumers change their habits in the battle for energy efficiency? The latest evidence indicates that Australians need some convincing. The new energy era will ...Read More > >

Letter: 26 May 2010 - From Caroline Noller - Thanks for the articles on rating tools and the “Where to from here?” I must say that it’s “back to the future” on the topic of harmonising the plethora of rating tools. Back in the last millennium (around 1995/6) the Green Building ...Read More > >

By Romilly Madew 31 May 2010 - Australia may understand green buildings, but China is building greener cities. I’ve just returned from a week in China, after taking part in the Australian Urban Systems and Austrade delegation to the Shanghai Expo, and then Beijing for the Australia China Sustainable Building and ...Read More > >

LETTER - from Sharon Lameris - 27 May 2010 - [Following] are a few words to Boris Kelly, as author of the article [Strata is popular but neglected in green initiatives] ...which also appears via a link to the website of Go Low Energy. Remember that old adage -  never judge ...Read More > >

By Michael Mobbs 21 May 2010 - In his searing, timeless essay, “A hanging”, George Orwell describes an execution he witnessed when he was a policeman in Burma. I read it when I was about nine, during a year when I devoured a book a day and read the Forbes town ...Read More > >

21 May 2010 - The increased demand for social housing due to increasing homelessness and mortgage stress allows our state and federal governments to respond and enforce their high-density agenda onto our most vulnerable -  part of Kevin Rudd's "big Australia" agenda. Our population growth is not inevitable and is mostly ...Read More > >

By Michael Mobbs 5 May 2010 - All of Australia’s dirty coal-fired power could be replaced with clean power by 2014. And although coal-fired power stations provide about 60 percent, or some 29 gigawatts, of Australia’s mains power (1), (2) this could all be provided by solar thermal power. About 14 ...Read More > >

By Romilly Madew 6 May 2010 - NSW Housing Minister David Borger sounded a clarion call to the property and construction sector recently. Speaking at the Green Building Council of Australia’s “Meet the Stars” breakfast on 21 April, Minister Borger said if Housing NSW can build 5 Star Green Star residential developments ...Read More > >

Sylvia Hrovatin, general manager approvals for Walker Corporation is fed up with some of the arguments about the challenges of meeting urban housing demand. This is the view she presented to national conference held by the Urban Development Institute of Australia at Darling Harbour on 8-11 March this year - - ...Read More > >

- By Simon Carter - Scepticism about climate change science should be embraced, but not denial. This article sets out five tests to help you dissect the so-called debate about climate change and enable you to distinguish the denier from the sceptic. - 8 April 2010 - As someone who frequently discusses ...Read More > >

By Adam Murchie FAVOURITES - 24 March 2010 - At a recent sustainable property conference, there was discussion about the emerging divide between large corporate and institutional property owners, who understand and appreciate sustainable property ownership, and private individuals and syndicators, who appear to be poorly informed, and what this means ...Read More > >

by  Simon Wild, managing director Asia Pacific, Cundall - 6 May 2010 - Over the past six months our company has been running Cool Walls [interactive workshop] across Australia,  to help business owners, designers and developers think beyond the business as usual; to connect into and create an integration ...Read More > >

By Michael Mobbs 22 April 2010 - This aerial photograph shows land on the outskirts of Mullumbimby in northern NSW, where horses graze on grassland that is surrounded by bush on two sides and a caravan park on another. In 2006 the NSW Planning Minister approved a Woolies supermarket on this land. ...Read More > >

- By Jane Jose - 22 April 2010 - It is likely that a move by the Business Council of Australia to see a quota introduced to ensure greater diversity in the board rooms of Australia will sharpen the focus of the ASX top 200 companies on sustainability. Corporate Social Responsibility, ...Read More > >

- By Marcus Spiller - 9 March 2010 - Vision and Plan for Social Housing" is a report on the future of affordable social housing in Australia, commissioned by PowerHousing Australia last year and undertaken by SGS Economics and Planning,  Following is an introduction to the report by Dr Spiller who ...Read More > >

By Michael Mobbs Every time I wake up there’s a new rating scheme. Enough is enough. It’s cold shower time. Remember when we were invited to spray DDT on our food and in our houses because it "harmlessly" killed bugs? (If you’re too young to remember, do an internet search on “DDT ...Read More > >

By Vikram Kenjle Here at the office, we’ve been wondering how we can better explain what an energy-efficient office would really feel like, and how would it really perform. So we’ve come up with this. If your office were a car, what sort of car would it be? You probably think our ...Read More > >

By Romilly Madew, chief executive, Green Building Council of Australia 31 March 2010 - The Australian Government’s Building Energy Efficiency Disclosure Bill is currently being debated in federal Parliament. If passed, the Bill will require non-residential commercial buildings to disclose their energy efficiency to potential purchasers or lessees. The Green Building Council of ...Read More > >

LETTER: from  Vivienne Ortega - 29 March 2010 - The Urban Taskforce’s Aaron Gadiel said Treasury "forecasts" are that population will rise from 22 million to 36 million by the middle of the century. This is not a "forecast" population number but one that is socially engineered, manipulated, by ...Read More > >

By Michel Mobbs 25 March 2010 - You go to an island, spend some time alone, and you can see things a little more clearly. That’s how it turned out for me. The idea was to visit Cockatoo Island and do nothing; maybe read, eat and walk a bit. But just sitting ...Read More > >

by Adam Beck, Green Star Communities project manager, Green Building Council of Australia Australia is confronted by significant long-term challenges. Population growth and demographic change, transport congestion, housing affordability, infrastructure development, climate change, energy and resource limitations, technological advances and the influences of the global economy have the potential to ...Read More > >

FAVOURITES  9 December 2009 - The  issue of potential damage to infrastructure is a late comer to climate concerns, and so too is the likely realignment of the coast itself argues, MWH’s Peter Fagan - Much has been said about the global concern for climate change and the very real threat ...Read More > >

by Nicola Woodward - FAVOURITES - 21 April 2009 - Accelerated Depreciation is a core platform of the property industry as a way to green buildings – but there are major flaws in this approach and better ways to achieve the desired outcomes…. “Green depreciation” is a term that has recently been ...Read More > >

by Michael Mobbs - 10 March 2010 - Ah! As I write this, it’s such a perfect day for a Burr. A beauty of sun, clear light and, here and there, drops of silence. But Burrs will be burrs, so buckle up. We have here a classic case of do-gooders who, in ...Read More > >

Lance Turner is a technical editor for ReNew magazine. His personal choice for insulation in the home is foil. In this article, he explains why. Insulation improves the comfort level inside your home by reducing heat flows into and out of the building. Reducing heat flows stabilises the temperature inside the ...Read More > >

- By  Chris Begert - 11 March 2010 - Rising concern over climate change continues to place increasing demands on the design and efficiency of buildings. High performance buildings that provide optimal internal comfort without adding further pressure on the environment require innovative design solutions from Architects and Engineers. Passive Design, a ...Read More > >

By Romilly Madew, chief executive, Green Building Council of Australia Our conversation about the built environment has clearly shifted. Twelve months ago the individual building still loomed large in our debates about green.  At the recent Green Cities 2010 conference co-hosted by the Green Building Council of Australia and Property Council of ...Read More > >