Dreaming of a low carbon transport future
ANALYSIS: With the news this week that Tesla is now the most valuable car company in the world, there’s a sense that the green transport revolution has kicked up a gear.
Poppy Johnston
Why Exxon has been tossed over by a green company and the new Lendlease green bond is oversubscribed
FINANCE: Green bonds and other sustainable finance vehicles are still booming amid the pandemic. In fact they’re seen as lower risk than traditional investments. It’s no surprise then that Australian property companies are getting on board. Global green bond issuance passed the $1 trillion-mark last week and Australian property giant Lendlease is not missing out on […]
Want to know how much the gold in your phone is worth? Keep an eye on NSW Circular to find out
A citizen’s taskforce circular economy campaign and an “Australian Circular Business Register” will make it easier for people and businesses to take part in the coming transition to a circular economy.
Tone Wheeler on designing for those in crisis
As many as 50 churches owned by the Uniting Church in metropolitan Sydney alone lie dormant and unused. Meanwhile there is a shortage of crisis and affordable accommodation.
Gillies Hall: The star of Monash University’s electrifying net zero plans
Monash University has set itself the challenging target of getting its campuses to net zero by 2030 and unlike some other organisations that set similar goals, it has a plan to get there.
The water cycle is about to get even more circular
The circular economy has infiltrated the board rooms of Australian and New Zealand water utilities, according to a new report. Now to put these ideas into action.
NSW Southern Highlands to get jobs boost with new EV factory planned
Electric buses cost $50,000 a year less to run compared with diesel fuelled buses. It’s a good grounding for the success of a new plant in the NSW southern Highlands that also promises 2000 new jobs.
WATER: How does NSW make sure it doesn’t get so close to Day Zero again?
According to one of the authors of a new report the focus on water in NSW has traditionally been on centralised infrastructure that utilities want to build rather than water efficiency. But what saved us during the Millennium Drought was the citizens, not utilities. Nor was it the winding back the BASIX sustainability index that some quarters advocate.
So much potential still to come on solar property and distributed assets says Le Gay Brereton
Australia’s love affair with rooftop solar has only just begun, according to Fabian Le Gay Brereton who has just launched a new clean energy start up company on the back of that optimism. Le Gay Brereton says that we can expected fossil fuel demand to peak in the next decade which will trigger more than […]
Time’s up for shoddy building code compliance
Sustainable built environment body ASBEC has put its foot down on the lack of compliance with the building code. The organisation is calling for urgent changes to the way building compliance is enforced as outlined in the 2018 Building Confidence report by Professor Peter Shergold and Bronwyn Weir on issues in the construction industry. The […]
Here’s a great idea: opt out instead of opt in for sustainability with Stockland’s net zero homes
More customers are concerned about the environmental aspect of their homes than ever before. What a great time to make this a standard offering. The key to getting more people into net zero homes could be an opt-out rather than an opt-in strategy, where customer have to downgrade from sustainability features rather than upgrade into […]
Australian companies blitz UN’s leadership board for responsible investment
Seven Australian asset owners and investment managers have been named top performing responsible investors along with 36 other organisations from around the world. AMP Capital Investors, Australian Ethical Investment, Charter Hall, Dexus, CBUS Superannuation Fund, Lendlease, Aware Super and Manulife Investment Management have all earned a position on the 2020 UNPRI Leaders’ Group A spot on […]
Budget 2020 steps a toe in the water for sustainability
Infrastructure emerged as a winner in the federal government’s big-spending 2020-21 budget and now the hard part: making sure these “nation-building” projects are sustainable. Money is flowing into the built environment, with the government’s “JobMaker Plan” including an increase to the government’s infrastructure investment pipeline by $10 billion to $110 billion over 10 years. The […]
Still house hunting after budget 2020
More than $5 billion was poured into social housing after the GFC and most economists supported the tactic for its propensity to boost jobs and stimulate the economy. This time round funding for social housing was a glaring omission from the federal government’s Covid-recovery 2020 budget. The sector wasn’t ignored completely: an extra $1 billion […]
Nightingale Housing lands in Adelaide
The Nightingale model for sustainable housing that started in Melbourne has spread its wings to Adelaide. While details are still scant, the announcement from Nightingale Housing identified Adelaide as a “place in which it is easy to imagine a Nightingale community flourishing.” “Adelaide’s commitments to renewable power and carbon neutrality, its diverse affordable housing initiatives […]
Covid a wakeup call for energy guzzling health and research facilities
Energy efficiency and diversification are two major opportunities for health and research facilities looking to save money and attract investment. Air quality is of utmost importance for health and research facilities to protect people from bacteria, viruses, chemicals and other nasty contaminants. But keeping all that fresh air pumping through the HVAC system comes at […]
What we did during lock down… according to our “digital chatter”
Interest in the great outdoors has spiked dramatically in Australia’s capital cities due to Covid restrictions. Recently released data from urban planning data analytics company Neighbourlytics shows that while online engagement – measured “digital chatter” across various different online platforms – with parks and other natural spaces increased across the CBDs in Brisbane, Melbourne and […]
Why Nightingale and Fresh Hope’s low carbon, affordable rental development in Marrickville has stalled
Many a beautiful old building has been lost to money-grabbing developers but what happens when heritage stands in the way of sustainable, community-oriented needs-based housing in the inner city? That’s where things get complicated.
Built and Nuveen fuse old with new for Sydney CBD office tower
Until a few years ago, two industrial heritage buildings in the middle of Sydney’s CBD sat unused for 20 years because no developer was brave enough to touch the tricky infill site. Building and construction company Built has risen to the challenge, on Wednesday topping out an eye-catching glass “bubble” atop the two existing buildings, […]
Consulting giants targeting net zero but is it enough?
On Tuesday, KPMG Australia’s head of oil & gas Jonathon Peacock sent out strong note of support for the government’s gas plans announced that day, despite widespread criticism on environmental and economic grounds. So how is the rest of the company thinking on climate change? And what about the other giants of consulting that make […]
Unlocking the potential of net zero precincts
EXCLUSIVE: Net zero precincts have lots of barriers: complex governance challenges and disincentives among them, a soon-to-be-released federal government report says.
HIP V. HYPE snags Passive House expert Clare Parry to grow sustainable buildings team
Clare Parry moves to HIP V. HYPE with eyes on growth. Passive House super star Clare Parry has joined HIP V. HYPE to bolster the integrated sustainability company’s technical capability. The job, as better buildings lead, is an opportunity to “dial up the pressure on sustainable buildings”, Ms Parry told The Fifth Estate on Tuesday. […]
Fender Katsalidis: on joining up two Brisbane office buildings
In an impressive engineering exercise, two office buildings in Brisbane were recently stitched together, maintaining much of the existing fabric while creating expansive floor plates for prospective tenants. It was challenging for the architects, Fender Katsalidis, and for the engineers Inertia Engineering. But the results will be a more sustainable product.
The thermal energy brick that promises to end our grid stability woes
Storage remains the pain point in the renewables transition so it’s no surprise a cheap, clean and scalable energy storage technology invented by Australian scientists is attracting attention. Researchers from the University of Newcastle have been developing the energy storage technology called “miscibility gap alloy” for nine years and are now scaling it up for […]
Haystack solar garden could spur a solar gardening revolution in Australia
Community solar group Pingala has teamed up with the Community Power Agency and Komo Energy on Australia’s first major offsite solar garden project. And there could be more if we can overcome the financial hurdles such as lumping solar co-operatives in with corporate investment schemes. Common in the US and parts of Europe, solar gardens […]
Conrad Gargett and McConnel Smith & Johnson join forces
There’s still a sense of wait-and-see hanging over the built environment industry due to Covid but that hasn’t stopped two major architecture firms going ahead with a merger. After a M&A discussions that started well over a year ago, Conrad Gargett and McConnel Smith & Johnson have decided to join forces. The merger will bring […]
How Indigenous enterprises are negotiating free trade agreements
Darren Godwell is changing the game for Indigenous businesses with the new Indigenous Network for Investment, Trade and Export (IgNITE).
CEFC backs last mile delivery e-bikes amid a booming market
Covid has already accelerated the electric bike boom in Australia and now the Clean Energy Finance Corporation is backing the micromobility option to decarbonise last mile delivery.
Flow Systems is back in action and growing fast
Flow Systems has recruited around 10 people in the last six months and has plans to hire around another 10 in the coming months to join the team of 80 to 90 people. The recruitment drive is to help the company cope with an influx of work providing embedded energy systems, mainly in Queensland but […]
Why NSW’s BASIX tool needs some love
FEATURE: NSW has historically trod its own path to regulate the sustainability standards of its homes