In the lead up to International Women’s Day, The National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) has released a paper exploring why so few young women are joining the construction industry. 

Co-working giant WeWork is dipping its toes into education, opening a primary school last year focused on educating children through play and interacting with their environment.

If you ask most people what the difference is between low carbon and low energy buildings they generally give you a blank stare.

The 47-level Collins Arch mixed use project on Melbourne’s Collins Street will be kitted out with high efficiency airconditioning and other low-impact technologies thanks to a $100 million investment from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

There have been more brickbats than accolades in response to the band aid solutions and ministerial tag team that has followed last week’s Opal Tower press conference.

The recent Building Ministers Forum in Hobart was noteworthy for its consistency in for declaring more red tape, more checkers checking the checkers, and avoiding any policies that would make a genuine difference.

One bright note from last week’s Building Ministers Forum was an agreement to progress work to increase the energy performance requirements for residential construction under the National Construction Code for the planned 2022 iteration.

NSW, we think, is the standout on taking action on dodgy building, but for the rest of the nation…we’re still waiting.

Clients and their consultants are at the front of the bus, in a broken industry. 

Hobart recently unveiled a “smart bin” trial that could see bins deployed across the city that can advise when they’re full and need emptying outside of the normal schedule.

The NSW state’s construction industry is out of control. We need a NSW Commission of Inquiry. And we need Rowena Orr to run it. And we need it to be state based so that the politicians and bureaucrats can’t hide behind national inquires. 

Currently, poor energy performance of buildings in Queensland, the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia means big bills, high carbon emissions and poor comfort for those who live, work or study in them. 

Opinion: It’s hard to believe that a government agency can be this ineffectual.

The recently launched Heuga platform led by the DNW Group claims is the customer-facing component of a new collaborative building model premised on off-site construction.

The City of Melbourne is undertaking a “next generation” sustainability-focused revamp of the Council House 1 site.