Architecture’s big responsibility on climate
The Fifth Estate asked architect Shaun Carter and Australian Institute of Architects chief executive Julia Cambage what 2021 is likely to bring.
climate emergency
Foster + Partners signs out of Architects Declare – but what does it mean?
What’s good enough action when the planet is facing a climate emergency?
Things we can learn from Covid-19 to help with the climate emergency
The Covid-19 pandemic and climate change are both worldwide emergencies and remind us we are all sharing one planet, dependant so tightly upon one another in a fragile network of threads.
Hot desking in heatwaves: The workplace in a climate emergency
As global average temperatures continue to rise with increasingly disastrous effects, Sydney-based architect Don Albert considers where and how Australians will work in the future, by re-examining the past.
Futurebuild showcases the technology; we just need the will and the finance
This year’s Futurebuild expo at the ExCel Centre in London was packed with over 450 exhibitors and thousands of visitors coming together under the slogan “Responding to the emergency”. There’s no longer any doubt about the need to go net zero; the effort centres on how to get there.
OK Gen X (and where the bloody hell are you?)
The most critically important place to do something is the workplace. Workplaces are the new village. They are one of the few institutions we still trust. And it’s time to look at Gen X for action.
Q&A: There’s more to green architecture than greenery
The manmade world tends to dominate the natural one but it’s possible for architecture and ecology to coexist in harmony. In fact, it urgently has to, as Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarship recipient Eleanor Peres discovered as she travelled the world last year to write a research report on this very subject.
Why we must pull financial levers to build for a changing climate
Climate change is expensive business. The recent bushfires are estimated to have cost Australia $100 billion – so far. The big hailstorm that struck NSW and the ACT in January cost around $1.36 billion.
First National Climate Emergency Summit gathers the big names along with anger, hope and mobilisation
Speakers at the first-ever National Climate Emergency Summit came from all walks of life and industries that just a few years ago, you’d have been surprised to see at such an event.
Meet the cities working towards zero carbon construction
Cities in Europe and North America are shifting public procurement, green finance and community engagement to meet the demands of the climate emergency.
Australia’s super companies excuse their positions behind enemy lines
Major Australian super funds are not walking the talk on climate action, with news emerging this week that Cbus, UniSuper, Hostplus, HESTA and AustralianSuper are all pouring billions into fossil fuel companies.
So you’ve declared a climate emergency? Now architects need to walk the talk
Every Australian (and many people beyond) are now feeling the fear that Greta enunciated just one year ago in her speech at Davos. Much to the surprise of the hopeful, hope has not delivered so let’s assume we need to actually do something now. After all, if not now, then when?
On why Adam Bandt is a man for the times
News from the front desk on Friday (part II) – Richard Di Natale was right for the times; Adam Bandt is right for now. Newscorp calls Bandt the Greens “attack dog”.
NSW can have water or fossil fuels but not both
SAVING WATER, summer series:Decisions to push ahead with coal and coal seam gas (CSG) projects in NSW and Queensland are entirely at odds with ensuring good management of water supplies and reducing carbon emissions.
EU “green list” could be a game changer for international investments
The Fifth Estate talks to Sean Kidney of Climate Bonds Initiative about a green list of economic activity being adopted by the European Parliament that could put the kibosh on unsustainable developments, such as new coal mines, by tackling demand rather than supply.
Calls to open national parks to logging post bushfires are wrong
OXYGEN FILES: Opening our national parks to logging, in the wake of the damage done to the timber industry by this season’s bushfires, doesn’t offer anyone a long-term solution.
Renewables in the NCC, NSW bushfire rebuild, Adelaide heat waves, and more
GREEN GIGS: Australia’s heating climate is providing opportunities for suppliers who can think outside the traditional building box.
What we can learn about community resilience
Communities in Australia and California share connected experiences as they face climate-related threats, especially fire. Different continents, connected climates, same challenges. Here are view from two people who had close contact with recent fires in California and Australia. Richard Mullane: As an Australian living in California, it’s heartbreaking to watch the devastating bushfires from afar. […]
Business thinking has changed as temperature rises on climate change-related risk
The Australian government has been accused of – literally – fiddling while the country burns but there has been a sea change in attitude among business leaders and investors, who are fast coming to grips with climate change.
A letter to my unborn child about climate change
Just days before my first child was born, I escaped apocalyptic scenes in Sydney to return home, with the country’s biggest city blanketed in thick red smoke from out-of-control bushfires.
Smoke signals from the climate emergency
The smoke alarms going off across Sydney last week are a symptom of a much larger malaise: our communities and buildings are not prepared for the climate emergency. From HVAC systems and building quality through to workplace health and resourcing for organisations and workers on the frontlines of the drought and the fires, urgent action is needed to improve resilience.
Farmers, murder and the media: getting to the bottom of the city-country divide
The narrative of an urban-rural divide reared its head again in recent days, when Nationals leader Michael McCormack derided “inner-city raving lunatics” who linked the bushfire crisis to climate change.
Emergency, emergency. What are we waiting for?
There are way too many similarities between Califoria and Australia when it comes to fire risk. In the US, more than 12.7 million homes were built in the high-risk wild lands-urban interface in the 20 years to 2010 . In 2011, Australia had 3.3 million people in similar outer metropolitan fringe areas – by 2021, that will rise to about 4.5 million people
Michael Mobbs won’t pay his council rates for waste
Michael Mobbs is taking his own climate emergency action and will stop paying council garbage rates. It’s the least his local council can do if it’s serious about its climate emergency declaration, he says.
On creative accounting and why it’s always worth looking under the hood
Think we’re running out of time to save the world from catastrophic warming? Well, it seems much of the corporate world might have given up on the tight timeline needed to meet the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above preindustrial levels.
On why Mobbs is just part of the chain reaction
News from the front desk 455: Michael Mobbs, one of Sydney’s most established sustainability gurus looks like he’s thrown in the towel on hope. He might not be throwing himself down on the streets as the Extinction Rebellion (XR) protesters are, but what he is doing could be more subversive.
Where to buy property for the climate emergency
Browsing glossy property marketing and getting excited about en suites might be fun but serious investors and home buyers should consider one more thing when deciding what and where to buy: the climate emergency.
On why we’re all activists now
News from the front desk 454: What’s an activist? An activist might be a young schoolkid, sure. And because of this the climate “strike” attracted the ire of political leaders, strangely irked by the power of these children to make the world pay attention. One child in particular, Greta Thunberg, at just 16 years of […]
On why any boss who sacks staff for going on strike on Friday is a bum
It’s an indictment of Australian politics that some politicians are in a thundering state of outrage over plans for businesses and students to attend #ClimateStrike events tomorrow.
Uprooting urban tree myths in the climate emergency
Australia faces a shrinking window of opportunity to plant enough trees to help cool our cities and protect our farms, writes sustainability expert Michael Mobbs.