In the almost 10 years since we launched with The Fifth Estate we’ve learnt three important things about offices, the topic we covered at our event in Brisbane on 27…

Our world is speeding up. We have robotic construction, augmented reality, driverless cars and artificial intelligence. There are new materials invented on an almost daily basis promising better performance and…

This isn’t an easy call to make because all of our books are very special and become industry guides, downloaded over and over, but I’m sure our Healthy Offices book…

The world is embarking on a momentous transition. We saw it declared in Paris at the end of 2015 – an historic agreement signed to limit global warming to well…

In 2015 when CSIRO produced its seminal global megatrends report, Our Future World, its number one item was “more from less”.

Emissions from the information and communications technology (ICT) sector are growing rapidly, with recent studies suggesting the sector currently comprises around two per cent of global emissions, with the figure…

If you want to know what’s happening in the world of digital technology for buildings, you would be hard-pressed to go past the four speakers who shared their knowledge and…

It was an opportunity too good to miss. Early in 2015, I interviewed Sean Kidney, chief executive of the Climate Bonds Initiative, during his visit to Australia. The man was…

They jumped up on the soapboxes, they jostled to grab their moment with the mic. It was an event organiser’s dream.

What an amazing journey this book has been for us, charting the way to greater tenant and landlord happiness.

We started this ebook in late July with a salon to thrash out the key issues around creating sustainable precincts.

In November last year we kicked off the most exciting of projects, Greening the West. With the help of our fantastic co-lead sponsors Leighton Properties and LandCorp, supporting sponsors NDY,…

Okay, so life is ticking along nicely and you’ve both settled into a routine, but somehow there’s something missing from the relationship. You just don’t seem to talk much. It’s…

By Lynne Blundell

20 May 2014 — A new tenant is moving in, so it’s in with the new and out with the old. And it’s not just the tenant we’re talking about – the office fittings are most likely going the same way.

More often than not they’ll end up in landfill at great expense to all involved, not to mention the environment. Oh, and our health, if there are any undesirable substances in the fittings that might leach into the soil, air and water.

If you need to source cheaper and more low carbon electricity for your organisation – or want to understand more about this increasingly critical part of the sustainability landscape  –…

18 December 2013 — On 7 November 2013, The Fifth Estate, with the help of our sponsors, hosted the Sustainability Salon for Perth and Western Australia.

Our objective was to better understand how Perth and WA could transform the benefits of one of the most extraordinary resources booms in Australia’s history into something truly valuable and enduring – in other words, sustainable.

It’s clear the west has a golden opportunity to achieve whatever it wants.

The state still contains a store of natural resources that is the envy of the world and will contribute to the nation for years to come.

The opportunity is for Perth to become a vibrant global hub. One that could transpose the wealth coming from resources into more complex economic and social fabric. The potential is to carve a great future for its people, including the huge numbers still arriving at the rate of 1000 people a week, bringing with them demands for housing, services and a hunger for social and economic rewards.

By Tina Perinotto

10 October 2013 — Introducing Chapter 4 of The Tenants and Landlords Guide to Happiness, a guide to best practice and green leasing.

Wow, this is the really scary bit. The heads of agreement stage. It’s the iconic visual image we all have of the lawyers striding through the city, wigs and gowns flying in the wind. Where are they going? Whose lives or business are they about to poke and prod for their individual pleasure?

By Tina Perinotto

4 September 2013 — We love this chapter three. And not just because it rhymes with the birds and the bees, but because this is about “Getting Together”.

You’ve assessed the old talent (office) and done some sums – financial and metaphorical – and decided to move on.

Now it’s time to consider all the other options.
What this chapter does is brings to the foreground the sometimes subtle but more often powerful influences that come to play from “other parties”. The third parties that somehow create the glue that binds, or the influences that slides the deal asunder.

By Tina Perinotto

7 August 2013 — Well, you and the relationship are doing just fine. There you are, happy landlord, and there’s the tenant, plugging away at their business. Suddenly, before anyone can say boo, it’s lease renegotiation time. Up comes that little bit of paper you both signed at the start of this commitment and in it was the review period. Just like real life, when you think about it. Except perhaps a little more organised and planned.

3 July 2013 — The Fifth Estate is proud to release the first chapter of our latest exciting e-book, The Tenants & Landlords Guide to Happiness, a guide to best practice and green leasing.

It’s a gift to the landlords and tenants of Australia from The Fifth Estate in collaboration with Sydney’s Better Buildings Partnership.

To bring this book together our teams have tapped the best experts on all sides of the tenant and landlord fence, the people whose job it is to understand what’s less than ideal and how to fix it.

18 July 2013 — In The Fifth Estate‘s latest e-book, The Tenants and Landlords Guide to Happiness, industry leaders shared their views on how the resistance to best practice leasing…

19 October 2012 : It’s not often you get to have dinner with the political and business leaders who are most influential on the green property agenda. In late September…

FAVOURITES: The transformation of GPT Group’s offices in the 33 year old Harry Seidler designed MLC building achieved a six star Green Star rating and a modern workplace that set…

2 May 2012 – As poet William Yeats once said “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”