17 February 2011 – If you are an infrastructure company with few hundred staff, maybe 500, you may get a call from Chris Cole, founder and chief executive of the giant WSP global engineering group. In 2007, this UK-based company purchased local engineers Lincolne Scott, credited as one of the forerunners of the sustainable property […]

16 February 2011 – Clearwater, an urban water education program comprising project partners Melbourne Water, Municipal Association of Victoria, Department of Sustainability and Environment Victoria, and Environment Protection Authority Victoria, has re-launched its website. The site contains greater access to the program’s educational events and courses including “technical training, tours, events, advice, tools and online […]

From Springwise: 15 February 2011 – The government of North Holland is planning to install solar panels on a cycle path near the town of Krommenie, near Amsterdam. The Solaroad project has been developed by the TNO research institute alongside the Province of North Holland, the Ooms Avenhorn Group and Imtech. The design was unveiled […]

15 February 2011 – From EDIE Green jobs grew more than three times faster at 3 per cent than total employment in California  from January 2008 to 2009.  According to research from Next 10 between 1995 and 2009, the renewable energy generation sector created the most jobs in California’s green economy, adding nearly 20,000 jobs […]

From EDIE: 15 February 2011 – Germany is ahead of the UK in green business growth, research by The Carbon Trust has shown.  The Carbon Trust found that while 92 per cent of UK businesses acknowledge the opportunities of green growth only a third are actually investing money in the research and development of green […]

15 February 2011 – Investa has embarked on a project to unravel the secrets of optimal indoor air temperature by tracking the “shirt-to-jacket” ratio of tenants in three major Sydney CBD buildings. In a post recorded on the company Green Buildings Alive website, Investa said that most large office buildings try to keep internal air […]

17 February 2011 – Australia’s councils are perhaps the most ignorant and contemptuous of indigenous culture of any part of our society. Councils manifest their damaged psyche unintentionally in their development approvals every week. They’re unaware of what they say and do.

14 February 2011 – A new US based report on the benefits of green office space  has found that green building movement is growing and that the economic and environmental benefits have started to drive the decision-making by industry leaders. The report Do Green Buildings Make Dollars & Sense?, from CB Richard Ellis in conjunction […]

Julieanne McIntyre ASBEC and PCA 22 December 2010 – Julieanne McIntyre is leaving her position as executive officer of the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council after being lured to the Property Council as senior manager, policy and regulatory affairs. The Sydney- based role is essentially to replace Paul Waterhouse after his 10 year stint in […]

16 February 2011 – Lloyd Alter, writing in Treehugger asks an increasingly common question in an article it posted this week: what is a green building? Does inclusion of a feature such as green roof qualify? What if the building required intensive excavation and concrete use? In the case of a design by Tom Kundig […]

15 February 2011 – Australia’s first five star Green Star social housing project in Sydney’s inner west suburb of Lilyfield was officially launched this week by NSW Minister for Housing Frank Terenzini and Member for Balmain Verity Firth. The star rating made the $29.5million project of 88 architecturally–designed units “the greenest social housing project in […]

10 February 2011 –The federal government today launched its promised Climate Commission, appointing leading scientist and climate change activist Tim Flannery as its chief commissioner. It has given the commission wide power to comment on climate matters, but not on policy. Nor will it be able to provide policy advice. “The commission will not comment […]

By Tina Perinotto 10 February 2011 – Salaries for environmental professionals in top listed companies have surged ahead of those of their peers in the safety sector by a massive 25 per cent, according to the latest 2011 SafeSearch and EnviroSearchGlobal annual salary survey released yesterday (Wednesday). Average salary for a head of environment role […]

11 May 2011 – Case study: Sydney’s RPAH Medical Centre has dramatically increased its NABERS zero star rating two years ago to four – delivering an overall 40 per cent reduction in energy use, a 20 per cent reduction in water consumption and cut annual carbon emissions by more than 50 tonnes. This result was […]

9 February 2011 – Australia is way off course on its hopes to cut greenhouse gas emissions, making a carbon price and other measures essential, Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Greg Combet said on Wednesday, in response to a new report.

9 February 2011 – The Erina Fair shopping Centre on the NSW Central Coast has installed a world first on-site compost system in its bid to improve sustainable outcomes. According to owners Lend Lease and GPT and manager Australian Prime Property Fund Retail, the composting system for waste food products, aptly named Hungry Pig® in-vessel […]

8 February 2011 – The Green Building Council of Australia has awarded four green building fellowships to industry leaders. Grocon chief executive officer Daniel Grollo and Property Council of Australia chief executive officer Peter Verwer have both been appointed life fellows of the GBCA. Stockland managing director Matthew Quinn and ISPT chief executive officer Daryl […]

9 February 2011 –  Grattan Institute chief executive officer John Daley said at a Roads Australia pricing  forum on 31 January that there were many benefits to congestion pricing, including: that congestion imposes large economic costs; congestion pricing could substitute for current fuel excise revenue, and the technology solutions are becoming cheaper The social costs […]

8 February 2011 – The Australian Conservation Foundation this week released a fact sheet with comments from leading scientists on climate change. “While no individual weather event can be directly attributed to climate change alone, increases in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events is exactly what climate scientists have predicted for decades,” the […]

6 April – Case study: Energy management software company BuildingIQ claims it has reduced energy costs by up to 30 per cent daily in total base building energy in a trial during event days in the historic Perth Council House The company said it achieved an overall 12 per cent reduction during the trial and […]

4 February 2011 – The Australian property industry has the power to radically transform itself and society, both here and overseas, says leading sustainability design consultant, Simon Wild.

3 February 2011 – Adapting to floods, bushfires, and cyclones will not be cheap. Engineers say infrastructure cannot be made totally invulnerable, only resilient. But that will add to the cost. In the wake of extreme weather events, property may well become more expensive, at least in the short term. Peter Williams, managing director of […]

From CNN: 3 February 2011 – Could a floating dome that can house up to 10,000 people be a model for future living? Russian architect Alexander Remizov thinks so — and his prototype design, called “The Ark,” bears more than a passing resemblance to the classic children’s toy, the Slinky. Remizov believes his Ark, designed […]

2 February 2011 – What has growing native pastures and weeds and trees on farms got to do with soil, carbon, governments, red tape, scientists and a tree-planting non-government body called Landcare? Let me tell you a couple of stories from some farmers I know, and how they grow plants, trees and soil.  I call […]

1 February 2011 – Global action is not going to stop climate change, wrote The Economist on 25 November last year. The world needs to look harder at how to live with it. From The Economist –On November 29th representatives of countries from around the world will gather in Cancún, Mexico, for the first high-level […]

From The Age: 1 February 2011 – From Urbanisation, climate change and globalisation are leading to more and bigger catastrophes. THE floods that ravaged Queensland and Victoria are a warning for businesses to overhaul their risk-management strategies. They are events that tell us we are now in a very different world. See Leon Gettler’s special […]

1 February 2011 – South Africa’s task at the 17th UN conference of the parties on climate change in November, 2011 is both “appealing and unenviable” judging by the results at the Cancun, Mexico, COP, according to a Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu report. The report on the Cancun conference from 29 November to 10 December 2010 […]

By Michael Purtell Letter: 31 January 2011 – Well here I am – it has been nearly 12 months now since the Green Loans Scheme fell over, or should I say literally crashed – and now that the Green Start housing program has also been scrapped,  household sustainability assessors wait to see what emerges that […]

28 January 2011 – The Australian Green Infrastructure Council has asked for reader views on how the sustainability rating tool currently being developed can be described and branded and has offered a survey to assist. Chief exective officer Doug Harland said that the rating tool was part of the national sustainability rating scheme for infrastructure. […]