10 November 2010 – It’s official, the Federal Government will open the flood gate on the next tranche of Green Building Fund money to retrofit existing buildings for greater energy efficiency. But the word is, be quick. Chances are the funds are likely to be taken up ultra quickly and Round 7 could well be […]

From Climate Spectator: 8 November 2010 – By Tony Arnel – The UN climate change meeting in Cancun in late November-December is unlikely to result in a breakthrough on a post-Kyoto climate change agreement. But as nations regroup following the Copenhagen stalemate, it could be an opportunity to re-energise international carbon trading and find some […]

Awards: NSW: 5 November 2010 – Landcom’s PRECINX sustainability rating tool for large mixed use developments  has won the President’s Award by the Planning Institute of Australia’s NSW Planning Excellence Awards, the Institute announced this week. The President’s Award also went to Clarence Valley Council’s Affordable Housing Strategy. PRECINX was developed for Landcom by sustainability […]

From the Green Building Council of Australia: 5 November 2010: The world is a step closer to a common carbon metric for buildings, with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change recognising the need for a unified approach to the reporting and measuring of carbon emissions from the global built environment.] At a UNEP […]

By Tina Perinotto 5 November 2010 – Brian Moore, Grocon’s national sustainability leader, has left the company and joined Westfield, as part of a major restructure by Grocon, which has seen the loss of 26 positions nationally and the closure or scaling down of the Sydney and Brisbane offices. Mr Moore will be design manager […]

5 November 2010 – Look with me now, if you will, at snapshots of two places where some people are seeking to use resources sustainably, one in Australia, the other in forests around the world, which are being logged for cities everywhere. Here I’ll focus on something that’s found in every project in every city […]

The Fifth Estate readers qualify for a 30 per cent discount on the $590 registration fee for the Life Cycle Thinking masterclass on life cycle assessment in Sydney on Thursday 18 November. Organisers say the day-long course is targeted to professionals in the design, product development, engineering, management, marketing, procurement and, building and service provision […]

3 November 2010 – At last Australia is getting serious about energy efficiency and climate change mitigation. On Monday, the new national Commercial Building Disclosure program came into effect, meaning that now most sellers or lessors of office space of 2000 square metres or more are required to obtain and disclose an up-to-date energy efficiency […]

3 November – A partially submerged heat exchange system planned for Sydney’s The Rocks district is expected to lower energy consumption without disturbing the heritage architecture of the area, according to the NSW Government. Part of the Harbour Heat Exchange Project, the system will provide airconditioning and refrigeration for some of Australia’s oldest buildings using […]

Brisbane Harbour By Lynne Blundell 3 November 2010 – Brett Beeson, ESD and mechanical engineer with Cundall, presented a fascinating case study of seawater cooling used for the Environmental Protection Agency’s building on the edge of Manly Harbour just out of Brisbane. (Read more about this issue in our coverage of the 2010 AIRAH conference) […]

Brief – 3 November – The University of Southern Queensland’s Australian Centre for Sustainable Business & Development will host a Boardroom Briefing Series on 22 November, looking into global trends in sustainable business, future directions of regulatory and voluntary sustainable reporting and how sustainability is changing project evaluation. Speakers will include Dr Martin Blake, formerly […]

Brief – 3 November 2010 – The Australian Solar Energy Society will join the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and solar industry leaders tomorrow in protest of the NSW Government’s decision to slash the Solar Bonus Scheme’s gross feed-in tariff. Taking place at Sydney Town Hall at 10am, the rally hopes to convey the effect that […]

The Fifth Estate posts new articles daily Top read stories for the month to 15 November 2010 are:

2 November 2010 -Try this to make you pause and think: a weird viral video campaign to make you think where your food comes from from non-profit organisation Fairfood International. It’s to support sustainable farming and to lobby multinational companies to change their production and trade methods. We’re not going to tell you any more. […]

From the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency: 1 November 2010 – The Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Mark Dreyfus, today launched the Commercial Building Disclosure program which commences today. This program is a key step in creating a more energy efficient building sector, with commercial buildings currently accounting for about […]

By Tina Perinotto 29 October 2010 – White certificates, or energy savings obligations for energy suppliers, proposed by the Prime Minister’s Task Group on Energy Efficiency will be a big winner for the property industry, according to the Property Council of Australia.

Reports – 20 July 2010 – With the initial phasing in of mandatory disclosure laws commencing in October, Global real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle has issued a report detailing all the major implications of the new laws to help commercial property owners and lessees with the transition: Mandatory Disclosure of Building Energy Efficiency […]

Warning: 30 October 2010 – It is now too late to avoid global warming of less than 2 per cent and too late to avoid “serious and pervasive ” climate change impacts that would “significantly disrupt the national economy” the federal government has said in a document released on Friday under the Freedom of Information […]

–Musings from the second and third estates on the state of NSW and the  fourth estate, and from the Fifth Estate on the above*

Favourites: 28 September 2010 –In this second article of a series of three, Anthony Szatow and George Quezada explore what new business models capable of realising value from distributed energy may look like. The final article will examine the conditions that enable innovation. Our first article gave a sense of the huge value of distributed […]

28 October 2010 – At yesterday’s annual sustainability forum held by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in Sydney, the audience heard that some residential real estate agents had noticed a price premium on house sales that had solar power. It was the same day that the NSW Government decided to slash its gross solar […]

27 October 2010 – A packed house at Sydney Town Hall on Monday 25 October heard Alan Jones, chief development officer, Energy and Climate Change for the City of Sydney, declare his aim to transform Sydney into a carbon free city reliant on 100 per cent renewable energy, in a plan that has been lauded […]

Brief – 27 October 2010 – Engineering company Parsons Brinckerhoff earlier this month launched its reconciliation action plan at the Art Gallery of NSW among some of Australia’s best indigenous art collection in the Yiribana Gallery. PB managing director Dr Jim Mantle said the RAP signalled a new level of commitment to Aboriginal and Torres […]

By Tina Perinotto and Andrew Starc 27 October 2010 – The Greens today said they would support the NSW Farmers Association’s call for a moratorium on all new coal, mineral and gas projects until a strategic plan is developed to protect food security and agricultural land. The call comes as Minister for Climate Change and […]

Brief – 27 October 2010 – CB Richard Ellis Group has been ranked 30th out of 500 US companies in the 2010 Green Rankings compiled by US magazine Newsweek. Measuring the environmental performance of the 500 largest US-based publicly traded companies, the Green Rankings are based on each company’s actual resource use and emission levels, […]

27 October 2010 – Resourced-based cities in the north west of Australia, linked to our regional neighbours and high-speed trains on the east coast could all be part of a vision for Australia, according to the new pre-policy document from the ADC Forum, majority funded by the federal government.

Brief – 27 October 2010 – Bridget Gardner of Fresh Green Clean will host the Green Cleaning Management Masterclass workshop, providing tips on how to create cleaner and healthier workplaces Taking place on 16 November, the workshop aims to help facility and contract managers, environmental and OH&S managers to understand: Key health and environmental impacts […]

Brief – 26 October 2010 – The Green Building Council of Australia has released three new simplified material calculators to help streamline Green Star submissions. The new  “Material Calculators 2.0” assess the fit-out products and materials used in a project, as part of Green Star assessment, and aim to stimulate demand for environmentally preferable fit-out […]