Mass Timber Central also opens
Vistek Structural Engineers will open its Mass Timber Central hub on 16 April, as the nation’s first dedicated space that allows architects, engineers, developers and builders to gain hands on experience with engineered timber systems and technologies of modern timber buildings. The hub is at 8 Bank Place in Melbourne.
Vistek said it wanted to address knowledge gaps, saying most project teams encounter mass timber systems for the first time under the pressure of a live project.
There was growing industry demand to learn about mass timber builds to reduce embodied carbon in buildings, the company said.
HDR builds a factory of the future
Western Sydney University’s newly opened Factory of the Future is an educational facility that teaches and implements advanced technology, applied research, and workforce practices in a collaborative space. Professional services firm HDR said it had managed to transform a complex and technical brief into a “coherent, intuitive and inspiring” learning space through its fit-out.
The facility, based in the university’s Bankstown campus, had constraints of having an irregular floor plate and a vertical campus.
In response, the design follows a circular spatial “logic” inspired by Bankstown’s industrial and aeronautical heritage. Between the two levels, students are taken on a “choreographed” journey towards the project’s centrepiece, an 8.6-metre kinetic, propeller-like installation prototyped and fabricated locally.
Veolia acquisition strengthens PFAS treatment offering
Environmental services company Veolia has acquired Enviropacific, part of Next Capital’s portfolio, which specialises in water treatment and hazardous waste management.
The newly acquired firm has nearly 300 employees and reported a FY25 financial turnover of $250 million. The company said the acquisition will strengthen its offerings in treating PFAS, especially with the contamination with soil remediation.
Public consultation open to update waste management criteria
The Climate Bonds Initiative is opening a consultation to update its waste management criteria, saying there are significant opportunities in reducing emissions through improving waste management systems. Especially when “open dumping and burning remain widespread practices”.
It hopes the revised criteria will “strengthen the role of sustainable waste management in mitigating climate change, particularly by addressing methane emissions, one of the most potent greenhouse gases”. Submit your feedback here.
New study finds certain food drives more deforestation
New research out of Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology finds that food staples such as maize, rice and cassava are driving more deforestation than the major export oriented crops like cocoa, coffee and rubber.
Leading author of the new study, Chandrakant Singh, has developed a Deforestation Driver and Carbon Emissions (DeDuCE) model to do the most comprehensive global survey of how different commodities cause deforestation using extensive satellite data on land use.
The research covers 179 countries and 184 commodities and shows that a total of 22 million hectares of forest have disappeared due to agriculture-driven deforestation during the period 2001–2022. More than 80 per cent of this was lost in the tropics. Other widely known deforestation culprits include beef, soybeans and palm oil. See the full dashboard here.
Jobs
Singaporean headquartered property conglomerate Frasers Property Limited has appointed Tony Lombardo as its group chief operating officer, starting 1 October.
Lombardo hails from Lendlease and leaves the role as chief executive after 18 years with the company. The surprise announcement came three months after he said he would still be “delivering results in financial year 28 and onwards”.
Foresight Consulting Group has appointed William Birrell as an associate director. Birrell had been the principal consultant at Pangolin Associates before his new appointment.
He was principal for climate change at both Newmont Corporation and Newcrest Mining and held several other roles at EY over more than 15 years, including as executive director for transaction support.