Great achievement, sorry it’s going towards coal
There’s a cruel irony here – the Port of Newcastle has achieved a score of 100 per cent in the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) as well as maintained its 5 star rating for the fifth consecutive year. Bad luck, these sustainability achievements are used in great part to ship coal. In fact, Transport for NSW says it remains Australia’s largest terminal for coal exports. A 2019 report said the coal export represented 96 per cent of its trade in 2016/17 and was apparently estimated to be 80 per cent of mineral production in NSW.
It doesn’t seem numbers are slowing down, with Transport for NSW’s monthly export records showing that in the month of January 2026, coal exports sit at 12.728 million tonnes from a total export of 13.065 million.
Despite all this, the port will still pat itself on the back for “making sustainability not just part of our culture but the broader port supply chain”. The port’s chief executive, Craig Carmody, and perhaps chief back patter, said it was impressive that the port has gone from a score of 40 in its first GRESB rating in 2019 to 100 six years later.
And to rub salt into our sustainability wounds, he points to the port importing “30,000 expected wind farm components which will be the cornerstone of NSW’s clean energy transformation over the next decade.”
And also, it wants to “establish biodiversity targets and strive to be nature positive” against the Taskforce for Nature-Related Financial Disclosures scheme.
Well, bad news. After a quick AI search, it seems the port’s exports of coal in January alone are equivalent to more than 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions (assuming it’s “common mixed” coal), which is equivalent to the annual energy use of about 4 million average homes. We’re interested to see what’s next: will the port offset all the damage it will be doing to the Earth in its pursuit of nature positive?
Kmart achieves 100 per cent renewable
In somewhat counter news to the depressing story above, retail giant Kmart has flagged that it achieved 100 per cent renewable electricity across its entire operation across Australia.
This includes 448 Kmart and Target stores, 10 distribution centres and 12 national and international offices – which are now covered by either on-site solar or power purchasing agreements (PPA) with renewable sources off-site.
Those offering PPAs to the retailer include the New England Solar Farm in NSW, Numurkah Solar Farm in Victoria, Tailem Bend 2 Solar Farm in South Australia, and Western Downs Green Power Hub in Queensland.
There are also unbundled (separate from their energy retailer) large-scale generation certificates bought and surrendered to match energy consumed for sites owned by landlords where renewables are not offered.
The retailer announced the celebrated the occasion at its Western Australian distribution centre at Jandakot, 21 kilometres south of Perth CBD, where Climate Change and Energy Assistant Minister Josh Wilson joined the occasion. It said it was a key milestone in its goal to reach net zero emissions by 2030.
What we’re reading
The federal government’s bid to sell off 67 Defence sites, including some upmarket suburbs in Sydney and Melbourne, has attracted a private equity bid of $5 billion to buy the lot. The portfolio includes prime development land, disused barracks, golf courses and a vacant island in Sydney Harbour. But the government was not impressed and rejected the bid, according to The AFR this week, because it found the firm “not credible” after reviewing its financial history and the apparent lack of capacity to raise $5 billion mooted.
The firm in question remain nameless; so too an anonymous government source saying the firm was a “smaller player” rather than a global heavyweight. And according to the talk among the Sydney property world this week said it would indeed take nothing less than a behemoth to undertake development of the lot.
Certainly, an outfit bigger than development companies led by Nigel Satterley and Tim Gurner who put up their hands.
In Sydney, many rue the day that Barangaroo was handed to a single developer, Lendlease, saying a mix of developers with a variety of designs and goals would have created a more organic or authentic outcome, but others say the corporate feel and vibrant restaurants work just fine.
Whatever path the government takes, to be led by Department of Finance, these are prime opportunities that need to be carefully considered. A rising call is for the sites to be used in large part for affordable housing.
Defence Minister Richard Marles announced the decision to sell off the portfolio after an independent audit found it had little strategic value to the government. And what could be more strategic infrastructure than housing?
New appointments
Rewiring Australia has appointed a new communications director, Julia Timms, formerly with the Victor Chang Institute.
Also new global advocacy director for Solar Citizens, with a focus on Asia Pacific, is Kate Lee, a human rights and social justice campaigner who led the Australian union movement’s international development organisation, Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA, for 12 years.
In her farewell to colleagues, Lee noted the organisation’s role in Palestine and Myanmar in particular, but also its work in Samoa, the Philippines, Cambodia, Gaza, Vietnam, Laos, Lebanon, Nepal, India and Indonesia to provide “greater dignity for people at work and in their communities”.
She said she was particularly pleased with the program to rid the world of asbestos, that stretched “from a four-country campaign to now a region-wide and global force.” A misery the construction industry has deeply etched in its soul.
Lee’s successor at Union Aid is Clare Middlemas.
Property advisory firm Charter Keck Cramer is opening a Canberra office, and with it, two new appointments to its new office. Amanda Falahey has been appointed director – advisory and will lead the new office. Falahey had been a director of infrastructure and property at Scyne Advisory, and prior to that, she had been an associate director at TMX and Colliers, and a director at AF Property Consulting and Eve Property Group.
Also leaving behind his role as associate director at Scyne to join Falahey is Luke Pilkington, who will become associate director – advisory for the quantity surveyors.
He had been a real estate and infrastructure advisor at PwC Australia as well as a management consultant at KPMG Australia. Pilkinton was formerly a professional football player for the Melbourne Victory Football Club prior to his career as an advisor.