RMIT’s new institute
RMIT’s new Regenerative Futures Institute (RFI) has been designed to combat worsening social and environmental pressures and address the growing demand for expertise in electrification, climate technology, circular systems, and ethical business models. The institute said the initiative will break down academic silos, close skills gaps, and drive systemic change across Australia.
To expand training capacity, the institute is introducing an undergraduate minor alongside adult short courses covering artificial intelligence ethics and systems thinking. According to organisation plans, the initiative will expand by late 2026 to include postgraduate programs, cross-disciplinary research projects, and public industry events aimed at developing collaborative environmental solutions between government and the private sector.
Macquarie faces shareholder revolt over fossil fuel surge
Macquarie Group’s retreat over its climate commitments triggered a major shareholder backlash led by Market Forces and Australian Ethical in recent times, and now BHP has also been found to be in retreat over its renewable commitment.
Despite a 35 per cent investor vote for stronger climate disclosures at its 2025 AGM, Macquarie has tripled its oil and gas funding over the past four years. This surge has propelled the company past three of Australia’s “Big Four” banks to become the nation’s second-largest fossil fuel lender, a shift highlighted by its decision to abandon its no-coal policy to back Whitehaven Coal.
Investors are demanding transparency over Macquarie’s heavy financing of gas fracking in the Beetaloo Basin. With projected lifetime emissions exceeding 1 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent, critics argue that bankrolling these long-term fossil fuel expansions directly contradicts the bank’s commitment to the Paris Agreement.
Meanwhile, an article in The Guardian, citing research it had undertaken with the ABC’s Four Corners program on Monday, revealed that BHP downgraded its former urgency to source renewables. The urgency had “diminished”, the article said, citing documents to hand, with “BHP now claiming the plan it had devised to hit net zero in the Pilbara by 2050 had a ‘low probability of success’.
“To preserve optionality … alternate pathway decisions have been preserved and will continue to be assessed.”
A scenario canvassed by the company cited the option to do nothing.
BHP told The Guardian it had “already made huge strides in reducing emissions by 36 per cent from 2020 levels by 2025 and pointed to analysis suggesting it is the second best performer on emission reductions among Australia’s largest listed industrial companies.”
Built environment sector is stalling
More bad news. A new United Nations Environment Programme and Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction report reveal that to meet net-zero targets by 2030, governments must enforce stricter building codes and close a massive $US3.6 trillion ($A5.02 trillion) investment gap in building efficiency. The blame could be sheeted home to weak policies, rather than the lack of technology. Rapid urban construction simply adds to the problem in a sector that still drives 37 per cent of global emissions.
Momentum is also stalling because the green transition is not keeping pace with construction. Clean energy adoption remains far too slow, with renewables meeting just 17.3 per cent of global building energy needs in 2024.
The good news is that energy efficiency works and has at least slowed the growth in demand, to about 11 per cent, while floor space grew at 20 per cent over the past decade.
Government budgets designed for blowouts
Consult Australia has confirmed what many of us suspected – that infrastructure plans are badly budgeted, with billions of dollars in extra costs locked in before construction starts, thanks to governments rushing to announce projects that have incomplete plans, unrealistic timelines, and risks that are not correctly identified.
This systemic failure recently forced the government to scale back the Inland Rail project after its budget skyrocketed past $45 billion.
It’s time to stop blaming construction crews for overruns, the report said.
David Chandler says we need national leadership at least on the NCC
Former NSW building commissioner David Chandler keeps chipping away at ways to improve construction in NSW. There were now new challenges to grapple with, he said in a social media post.
First was a cost of delivery crisis.
“Irrespective of who is funding a new project, be it a home, public or private infrastructure, the cost of construction is making projects unfeasible and their debt balloon.”
The industry’s productivity has declined over the past 25 years, and its practices were unsustainable, he said. Its contribution to the economy is undermeasured, and its importance is undervalued, despite all traded goods and services passing through or over the industry, and it provides shelter to citizens.
But compared to the rest of the Indo-Pacific, Australia’s National Construction Code was being affected by its inconsistent uptake by states and territories. National leadership is needed to turn it around, Chandler said.
“Just as Australia is now feeling the impact of having exported our fuel industry before the current global crisis, the construction industry’s judgment day has arrived.”
What we’re reading
Electric ferries for NSW, but are they really better?
NSW has become the latest state to join the race for electric ferries, flagging a $49.6 million investment into seven Australian built ferries modelled on the existing models on the Parramatta River. A trial route has been flagged between Barangaroo and the new Sydney Fish Market.
But The Mandarin found that expanding the state’s mass transit charging infrastructure would mean facing grid capacity challenges. Electrifying the ferry routes may undermine the government’s own efforts to wean off fuels like diesel, and the government would be forced to compete against private industry to secure preferential fuel pricing and renewable energy.
The government secured a $1.9 billion contract with Snowy Hydro earlier this year to supply renewable energy to the state’s public transport operations, which would include the ferries.
UK developer and consultants face court over fatal window fall
In 2018, a window pane fell from The Corniche towers in London, killing a man. And now architects Forster + Partners, developers St James Group, contractor Lindner Prater, and engineering consultant Wintech are facing health and safety charges at the Inner London Crown Court in July for exposing the people to the health and safety risk of the “outward opening penthouse window vents”. More on the BBC.
