There’s good news for the built environment – one of Australia’s oldest and probably most well known environmental organisations, the Australian Conservation Foundation, will be paying a lot more attention to buildings and cities.
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Even better is the scale of support that the organisation can muster to argue a case. The ACF lays claims a community of around half a million people.
Since the start of this year, it’s also acquired what many would see as some serious political clout, through the appointment of Adam Bandt as its chief executive.
That’s part of the plan we discovered on Monday when we spoke to Bandt for our podcast, How to Build a Better World.
Bandt brings an approach that promises to be a departure from the perhaps more conservative methods of its past – if it’s compared to Greenpeace for instance – and one that’s been in alignment with its beginnings in 1965, in which Prince Phillip played a key role.
He has five years as leader of the Greens behind him, along with 15 years as MP in the seat of Melbourne, which he lost largely thanks to an electoral redistribution.
It’s been plenty of time to observe raw political machinations up close – the Machiavellian levers that drive the job of government, the power sources that most influence decisions, how they work and the scale of funding they call on to manipulate the agenda through media campaigns for instance.
When we meet on Zoom, the world looks like a mess.
It’s just two days after One Nation slam dunked the Farrer byelection – and the nation – putting a skewer through the ailing heart of the Liberals and vowing to come after more Liberal seats, and then Labor’s with an agenda that’s very Trumpian in its anti-climate and anti-immigration settings.
And all this against a background of a clearly failing climate, resilience issues and a cost of living crisis – or polycrisis as it’s being termed, that may only get worse as our weather, food, water, energy and now economic security falter.
The whole shebang has been blamed for a drop in support for climate issues and sustainability. Bleak indeed.
But is that the right reading?
Bandt does not agree.
For him, this is noise. People have not stopped caring about the planet; they care as much as ever but it’s in the context or a more immediate cost of living crisis.
The messaging is key
He’s upbeat about the prospects of lifting the climate and sustainability agenda to a new level.
He wants to focus on the messaging that can through the murky scenario riven with the same problems that were there even before the war in the Middle East and the rise of Trump as well.
The message needs to be one of optimism, that offers hope, he says.
What groups such as ACF are offering he says is a better future – one that delivers better environmental outcomes but that also produces cheaper energy, more comfortable and healthy houses, and maybe even free public transport that lowers pollution and reduces household bills.
Nature has always been central to the message at, he says and will continue to be.
“I mean, what do people do during summer holidays? Not that many people go and rent a high rise apartment somewhere. Most people go and spend time in nature with the people they love, because that’s what makes you feel good,” he says.
“And in this country, we actually, we do have this incredible connection with outdoors, with nature. We know that’s what makes you feel better, but that is what is under threat from climate change and from bulldozing and from the growing threats of environmental destruction and extinction.”
Connecting the dots between nature and the built environment
“One of the things that we want to do is talk about the effect that [the climate] is having on people and nature and especially focusing on things like heat stress and the like.
“When you look at the way that historically, our cities have been designed, and you look at the rigor or lack thereof on the requirements around buildings, I think you see it flow through now.”
The result is people facing impossible house prices, poor rental accommodation with the worst facilities for those with the lowest income and those who are most vulnerable.
These are the people who are “at the leading edge of dealing with things like heat stress, because they don’t have the capital to ameliorate it by investing in like high level airconditioning, for example.
“And so we’re looking for ways to say, well, let’s tie all of those [elements] together.
“What would it look like to actually have homes and other buildings designed in a way that actually make people comfortable and that reduce impact.”
“Everyone in this very wealthy country of ours should be able to have a comfortable place to call home.”
The messaging is it’s better with us
The messaging he says has to be: “hey, look, we’re the ones who are fighting for you to be able to have a good life and to continue to have a good life, and to be able to your kids to be able to swim in the river that you swam in when, or to be able to take your grandkids fishing at the same place that you went fishing.
“We need to make it clear that your life will be better if you’re part of this movement. It’s not, it’s not about making people feel like they’re not doing enough, like it’s the opposite, like this is the place to come if you want to feel better.”
But how?
Key to Bandt’s strategy, which is still being developed, is leveraging community power. Through the ACF there is already a willing army of supporters. From a recent road show around the country, he’s been hugely buoyed by the number of people turning up to offer support and ideas.
And the doors are open, he says, adding there are great programs that help volunteers make the best of their experience.
For the built environment he has an open message – send in your ideas for solutions, get involved.
