Posted in Green Tech

Architectural Design Making a Positive Impact on Sustainability in your Liveable City

If you are faced with the question; “Are you part of a liveable city”, would you know how to answer?

Many would consider any city that they live in as a liveable city, but what does that really mean?

The answer revolves around a few simple words that some of us are well versed with, while others are not. – sustainability, conservation, environmentally friendly, eco-friendly and carbon friendly (to name a few).

Creating a more liveable city comes down to several factors, beginning with residential and commercial designs that offer sustainable features.

Modern technology is now proving that there are new ways of building more sustainable homes, commercial offices and even shopping centres. We did some investigating around Australia and found a few architects that deserve to be praised for this kind of work.

BREATHE ARCHITECTURE – MELBOURNE

A Melbourne architectural company leads a great example by designing carbon neutral homes and commercial properties. Several architects met in December 2019 and collaborated on how to achieve carbon neutral home designs. They are now working together to achieve a more sustainable future in Australian cities.

The Design Director Jeremy McLeod, who founded the company in 2001 together with Tamara Veltre, has asked business owners to pledge that they will take their business into a carbon neutral future via an Architects Declare Architects Act movement. It’s a promise where united architects aim to take Australia into the future with new, modernised designs that will be 100% green powered, carbon audited by 30 June 2020 to ensure it’s working, and will be carbon neutral by 30 December 2020.

Visit their website and check out some of their incredible designs already achieving a carbon neutral future.

BENT ARCHITECTURE – MELBOURNE

Another Melbourne-based architectural company that needs to be praised for their outstanding sustainable work is Bent Architecture.

Established in 2003 by Directors Paul and Merran Porjazoski, they have built and designed sustainable buildings that have won a number of national and international awards, including two open design competitions (Growing Up Green Roof and Living Places Public Housing.

They have proven themselves to be leaders in both residential and commercial designs that are environmentally sustainable, and low costing.

LIVEABLE CITIES CONFERENCE: WEBINAR SERIES 2020

The list goes on with several organisations in Australia already making a positive and sustainable impact in our cities that need to be acknowledged and the Association for Sustainability in Business has been lucky enough to be secure some of the experts in the country for our new webinar series.

If you are interested on how others are successfully achieving positive sustainable results within communities, the first webinar of the Liveable Cities Conference: Webinar Series 2020 is all about sustainable design and architecture making a positive impact on the future of sustainable liveable cities.

The first webinar will be held live online on Tuesday 9th of June 2020 between 10:00am – 12:30pm. The schedule includes three successful case studies delivered by keynote speakers, showcasing how sustainability can be implemented into your liveable city through an intellectually sustainable design. Here’s two of the case studies that will be presented online in June as part of the webinar series.

GINNINDERRY PROJECT

Ms Jessica Stewart; the Sustainability Manager of the Ginninderry project will be speaking about how they have effectively advocated homes with smarter energy solutions that have allowed them to uphold their Ginnindery Green Start Communities rating by constructing sustainable dwelling which create the same or more energy than they consume.

EAST VILLAGE AT KNUTSFORD

Ms Naomi Lawrence, the Senior Development Manager at DevelopingWA, will be the second webinar speaker, delivering a presentation on the case study of the East Village at Knutsford, one of the most highly desired villages to live at in Freemantle in Perth.

The three-part webinar series is set to propel you into the future of sustainable design and several steps closer towards achieving the main goal; to improve sustainable lifestyles.

 

 

Spotlight On: GreenCareer

GreenCareer provides the latest jobs, news, conferences, events and education listings for environmental, NRM and sustainability professionals around the country.

Part of the CareerSpot suite of 18 connected information portals – we tap the active and passive jobs seekers and career professionals – placing the latest information for their industry – directly into their inbox. 

GreenCareer is part of the CareerSpot suite of industry specific jobs and information portals. With more than 150,000 subscriptions across the suite – we’re fast becoming the go to place for industry information, conferences, events, education opportunities, news and jobs.

With sites in the suite including GreenCareer, GovernmentCareer, ResearchCareer, HealthCareer, EducationCareer and ExecutiveCareer to name a few – we deliver only the information relevant to your industry – online 24/7 and via our weekly e-bulletins and daily job alerts.

By combining news and conference information with job listings – we have the ability to tap both the active and passive job seeker like no other service.

With a custom-built loading and delivery system – we have the ability to give our advertisers and subscribers a range of customised options to suite their individual needs.

So if you’re looking to keep on top of your industry – head to our home portal at www.careerspot.com.au – and check out your industry.

This article was kindly provided by GreenCareer. 

How green is our infrastructure? Helping cities assess its value for long-term liveability.

The Conversation

171115

Australian cities score high in liveability awards. Melbourne has topped The Economist’s most liveable cities ranking five years in a row, with Adelaide, Sydney and Perth not far behind and Brisbane in the top 20. Australian cities rank well in other liveability surveys, too, if not so highly. Environment is one of the key factors that these surveys measure, but the data and methods being used are not very sophisticated.

Green infrastructure is a key contributor to these rankings. The networks of green and blue – taking in rivers and streams, parks, green wedges, gardens and tree-lined roads and rail – underpin urban liveability.

Yet, if we look at these valuable assets, they are mainly historical legacies of the 19th century. They include The Domain, Treasury-Fitzroy Gardens and Royal Park in Melbourne, Hyde and Centennial Parks in Sydney, King’s Park in Perth, the Adelaide Parklands and those in Brisbane, Hobart and Canberra.

Their creation was driven mainly by visions of what a city should look like and provide for its people. This was long before the invention of cost-benefit analysis and many of the other tools used to make the economic case for infrastructure.

Future-proofing urban environments

Today, if a key parcel of land is up for development, green infrastructure is often an afterthought, if considered at all. The recent reports that the former Victorian government rezoned Fishermans Bend, a former industrial site of 455 hectares, without proper regard for grey or green infrastructure are not unique.

In an area threatened by sea-level rise, increased flooding and heat island effects, to allow development that exacerbates these issues is extremely short-sighted.

But this is happening in many localities. Changing climate and the unintended consequences of small decisions, such as urban infilling, are making cities hotter, more prone to flash-flooding and less green. Rain gardens have aesthetic and practical value as they reduce urban flooding by slowing water run-off.

Local government authorities are on the front line with these issues. They carry the major burden of responsibility for developing and maintaining neighbourhood environments. Over the last few years, some councils have considerably increased spending on park renewal, rain gardens to slow runoff, water capture and recycling and urban forest strategies.

However, this is occurring in an economic environment where local government’s resources are limited and efficiency is emphasised at every turn. State governments run on a platform of capping rates, not considering whether those rates reinvested by council generate ongoing socially beneficial returns.

When communities are asked what they want councils to invest in, green infrastructure is usually high on the list. Local government has recognised these pressures, identifying the need to build better business cases for green infrastructure projects and programs in order to justify their expenditure.

Read more.

Naomi Klein says building new nuclear power plants ‘doesn’t make sense’

News.com.au, 1 September 2015.

BUILDING new nuclear power plants to create a carbon-free world “doesn’t make sense” and just serves as a distraction from the risks, Canadian author Naomi Klein says.

The activist and author of This Changes Everything, was asked what she thought about the possibility of building a nuclear power plant in South Australia, which a Royal Commission in the state is currently considering.

Backers of nuclear power often spruik it as an alternative to renewables because it does not produce greenhouse gases, unlike coal-fired power stations.

But Klein said building new nuclear plants did not make any sense to her.

“What’s exciting about this renewables revolution spreading around the world, is that it shows us that we can power our economies without the enormous risk that we have come to accept,” she told media on Thursday.

She said the latest research showed renewables could power 100 per cent of the world’s economies.

“We can do it without those huge risks and costs associated with nuclear so why wouldn’t we?” she said.

We can achieve a carbon-free world with renewables says Canadian author Naomi Klein. Picture: Cole Bennetts/Getty Images Source: Getty Images

We can achieve a carbon-free world with renewables says Canadian author Naomi Klein. Picture: Cole Bennetts/Getty Images Source: Getty Images

While there was still debate over the timing of when renewables should be introduced, and whether existing nuclear power plants should be taken offline first, Klein said it didn’t make sense to her to build new nuclear facilities.

“People are constantly holding this promise of next generation nuclear which supposedly doesn’t have the risk of our current generation nuclear but at this point it’s notional, that’s not what’s being constructed and I think in large part that serves as a distraction from the risk associated with actual nuclear power.”

Klein said Germany was already getting 30 per cent of its daily electricity from renewables. On sunny days renewables can make up to 80 per cent.

“They’ve created … 400,000 jobs in this transition, they’ve also deepened their democracy because they have taken back control of their energy grids in hundreds of cities and towns in Germany and are able to keep the profits of energy generation and use them to pay for services,” she said.

“So this is not just about flipping the switch from one energy model to another, it’s also about changing our economy to make it fairer.

“It is true that some of the most powerful actors in our current economic system … stand to lose a lot.”

View full article here.

The ‘green-tech’ future is a flawed vision of sustainability

Original article by The Conversation August 28, 2015.

What does your vision of a sustainable future look like? Some people imagine a scenario whereby technology solves the world’s most pressing environmental problems.

In this world we all drive electric cars and have solar panels on our roofs that power our air conditioners and flat-screen televisions. We purchase “eco” products that provide all the convenience and comfort but without degrading the planet. We continue consuming and growing our economies, yet Mother Nature wins too.

But I and my colleague Josh (who co-wrote this article) would argue that this vision of sustainability is flawed, and will in fact drive greater damage to the world, its ecosystems, and us. So how has this vision come to dominate?

Why is ‘green tech’ so popular?

There seem to be three main reasons why the “green-tech” conception of sustainability is dominant.

First, it is good for business. Sustainability is presented as something we can either purchase as consumers or sell as green entrepreneurs. There is no conflict here between consumer capitalism and sustainability, so the powers that be need not feel threatened. As the sustainable design website Inhabitat declares: “Design will save the world”.

Second, the green-tech future is politically palatable. Politicians can defend their “green” credentials without questioning the affluence that consumerist cultures seem to expect and demand. From this perspective, sustainability is a great opportunity for green growth of the economy, which means that politicians do not have argue that we need to consume less.

Third, the green-tech future is less challenging for those of us who enjoy the affluent lifestyles that make such tremendous demands on natural resources. Fortunately, for all those cultures that emulate the American way of life, the dominant faith in a green-tech future means that we can enjoy consumer affluence in good conscience, knowing that it is consistent with the transition to a just and sustainable world.

To read the full article on The Conversation please click here.