Over the past year, conservative politicians in both Australia and the United States have been making noise. And the noise, increasingly, is this: sustainability has gone too far! Regulations are burdensome. Scope 3 emissions accounting is a bureaucratic noose. Climate-related disclosures are “woke finance.” Net zero? All but impossible.The message, ...

Architect Kellie Payne has recently designed an aquatic centre for a girls’ school that as a priority brings into play the notion of embedding good social habits from an early age, through careful and sensitive design.It’s one of the examples that Payne, director of Bates Smart will use to illustrate her  thinking on how design principles around our ...

Pliny the Elder’s 37 volume Naturalis Historia is the largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire. It includes a description of the importance of Roman cement’s property of setting under water, especially useful for building ports.“As soon as it is in contact with the waves of the sea and is submerged, it becomes a single stone, ...

There’s a whole science to the art of creating a strong brand impact at the best of times. In a world that’s challenged by tough business conditions, if you’re trying to push out a green product or service, you need to hit the right mark the first time.Michael Scott, director of creative and brand strategy at Velorum agency, is well aware that ...

Whatever damage the US inflicts on the rest of the world the good news is it’s shaking us all out of our complacency.Because we’ve become complacent. Perhaps for some there’s been a loss of optimism. Finding out we’ve breached our 1.5 degree warming limit will do that. Or it’s exhaustion afte the mad euphoria of getting out of Covid and our version of ...

There are probably a lot of things that excite Amanda Steele in her role as group executive and head of property for ISPT but the one she singles out as a favourite is the retrofit of the company’s major office building at 500 Bourke Street in Melbourne.In a candid interview for The Fifth Estate’s podcast How to Build a Better World, Steele says the ...

Amidst geopolitical turmoil and accelerating climate change impacts, it’s time to team up with our neighbours and take action to ensure that food security, energy security, and sustainable development are both a commercial opportunity and a diplomatic imperative, according to director of the Institute of Integrated Economics Research, Neil Greet.A ...

While some parts of the development industry push back at the idea of increasing energy efficiency requirements for new homes on the basis of cost, a Western Australia architect demonstrates that dialling up specifications for net zero is do-able and affordable. And he’s now offering his plans online for others.<img data-recalc-dims="1" ...

Australian manufacturing businesses must act together and create advanced high-tech products and services to compete in global marketplaces. A new global order is emerging – the question is, does Australia have the political courage and intellectual policy nous to deal with it?After decades of local procurement policies from the Northwest shelf to ...