Joel Makower who runs Trellis in the US (previously GreenBiz) and Sydney based sustainability stalwart Bruce Precious both had some views to share about the outlook for the year ahead. Meanwhile the army wants to sell some fantastic real estate in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Imagine if these sites were made over to social and affordable ...

Rising urban heat, increasing density, declining canopy cover and fragmented governance are no longer abstract challenges – they are daily realities confronting planners, councils, designers and infrastructure leaders across the country. While ambition for greener, cooler cities is growing, policy, funding and delivery systems are struggling to keep ...

Ben Potter wrote for The Energy that the Abbott-era Emissions Reduction Fund, government policy to encourage carbon abatement projects, is undergoing a “slow and financially painful” burial. The policy involves encouraging organisations and individuals to adopt carbon abatement projects such as soil sequestration, reafforestation and vegetation ...

The Queensland government has become the latest to be sucked into the idea that housing abundance will magically solve the housing crisis. In justifying why the government was selling a swathe of vacant state owned land to the private sector, with no mandates for social housing at all, the Deputy Premier, Jarrod Bleijie, dropped lines that you’d think ...

The disability accommodation new build program is worth about $4 billion so far, dominated by a handful of big investment funds, but it needs a shakeup. Spinifex is an opinion column. If you would like to contribute, contact us to ask for a detailed brief. Sign up for our free newsletter. Since the National Disability Insurance ...

The timber debate at our Circular Disruption event on 12 November last year ran out of time. We knew it was big but didn’t anticipate the depth and breadth of arguments, nor the passion. This post is only available to members. log in or become a TFE member.

The architecture in Vienna is nothing short of stunning. This city state of just 400 square kilometres is home to beautiful baroque, gothic and neo-renaissance architecture that attracts people from all over the world. But possibly the biggest legacies the Habsburg rulers left for the city over one hundred years ago were the conditions that sparked a ...

As we enter the second month of the year, pressure for planning and direction over the next 11 months is intensifying. What are the biggest pain points that need urgent solutions? How will these deal with the turbulence on the global and national stage? Tosh Szatow of Race for 2030 reckons it’s with a perfunctory nod and back to work. Sign up ...

The Australian government’s Net Zero Plan sets an ambitious pathway to cut emissions. While it centres on renewables, land sinks, and hard-to-abate sectors, it points to biobased materials like timber in reducing emissions from construction and fuels but to meet urgent goals this decade, we must embrace faster biobased partners beyond traditional ...

Last week, when Origin Energy decided to keep Australia’s largest power station burning coal for two more years, it needed no regulatory approval, no new EPA licence, and will pay no carbon price for the privilege. But these decisions are not free. They have real costs and real consequences.  Sign up for our free ...

GREEN BUILDING RETROSPECTIVE: Today, there are fewer eastern Australian homes burning fossil gas than there were yesterday. Congratulations to many of you. We’ve passed “peak gas home”! For a nation that once depended on gas, what has brought about this remarkable change? Did it happen on its own, or was it perhaps steered by the famous invisible hand ...