Archive for September, 2007
Event - ATA Report Launch: The Viability of Domestic Wind Turbines for Urban Melbourne, 13 September
Posted in Events, Models, Research by Ferne Edwards on September 11th, 2007
When: arrive 6:15pm onwards for a 6:30pm start, Thursday 13th September, 2007
Where: Saint Michael’s Building, next to 120 Collins St. Disabled access.
Costs: $10 for ATA members. Non-members welcome $15.
Refreshments provided.
RSVP essential contact Wendy Clarke on ph:(03) 9631 5407 or email: wendy @ata.org.au
Join us as we launch ATA’s latest report The Viability of Domestic Wind Turbines for Urban Melbourne which was prepared for Sustainability Victoria.
This report investigates the feasibility of small-scale, grid-connected wind turbines for urban Melbourne, outlines the findings of the research and highlights the issues which may face the emerging market.
Speakers include:
Geoff Mabbett CEO of Sustainability Victoria will launch the report
Alicia Webb Wind engineer and author of the report.
Alicia is an engineer with a passion for wind and has been working in the wind industry since 2004. Alicia will present an overview of the report, looking at the different types of micro turbines, what is available in Australia as well as the considerations around installing micro turbines in residential Melbourne.
Dominique La Fontaine CEO of the Australian Wind Energy Association (Auswind).
Dominique is one of Australia’s leading wind energy authorities and is well renowned for her advocacy of wind energy. Dominique will look at the potential of wind energy, innovation in the Australian wind industry and current incentives (VRET, emissions trading, NRET and MRET).
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Event - EcoEDGE 2 Conference, 14 - 16 February 2008 - www.cityedge.org.au
Posted in Events, Research, Visions by Ferne Edwards on September 10th, 2007
The EcoEDGE 2 Conference, www.cityedge.org.au, will engage the worlds leading sustainability experts in tackling the economic, aesthetic and ethical dimensions in making sustainable cities. Topics include green urban design; green urban energy systems; green housing; and green government.
Through specific local and international case studies, the CityEDGE series provide a forum for architects, landscape architects, urban designers and planners to review the rapid and radical development of contemporary metropolises.
EcoEDGE 2 is happening at Federation Square in Melbourne on 14-16 February 2008. Early bird registrations close 31 October.
To register your place at the conference, please go to: www.cityedge.org.au
Email: ecoedge2 @melbourne.vic.gov.au
Telephone: (03) 9658 9658
Website: www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/ecoedge2
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Mobile On-Site Residential Construction Waste Recycling
Posted in Models, Policies, Sustainable Cities Round Tables, Visions by darlenegaylor on September 9th, 2007
Envirogrind Recycling Australia Pty Ltd on-site recycler’s of brick, roof tile, ceramic tile, plasterboard and framing timber waste were contracted by Momentum Builders to develop a recycling plan that would attempt to recycle 95% of all construction waste from the Southern Cross Lynbrook Retirement Village Development.
Envirogrind Recycling requires a separate area of land specifically designated for recycling works with access to water to assist in dust minimization. Waste material that is to be recycled is stockpiled in the recycling works area and once processed, using Envirogrind’s Packer 750 mobile grinder, left in this same area for re-use as required.
Four recycling compounds were set up for staged recycling works to be performed on the stockpiled recyclable waste streams. Designated corrals for plasterboard, timber and scrap metal as well as bin containers supplied for plastics, cardboard and waste paper were allocated at each of the four recycling compounds.
Plasterboard was mulched into gypsum and used as a soil amendment tilled into the ground around the development. Framing timber and timber off cuts were mulched into woodchips and used throughout the site for safe and clean walkways and entrances to the units under construction.
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Review of recent Melbourne Transport Forums
Posted in Events, Policies by Ferne Edwards on September 7th, 2007
By guest author, Stephen Ingrouille, Principal, Going Solar, www.goingsolar.com.au/transport. Reproduced with permission from Transport Newsletter #28, 4 September 2007.
Melbourne Transport Forums
Two forums in Melbourne recently demonstrated remarkable consensus thinking in the need to fast track sustainable transport. The first forum, Public Transport Growth in Melbourne, was a debate resulting mostly in agreement, while the second forum, the Roads for Public Transport Summit, demonstrated that there has been a paradigm shift in the thinking of both VicRoads and the RACV. This is remarkably good news.
Many issues were raised including:
• Congestion caused where parked cars force motor vehicles onto tram tracks.
• Assumed ‘ownership’ of the parking spaces outside premises, and how in Japan such ‘ownership’ would be unthinkable.
• How little financial value on-street parking actually provides for adjoining premises.
• Why local authorities show remarkable reluctance to tackle shop owners on this issue.
• The measures that can be taken to calm traffic (thus decreasing noise and danger) while at the same time keeping through traffic moving (thus reducing pollution) where parked cars are removed from the on-street equation.
• The reluctance of the police to enforce fairways and transit lanes.
• The reason that it takes so long to adjust traffic lights to improve the flow of buses and trams.
A common theme was the need for an independent authority to resolve these types of issues, with resolutions being achieved through consultation and consensus. Once agreed though, the process must be adhered to by all levels of government and agencies. It was recognised that there are winners and losers in this process and perhaps some sort of compensation can be provided (eg a 6 monthly PT travel pass for adjoining premises where on-street parking is permanently removed). However it was also noted that many people are being disadvantaged at the moment by parked cars and by the same rationale, they should be compensated. If the police won’t enforce fairways and transit lanes perhaps that responsibility should be transferred to another authority – with a corresponding transfer in budget. Apparently a shortage of technicians is the reason that traffic light priority can not be implemented as fast as would be desirable.
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Event - Free lecture on “Mobility, cosmopolitanism and public space in the media city”, 13 September
Posted in Events, Research, Visions by Ferne Edwards on September 6th, 2007
RMIT ARCHITECTURE AND FEDERATION SQUARE PRESENTS ARCHITECTURE + PHILOSOPHY PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES
Mobility, cosmopolitanism and public space in the media city - Scott McQuire
6:00pm Thursday, 13 September at the BMW Edge, Federation Square
What happens when the TV screen leaves home and moves out into the street? Public space in the 21st century is increasingly shaped by interactions between media platforms and architectural structures. The result is the formation of media-architecture complexes which are fast coalescing into ‘media cities’. The social implications of the new public spaces created at the intersection of media networks and material structures are ambivalent. In a context where fear of strangers is frequently promoted as a strategy of political control, new media forms such as large public screens can play a critical role in promoting collective interactions in public space. However, realizing the ideal of cosmopolitan public culture demands strategic displacement of the flexible forms of power deployed in the public spaces of contemporary cities.
Scott McQuire is an academic and writer with a strong interest in interdisciplinary research linking social theory, new media, art, and urbanism. He is currently a chief investigator on the ARC funded research project ‘Large Screens and the transformation of public space’, and is one of the convenors of the major conference Urban Screens Melbourne: Mobile Publics to be held at Federation Square in October 2008. Scott is the author of Crossing the Digital Threshold (1997), Visions of Modernity (1998), and Maximum Vision (1999), co-author with Peter Lyssiotis of the limited edition artists’ book The Look of Love (1998), and co-editor with Nikos Papastergiadis of Empires, Ruins + Networks: The Transcultural Agenda in Art (2005). Scott teaches in the Media and Communications Program at the University of Melbourne and his new book The Media City will be published by Sage as part of the Theory, Culture and Society series in February 2008.
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Seeking a Sustainable Cities Authority
Posted in Movements, Policies, Seeking by Ferne Edwards on September 6th, 2007
By guest author, Stephen Ingrouille, Principal, Going Solar, www.goingsolar.com.au/transport. Reproduced with permission from Transport Newsletter #28, 4 September 2007.
Sustainable Cities Authority
Here are extracts from a letter from the Federal Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull in response to the proposal to establish a Sustainable Cities Authority or Commission. We are grateful to the Member for Flinders, Greg Hunt, for facilitating the approach to the Minister.
“Mr Ingrouille’s proposal recognises the complex issues of urban sustainability that the Australian Government, in collaboration with all jurisdictions, is strongly committed to addressing …. Recommendation 3 of the [House of Representatives] Inquiry Report referred specifically to the establishment of a Sustainability Commission. That recommendation, together with a recommendation to establish an Australian Sustainability Charter is currently being considered …. I understand that the Committee aims to table the Inquiry Report in the Spring 2007 Sittings of Parliament …. The Government is close to finalising its response to the Inquiry Report. The response will identify work the Government is undertaking or planning in relation to the Inquiry’s recommendations and will take into account the increasing and relevant national program of work on urban sustainability agreed to by the Council of Australian Governments. I am pleased to say that the response shows considerable progress in key areas such as water, climate change, energy and transport, which I note mirror the key points detailed in Mr Ingrouille’s proposal.”
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Model - Melbourne’s Skybus, Transport Newsletter #28
Posted in Models, Visions by Ferne Edwards on September 5th, 2007
By guest author, Stephen Ingrouille, Principal, Going Solar, www.goingsolar.com.au/transport. Reproduced with permission from Transport Newsletter #28, 4 September 2007.
Melbourne’s Skybus
I’m consistently impressed with the bus service from Southern Cross Station to Tullamarine airport and I note that they are now claiming a first for public transport: offsetting their annual greenhouse gas emissions by planting 5,488 trees per year through Greenfleet. The Skybus tree planting is part of the Murray Darling Rescue Project, co-ordinated by Scouts Australia and Greenfleet. Further, their vehicles which are easy to access even when burdened with luggage are apparently also operating with low emission engines. It’s good to see a transport company taking these initiatives.
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Event - Call for Papers - Ecological Sustainability through Community Development
Posted in Events, Models, Research by Ferne Edwards on September 4th, 2007
Community Development and Ecology: Engaging ecological sustainability through community development
A three day conference to be held in Melbourne, 26,27,28 March 2008
At a time when there is a growing concern about changing environmental conditions and the effect on communities, a conference of this nature is timely. Community Development can provide alternate pathways through new theoretical paradigms and creative responses about how we view our place on this fragile planet.
There will be two streams to the conference, academic papers and community workshops and forums - these streams will run concurrently.
Academic papers:
The academic section of the conference will explore the contemporary contexts of community development, including conceptual and theoretical advances and social, cultural, political and economic settings. Papers should canvass the need for radically shifting paradigms in the context of the tipping point of contemporary society. This includes theoretical, strategic and community approaches to climate change and other contemporary environmental issues.
We welcome submission of ‘Abstracts’ (word length 200 - 300 words) focused on the conference topic Ecology and Community Development within the themes below, and submitted by 31 October to aok @deakin.edu.au (all academic abstracts and papers will be blind peer refereed for possible publication)
Workshops:
Workshops will provide an opportunity for exchange of theories, ideas and actions relating to the themes below. If you wish to present at and/or facilitate a workshop, please email an expression of interest to aok @deakin.edu.au by 31 October stating your interest/workshop topic and a brief description.
Themes:
• Community Development & Housing: cooperative, rural and metropolitan, community activism for energy efficiency, community gardens
• Community Development & Urban Renewal: changing/greening cities, restoring neighbourliness, green transport
• Community Development & Food Sovereignty/Relocalisation: food and resource production (carbon neutral communities / restoring local/cooperative activities and local economies and water issues)
• Community Development & Rural /Regional Issues: carbon offset actions/reafforestation, bioregional action, green corridors, forest action, land care, water action, critiques and efficiency
• Community Development & Globalisation: developing countries and climate change issues; rapidly developing economies, energy demands and the impact of climate change upon the poorest countries; climate change refugees, water issues, fair (and green) trade issues
• Community Development: Responding to disasters: effective community development responses to natural and socio/ political disaster. Ensuring sustainable international aid programs. What can community development offer?
• Community Development and Building Social Movements: networking across differences, making local/global links eg. zero emissions, aid development and carbon emissions, emerging climate change action groups
For more information visit: http://www.deakin.edu.au/arts/cchr/eco-cd-conf08/
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Seeking EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST (EOI) - EMBODIED ENERGY - ART EXHIBITION
Posted in Events, Seeking, Visions by Ferne Edwards on September 4th, 2007
Title of Exhibition: Embodied Energy
Exhibition Dates: 6 – 29 June 2008
Opening: Thursday 5 June, from 6 to 8 pm
Venue: Counihan Gallery In Brunswick, 233 Sydney Road, Brunswick VIC 3056
Curators: Penny Algar (Artist) & Edwina Bartlem (Curator, Counihan Gallery)
Embodied Energy aims to investigate and highlight the engagement by contemporary artists with the concept of a sustainable art practice. It seeks to address the question: how do artists challenge or take responsibility for the materials and processes they use; the waste they generate; their ecological footprint and the possible environmental consequences?
Artists working across diverse media are invited to submit a proposal for a new or recent artwork for the exhibition. Please read the Concept and Rationale below before completing the Expressions of Interest Form (attached as pdf document). Applications should include the Form with a one page written proposal outlining your concept for a new or recent artwork together with working drawings and plans indicating specific installation requirements (if applicable), a maximum of ten digital (or slide/ photographic) images and a recent two page CV.
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: 5 pm, Wednesday 10 October 2007
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Seeking ideas - Satchi & Satchi World Changing Ideas Competition
Posted in Events, Research, Seeking, Visions by Ferne Edwards on September 3rd, 2007
Every two years, The Saatchi & Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas recognises outstanding thinkers whose world-class innovations could change the world as we know it. It’s free to enter and the prize is worth US $100,000 ($50,000 in cash and equivalent $50,000 for Saatchi & Saatchi marketing consultancy).
The winning idea will have the potential to provide the greatest communication benefit to the greatest number of people or to a group of people with a particular need. Since the initiation of the Award in 1998, many outstanding and wide-ranging innovations have been short-listed. From self-adjusting spectacles that enable people in the developing world to communicate with their environment, to a New Age Rosetta Stone project designed to record and preserve 1,000 world languages for posterity.
Through a high profile award event in New York and international media coverage, The Saatchi & Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas can help bring extraordinary innovations into the light of public acclaim, and can help transform vision into reality.
If you think you have a potentially world changing idea, get your entry in by 28 September 2007.
Downloadable entry packs can be found online at: http://www.saatchi.com/innovation.
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