Posts Tagged ‘Melbourne’
Pixel Building
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on August 24th, 2010
Source: Green Building Council Australia (GBCA)
Grocon’s new Pixel building, the first carbon neutral office building in Australia, has achieved the highest Green Star score ever awarded by the Green Building Council of Australia. Pixel has achieved a perfect score of 100 points under the Green Star rating system for building design, with 75 points the benchmark for 6 Star Green Star. It gained an extra five points for innovation, equating to world leadership. Included in Pixel’s five innovation points were points for carbon neutrality, a vacuum toilet system, the anaerobic digestion system and reduced car parking. The water initiatives in the project mean the building could be self sufficient for water – in this context, the project is water balanced as well as carbon neutral. The designers of Pixel are all Victorian firms – architects studio505, sustainability and services engineers Umow Lai and the structure engineer, VDM Consulting.
The building features Pixelcrete – a type of concrete which halves the embodied carbon in the mix – as well as wind turbines invented in Bendigo, the Melbourne University designed ‘living roof’ which re-introduces Victorian grassland species to the Melbourne area, and tracking photovoltaic roof panels. The sun shade system on the exterior of the building will provide the maximum amount of daylight into the office space, protecting it from glare and heat in the summer, while smart window technology ensures windows will open automatically on cool nights to enable air flow into the building.
Read the full article from GBCA.
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seven thousand oaks: festival of art and sustainability
Posted in Events by miyuki on June 10th, 2010
The inaugural seven thousand oaks festival will host over 20 artists exploring the issue of sustainability through music, visual art, performance and installation throughout Winter 2010. The festival kicks off on June 17th at Guilford Lane Gallery with Adaptation, the visual art exhibition and the first event within the 5-week festival program. seven thousand oaks (7KO) has the great pleasure of inviting Guy Abrahams Al Gore Climate Change speaker and director of the Christine Abrahams Gallery, to open the festival. Next in the 7KO line-up, come out to the Heide Museum of Modern art on Sunday June 20 for the one-day music program, Touch at a Distance.
Every Saturday during the festival the public art program, Arena, will take place on the streets of Melbourne at City Square. Finally, seven thousand oaks would like to invite you to Plant Out, a tree planting on July 16 – 18. Pack a tent, some warm clothes and hop a free bus to Moyston approximately 230km from Melbourne and join us for a weekend of tree-planting, educational activity and camp-dirt fun.
June 17- July 24 2010, Melbourne
Check out the full program at www.seventhousandoaks.org/festival
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Hepburn Wind at Melbourne Sustainability Drinks
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on May 26th, 2010
Source: Climate Action Calendar
Melbourne Sustainability Drinks: The first Wednesday of every month
Speaker: Simon Holmes á Court from Hepburn Wind will talk about Australia’s first community owned wind farm.
All are welcome who are passionate about sustainability
Federation Square, Tjanabi restaurant (In the atrium, Flinders St side)
Wed 2 June 6pm
Please RSVP: www.melbournesustainabilitydrinks.com/rsvp
Contact: feedback@melbournesustainabilitydrinks.com
Buy own drinks
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Smart Water Conference: Presentations Online
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on April 26th, 2010
Source: Smart Water Fund
Presentations from the inaugural Smart Water Conference are now available for download. The Smart Water Conference presentations offer an insight into the projects and topics discussed and are an invaluable resource for anyone interested in undertaking water saving projects.
Held in October 2009, the inaugural conference provided a platform for knowledge transfer in the water industry and gave attendees an opportunity to meet innovators in the water management and research fields. The conference featured 18 speakers across three different topic streams, from a range of industries and sectors, including science and technology, industry and business, and community, education and social science. Each project discussed has received funding and support from the Smart Water Fund to provide new learnings into water conservation, water recycling and biosolids management.
Keep an eye on the Smart Water Fund website for vodcasts of the conference presentations, which will be made available soon.
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Feral Fruit Trees: Melbourne
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on March 23rd, 2010
Feral fruit trees are fruit trees growing in or overhanging public spaces that are accessible to the urban hunter-gatherer. The Feral Fruit Trees Melbourne website seeks to promote localized [sic] food gathering in cities where food is being obtained from increasingly distant sources. The current system of food delivery into urban centers poses unnecessary strain upon both the economy and the environment due to transportation costs. Feral fruit tree harvesting transforms our current food distribution system into a more sustainable alternative and promotes a consciousness of the ecology within our urban environments. Urban hunter-gatherers can also enjoy the benefit of fresh fruit that is often organic and not to mention free.
Fruit lying outside the boundary of private property for instance on a branch hanging over a fence is considered to be public property and therefore anyone can legally take the fruit. Please don’t take any fruit that is over someone’s fence even if it is in close reach as this is technically stealing. It always pays to just ask the owner, usually they won’t mind no one is really going to eat a whole tree of figs or loquats. Some people may be sensitive about having the fruit from their tree taken even if it is hanging into public space; therefore even though you are within your rights to take the fruit, common courtesy should be employed. eg. Please don’t make some old Greek guy angry by taking fruit when he doesn’t want you to.
Furthermore a few easy guidelines should be followed in order to ensure the sustainability and fair distribution of this precious public resource.
1. Do not be greedy. Take only as much fruit as you need as there may be other fruit pickers in the area who wish to eat the fruit as well.
2. Try not to damage the tree or the area around the tree. It would be wise to use a proper cutting tool to ensure clean cuts that do less damage to the tree. Try not to rip any leaves, branches or trample any plants below. I was told one story about a Mulberry tree that everyone used to plunder, the owner got so sick of people trampling his other plants from eating the berries that he unfortunately ended up cutting down the tree.
Change – Your World Post Copenhagen
Posted in Events by camoo1 on March 19th, 2010
JCI Melbourne (Junior Chamber of Commerce, Melbourne) brings you the first of their Business Networking events in 2010:
As the only worldwide youth organisation with voting rights at the UN, JCI has committed to the Global Compact, which includes driving awareness of Climate Change. 2009 saw many developments, arguments and claims from believers and skeptics alike, culminating in the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15). Most people realise it’s an issue that affects everyone in some way. Some still don’t know the facts. But the implications for our future – in business as well as in our communities and day to day lives – are immense.
Our speakers for the evening: Mike Sewell and Anne-Marie Huxleyknow even more. They both trained with Al Gore and their work focuses on sustainability and responsibility. Anne Marie also made the journey to participate in the Copenhagen talks. They’ll help separate the facts from the fallacies and share insights into what did and didn’t happen at COP 15. Come and listen to two people who have taken up the baton to build understanding and awareness of Climate Change. Hear their story and learn how it affects you.
Date: Thursday, March 25, 2010
Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Location: Innovation Centre, Emirates House, 257 Collins Street, Melbourne
RSVP essential: JCI Members $40, Non Members $60
Please see jcimelbourne.com.au for more details and registration, or download the PDF.
Design for Sustainability: Design Victoria
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on March 18th, 2010
Prepare for more time in the car: Report
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on March 15th, 2010
Source: Green Building Council Australia (GBCA)
Image: basibanget via flickr CC
By 2041, Australia’s cities will experience significant increases in traffic congestion, people will spend more time travelling and cars will generate more greenhouse gas emissions, a new study has found.
Cities for the future: Baseline report and key issues, commissioned by the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC), was released at Green Cities 2010 in Melbourne.
The report points to a bleak future where transport-related greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) increase by almost 50 per cent and travel times increase by quarter. “Under a business as usual approach, our urban centres will become more transport intensive and less transport efficient. Congestion will worsen, travel times become longer and transport-related GHG increase,” says ASBEC President, Tom Roper.
“The report is a clarion call to our federal, state and local governments that swift, decisive action is required to deliver better transport systems in Australia’s cities,” Mr Roper says. According to Romilly Madew, Chief Executive of the Green Building Council Australia and task group chair, the analysis “clearly shows that, without action to change the way people live, work and play in our cities, our transport challenges will only get worse.”
Cities for the future is the first part of a four stage project which aims to explore and measure the links between greenhouse gas emissions from urban transport and land use within our cities.
“This report has found that the shape of our cities and the distribution of land uses can influence transport and therefore emissions. However, in raising sustainability and reducing emissions, we are likely to realise other tangible benefits, such as healthier communities, more accessible services, appropriate responses to demographic change, and more efficient use of land and infrastructure,” Ms Madew explains.
The World’s Biggest Eva Vegie Swap
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on March 10th, 2010
Image: woodleywonderworks via flickr CC
Got too many lemons? Over-run with parsley but no sweet basil in sight? If only you could swap all those olives for tomatoes! Well now you can!
As part of this year’s Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, CERES Urban Orchard, Yarra Neighbourhood Orchard and Cultivating Community are hosting what we’ve called “The World’s Biggest Eva Vegie Swap” with the hope that veggie gardeners from across this wide, brown city will bring along an abundance of gorgeous backyard produce and show Melbourne town what veggie swapping is all about!
This phenomenon has been sweeping Victoria, Australia and the world as folks realise the galaxy of potential that’s in our backyards and how easy and fun it is to get together and swap food – So bring along your vegies, herbs, seeds, seedlings, cuttings, preserves, recipes etc and see how it’s done – you might even get one going in your community!
When and where? Saturday 13th March
City Square, corner Collins & Swanston Street 10am – 2pm
Walk Against Warming
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on December 2nd, 2009
Source: Zero Carbon Moreland
Come along to the Walk Against Warming and help form a massive human sign, a sign so big that the message will reach Copenhagen! In Melbourne, the walk will start by the State Library, on the corner of Swanston Street and La Trobe Street at noon on December 12 and end at Princess Bridge. On the bridge, 20,000 people will make a human sign saying: SAFE CLIMATE – DO IT. Zero Carbon Moreland friends and supporters are invited to meet and walk together. We’ll be gathering at 11.30 am (just before the main event) outside RMIT’s Storey Hall at 336-348 Swanston Street, close to the State Library. Read the rest of this entry »