Tag Archives: sustainability

AuSES leads Feed In Tarriff Crisis Rally

The efforts by AuSES of being involved and in fact co leading a protest to highlight the hypocrisy and silliness of the NSW Government of feed in tariff policy in NSW and also to heighten awareness of Federal politicians is admirable in this case.

However, a word of caution is appropriate here.  AuSES has the high ground as far as serving the public interest and credibility in dealing with governments over the last 50 years.  That is not to say that they always listen.  On the contrary they often don’t – but they do not see us as the enemy.  Protesting all the time is a bit like ‘crying wolf ‘ in the perceptual mentality of politicians.

To retain this status of getting a respected hearing with governments it should not be a habit that the Society is continually involved in this sort of activity.  There are organizations that have protest as their mode of operation, Green Peace for example.  There is a hazard for the society to become too closely associated with this function, as it will undermine the privileged position AuSES has at the high ground level with governments of the day.

I believe that AuSES needs to retain the intellectual high ground as its prime function of promoting Solar Energy in all its forms in this 21st Century.

From my experience the treachery of governments in the past has been unbearable and although the Society has always made its point, we could have taken to the streets on numerous occasions.  We did not.   This has kept us out of the ‘hate’ limelight shone on detractors of government policy, by politicians.  Staying apolitical and be open for professional quality consultation is most of the time if asked by government, is the best long term strategy in my opinion.  Discretion is the key.

This time well done John Grimes, because ”never say never”!

Garry Baverstock AM

[Current President of AuSES Western Australia]

Director : solar-e.com.

Read the story of the rally:    AuSES Solar Crisis Rally a Success

Climate Change – A Change in Architectural Education

22 March 2010

Sasha Ivanovich, FRAIA
Architect

[cf]IvanovichVideo[/cf] solar-e.com expert Sasha Ivanovich is a multi award winning architect in Western Australia and Sydney. In his video blog, Sasha discusses the importance of integrating sustainability into architectural education.solar-e.com logo

Climate change and the proposition that human activity is instrumental in climate change brings to the fore the whole discourse on our responsibility for the future we are creating for our children and all life on our planet. It also implies a new direction in teaching architecture.

Integrating Sustainability into Architecture

Integrating Sustainability into Architecture

The making of architecture has always been contingent on meanings vested in the cultures from which it has sprung. As we understand the world, so we create it. The complexities of our predominant world culture, is equally reflected in our making of architecture. It has been said that in our modern world, the idea of the meta-narrative, a single unifying way to interpret the world, has been replaced with a ‘post modernist’ multiplicity of narratives and in architecture, an apparent freedom to invest meaning with ideas vested with equal value, freely chosen by the author/s.

Access to information through the internet and for architecture, access to information on technologies, building systems and building practices has also affected architecture making as we see it around us today. It is subsumed that the 21st century architect/designer need only download building systems, techniques and specifications to give flesh to the form, container or functional program required by a project and identified by him.

Computer aided drafting systems in their common form are conducive to architecture making reliant on the most accessible drafting processes and outcomes. The effect is increasingly more evident in mainstream architectural work.

The erosion of traditional values originating in a pop-culture interpretation of post-modernism mediated by a ‘menu-download’ architecture making process may breed an architectural profession well suited for a self-generated ‘virtual reality’ culture, a ‘brave new world’ arising in the core of our 21st century city.

Climate change is our awakening from our virtual reality to the real world – living with nature and not against nature, awakening to the reality in which we are part of this nature and symbiotically enmeshed with it. In architecture, this awakening would mean a radical change. Architectural design as a process of research investigation and innovation needs to replace the current practice of collage and assembly of market elements, prevalent in the industry. As if we need to come to earth from our self-created virtual reality, we need to learn again that we are breathing living beings, totally interconnected with and inter-dependent on our environment and the living planet in which we have our being.

In practical terms and in architectural education, remaking is necessary around the fundamental idea of sustainability. Ideas are sustainable when they are based on the extensive knowledge of our heritage – scientific, cultural and spiritual, when they encompass the whole, when they consider the whole planet and are holistic rather than circumstantial and incidental.

For that, a new system of value needs to be created for the sourcing of ideas, components, and elements that make part of architecture making. If the internet is to remain as it will as a knowledge tool, the information needs to be critically appraised and a system developed to determine its true value, its sustainability value.

In architectural education, there will need to be a shift – from expediency – in some universities processing students for the evidence of desirable turnover and university income, to developing the student’s innate creativity, power of discrimination and responsibility for a sustainable world, from collage making and downloading to understanding of form, light, structure and the behaviour and nature of living and inanimate objects/materials. Perhaps it is a knowing of the world from within. Perhaps it is a new school for architects for the world to come.

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Sustainability Cannot be Insulated from Quality

23 February 2010

Ray Wills, Chief Executive
WA Sustainable Energy Association Inc. (WA SEA)
Website: www.wasea.com.au
Email: info@wasea.com.au

Minister Garrett’s announcement of support for business affected by changes to insulation and solar hot water rebates has been welcomed by the WA Sustainable Energy Association Inc. (WA SEA), Australia’s largest state-based business chamber for the sustainable energy industry.

‘WA SEA is an industry chamber supporting market-based, sustainable solutions to grow energy efficiency and renewable energy for he benefit of the Australian economy,’ says Prof. Ray Wills, WA SEA Chief Executive and Adjunct Professor with The University of Western Australia.

Sustainability includes the following key attributes:

o Dealing transparently and systemically with risk, uncertainty and irreversibility.
o The principle of continuous improvement.
o The need for good governance.
o A commitment to best practice.
o No net loss of human capital or natural capital.
o Ensuring inter-generational equity.
o Integration of environmental, social, human and economic goals in policies and activities.

As a business group interested in sustainability, government programs commissioned with the intent of improving sustainability must deal with risk, good governance, and a commitment to best practice.

Any measure from government must not lose sight of the reality that Government has effectively created partnerships with businesses that will deliver promises to the electorate.

Government policy measures can make – and break – companies. Industry is interested in being a help, not a hindrance, and genuine consultation and partnering with groups like WA SEA will go a long way to addressing government’s problem in this space.

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Watch Out for Fraudulent Sustainability Builders: Expert Warns Home Owners

December 2009

Jacinta Goerke
Journalist

AN AUSTRALIAN sustainability expert is warning consumers to watch out for designers, architects and builders claiming to be sustainability specialists.

The warning was issued today following a rise in the number of people appointing unqualified sustainability practitioners to design and build their homes and offices.

LEED-certified homes

LEED-certified homes

Leading Australian eco architect and adjunct professor at Murdoch University Mr Garry Baverstock said he was aware of the sudden increase in the amount of unqualified people claiming to be ‘sustainability’ experts.

“Sustainability is the new buzz word and there is a growing number of drafts people, architects and builders claiming to be ‘experts’ when they are neither qualified nor experienced in this area,” said Mr Baverstock.

“I’m worried it will all come to a head in a few years when people realise their homes and offices don’t comply with sustainability principles and will label ‘sustainable buildings’ a joke.

“This is such an important issue because the built environment in developed nations such as Australia accounts for between 40 and 50 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions so our buildings need to comply with the best possible sustainability and energy efficiency rating systems,” said Mr Baverstock.

Mr Baverstock said it was not easy to design and build top rating energy efficient buildings because specialist expertise and coordination was required.

He said many practitioners were telling people they were sustainability experts just to win jobs.

“I believe this fraudulent behaviour must be stopped and for practitioners to return to university to complete post-graduate studies in environmental science and sustainability,” he said.

“These courses provide students with knowledge and skills over and above what they would have learnt in their undergraduate architectural and engineering degrees,” he said.

Mr Baverstock said tips for people looking to appoint sustainability experts included requesting copies of practitioners’ qualifications in sustainable design/environmental architecture; number and types of awards won for green building designs; addresses of past projects over the last ten years; client testimonials; and the names of energy rating systems used.

Commercial business owners should contact the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) to see if their proposed architects and builders are registered with them.

Image-
Name: Northside green homes
Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Northside-green-homes.jpg
Image released to public domain

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