Building and design - project details
Projects completed in 2007
Costs and benefits of a green village development
ADVANX sustainable redevelopment project
Clarendon Homes: Home Buyers' Guide
Expert sustainability advice for East Darling Harbour
Learning and change for the building industry
Lifting the bar on water and energy infrastructure in Canberra greenfield developments
Projects completed in 2006
Applying sustainability to residential housing
Ecological footprint studies review
Perceptions of sustainable housing: research with industry and consumers
Developing a sustainability vision for the Australian Technology Park
Green Living introductory course for builders and GreenSmart Modules
Projects completed in 2005
Sustainable water use: efficient then effective
Scoping study on mixed-use development
Design charrette - Desert People's Centre
Projects completed in 2003
Sustainable - Affordable Housing: submission to inquiry into first home ownership
Community Learning and Innovation Centre (CLIC) Mullumbimby Redevelopment
Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) Design and Documentation Operations Manual
Projects completed in 2002
Redesigning the Urban Water Cycle
Projects completed in 2001
Shop Smart: Buy Green: a consumer's guide to saving money and reducing environmental impacts.
Product Innovation: the green advantage
Projects completed in 2000
Sustainable management guidelines for buildings owned by the City of Sydney
Australian Conservation Foundation's 60L Green Building
Case for green buildings: capturing the financial benefits
Training in the building and construction industry
Projects completed in 2007
Costs and benefits of a Green Village Development
Land Management Corporation
ISF was engaged by the Land Management Corporation of South Australia to analyse the whole-of-society, monetised and non-monetised costs and benefits of selected sustainability initiatives planned as part of the Lochiel Park green village development. In stage 1, we developed a detailed methodology, based on integrated resource planning, to carry out the analysis. This included mapping sustainability principles and initiatives; mapping indicative costs and benefits across time and stakeholders; and mapping indicative data needs and likely data availability and quality. In stage 2 we implemented the methodology, developed in Stage 1 based on integrated resource planning, to carry out the analysis. We identified and analysed the most significant costs and benefits of a small, specific set of sustainability initiatives from a whole-of-society and individual resident perspective.
ADVANX Sustainable Redevelopment Project
Rushcutters Bay Pty Ltd
ISF was engaged by Rushcutters Bay Pty Ltd to provide site specific advice for the multi-residential and retail redevelopment of the old Advanx Tyre Service site at Rushcutters Bay. An assessment of best practice, cost effective sustainability options was undertaken following site visits and a review of design proposals and reports. A series of cost-effective sustainable improvements were recommended and included within the developer's application to City of Sydney Council.
Clarendon Homes: Home Buyers' Guide
Investa Property Group
ISF worked in collaboration with Clarendon Homes (of the Investa Property Group), RMIT Centre for Design and the Australian Greenhouse Office to develop an easy-to-use Home Buyers' Guide to provide information on sustainability features (and their benefits) that can be included in newly-built homes. The guide takes home buyers through a step-by-step process to purchasing a new home, providing checklists and tips to help them decide on the features most appropriate to their needs. Information on sustainability was incorporated subtly throughout the guide in order not to overwhelm the reader. The guide was informed by primary research undertaken via interviews with potential project home buyers and Clarendon sales staff. It also drew on examples of existing successful publications aimed at this particular target market and feedback from the project partners. The guide was disseminated widely and designed to be easily accessible to the general home-buying public.It is available from the Investa web site.
Case study for Your Home
Australian Greenhouse Office
ISF is the major author of Your Home, a comprehensive guide to sustainable housing commissioned by the Commonwealth Government. Recently we wrote a case study for Your Home's fourth edition on an innovative Sydney renovation in Clovelly. We examined the renovation's sustainability initiatives, which include a cutting edge domestic water treatment system. The full case study is available on the Your Home website: www.yourhome.gov.au
Expert sustainability advice for East Darling Harbour
Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority
ISF was engaged to provide expert sustainability advice to the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, in relation to the upcoming Barangaroo development at East Darling Harbour. Our discussion paper set out a framework of sustainability principles to guide future development on the site and ensure it reflects true innovation and leadership, now and into the future. We also examined options for innovative approaches to water and energy infrastructure serving the site.
Learning and Change for the building industry
CSIRO
ISF provided content for the CSIRO Your Building website. This website is a comprehensive national guide to sustainable commercial buildings. Our expertise in learning and change programs for building industry organisations led to an invitation to develop content for the 'corporate strategies' section of the website. The ability to learn and adapt is key to an organistion's competitiveness, and this is particularly true of the building industry as momentum towards a more sustainable approach grows. The content focuses on how best to engage employees and create a culture of organisational learning and innovation.
Urban environments that promote active living - research and development of website case study materials
Premier's Council for Active Living
This project developed case studies to illustrate Designing Places for Active Living - a set of planning and design guidelines developed by the Premier's Council for Active Living. The research investigated a number of urban environments and built form projects in Sydney to determine whether they demonstrated the application of the 'Active Living principles' devised by the Premier's Council for Active Living. Research was conducted into a selection of these projects determined to be good examples, and concise case studies were then developed (with text and photographs) for inclusion as part of the Designing Places for Active Living resource on the PCAL website. The 'Designing Places for Active Living' web resource, can be found on the Premier's Council for Active Living website at: http://www.pcal.nsw.gov.au/planning_design_guidelines/
Lifting the bar on water and energy infrastructure in Canberra greenfield developments
Land Development Agency
The Institute was commissioned by the ACT's Land Development Agency to assist in creating guidelines for potential joint venture participants for the latest greenfield development at the northern ACT suburb of Crace. Like other State Government land developers, LDA's role encompasses industry leadership. LDA's vision for Crace is that it should set a new standard in sustainability initiatives in the ACT, so LDA has high expectations for water and energy demand and supply. ISF reviewed the opportunities for Crace, and specified targets that align with LDA's intentions, and are qualitatively different from current thinking what is best practice. The notional targets set significant water and energy use reductions for the residential land release. They are strong targets, relative to current best practice, with a focus on efficiency first (e.g. efficient appliances for water, high level passive solar design for energy, then source substitution for water (e.g. raintanks, greywater reuse, sewer mining) and low emission and/or renewables for energy (e.g. solar hot water and efficient gas heating provisions).
Projects completed in 2006
Applying sustainability to residential housing
Stockland Corporation Ltd
The Institute provided expert advice to major developers such as Landcom and Stockland Corporation on various sustainability-related projects. Members of the project team coordinated the ESD plan for Stockland Corporation's bid for the Rouse Hill Regional Centre and Second Ponds Creek.
Ecological Footprint Studies Review
Total Environment Centre
The Total Environment Centre engaged ISF to prepare a desktop report on relevant ecological footprint studies. The studies support a comparative assessment of urban forms and housing types with a focus on low-density and medium-density (near rail), residential experiences. Reviewed studies which compared environmental impacts of different types of urban development in Australian cities. Impacts covered by studies included energy, greenhouse, urban air pollution and water use. Review included analysis of methodological limitations and potential application to Sydney.
The Green Lease Guide
Investa Property Group
ISF was a partner in a 2006 initiative to develop a Green Lease Guide for tenants of office buildings. Tenants play a significant role in the environmental performance of office buildings. The primary aim of this project is to encourage tenants to make more sustainable choices in the selection, design and management of their offices. The secondary aim is to encourage the property sector to offer tenants more sustainable options. Project partners include Investa Properties, City of Sydney, City of Melbourne and the NSW Department of Environment and Conservation. ISF's role was to research and write the guide. Since its release the guide has received an extremely positive response from tenants and property managers. The guide is available for download from the Investa web site.
Green Housing Articles
Alternative Technology Association
ISF has written a number of articles on sustainable housing for the Alternative Technology Association's Sanctuary Magazine. Sanctuary is a 'glossy' sustainable housing magazine with broad circulation. This project demonstrates ISF's technical expertise as well as our ability to communicate sustainability concepts to a general audience. Two editions of the magazine have been released so far, with a third in the pipeline. You can find out more about Sanctuary from the ATA website.
Perceptions of sustainable housing: research with industry and consumers
Sustainable Industries Division, Queensland EPA
This research examines consumer and industry perceptions of sustainable housing and makes recommendations for effective policy development based on the findings. The project has a focus on Queensland, but also draws on relevant information and literature from elsewhere. The report separately identifies consumer and industry perceptions of sustainable housing and examines the relationships between them. It is based on three complementary components; an extensive literature review, separate surveys of consumers and industry members (conducted at a Brisbane home show), and structured interviews with over 20 stakeholders. The project considered how the Queensland Government might use the research findings to inform its approach to policy development in the area of sustainable housing. The report identifies a number of key 'drivers' and related perceptions, and develops a number of potential policy responses.
Developing a sustainability vision for the Australian Technology Park (ATP)
Australian Technology Park (Precinct Management)
The Australian Technology Park is Australia's leading technology precinct. Its future planning has a strong focus on achieving sustainable outcomes reflected in social, environmental and economic agendas. ISF was engaged to run a sustainability workshop designed to establish a vision for the Park and some overarching goals and strategies to help it move towards sustainability. The workshop was held with a cross section of senior staff from the Redfern/Waterloo Authority and the Australian Technology Park. The ISF team presented an overview of sustainability to create a common understanding of the current issues and challenges and then ran group exercises, such as a back-casting session to draw ideas from the staff about the direction in which the Park should be moving. A report was provided which detailed the outcomes and ideas. The project acted as a first step on the sustainability journey for ATP.
GreenSmart Renovations Course
Housing Industry Association (NSW)
ISF developed a sustainable renovations module for the popular GreenSmart training series for designers and builders. Based on theories of effective learning and research with the intended audience, the training follows the typical renovations decision-making process and includes interactive components. it provides a comprehensive review of the important sustainability issues to be considered at each stage of the process. The aim is to provide learners with the tools to translate principles into practice across a range of different situations and encourage genuine, personalised learning. The module is currently being delivered nationally.
Green Living introductory course for builders and GreenSmart Modules
Housing Industry Association (NSW)
The Institute has just completed the development of sustainable housing training programs for members of Australia's two peak building industry organisations, HIA and MBA. The courses provide designers, builders and developers with practical tools for ensuring their buildings have low environmental impact and are socially responsible. For the MBA, we have designed an innovative new program that is informed by learning theory, structured from the builders point of reference and based on a participatory, 'active learning' framework. For the HIA, we designed specialist GreenSmart modules to complement the existing introductory course, focused on water management, energy services and renovations.
Projects completed in 2005
Sustainable Water Use: Efficient then Effective
The award-winning BEDP Environment Design Guide is a product of the Australian Council of Building Design Professions. It is a sought after source of valuable information for practitioners in industry and government, as well as academics and students. In 2005, ISF was invited to prepare a peer-reviewed paper on sustainable water use in buildings. The paper starts by outlining the crossroads at which urban water finds itself. It then debunks some common myths about what the most cost-effective investments are for water use in the urban built environment, and briefly explores the pros and cons of existing regulatory and rating tools. It finishes by explaining the main factors that influence water use, identifies the many opportunities building design professions have to influence these factors, and explains how to go about making decisions that will lead to better outcomes in terms of sustainable water use. EDG papers and case studies are available at the BEDP Environment Design Guide web site.
Scoping study on mixed-use development
Australian Greenhouse Office
The Institute conducted a consultation process with a broad range of industry stakeholders involved in mixed-use subdivision development (urban infill and greenfield sites). The aim was to determine what the key information gaps currently are in terms of implementing sustainability at this scale of development, and from there to develop a framework for a best practice technical guide on sustainable mixed use development.
Design charrette - Desert People's Centre
Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment (NT)
In February 2005, the Institute's Director was invited to participate in a 2-day Design Charrette and to provide expert advice and input for water use, in particular advice on water reclamation for cooling towers and fire protection. The Charrette was held on 7 and 8 February 2005 at the CSIRO offices and Desert Knowledge CRC headquarters on the outskirts of Alice Springs, adjacent to the proposed location of the Desert People's Centre, which was proposed to be the new home for the Centre for Appropriate Technology and Batchelor College. The Charrette aimed to develop objectives, performance indices, design principles and possible design solutions for a simple, world class, environmentally friendly Desert People's Centre. Further details regarding the Desert People's Centre can be found on the Desert Knowledge CRC web site.
Projects completed in 2003
Greensmart Magazine
Housing Industry Association (NSW)
Greensmart Magazine is a HIA initiative- a glossy yearly publication on sustainable home design aimed at the general public. The Magazine is published by Fairfax and will be sold in news agents. HIA needed ISF's technical expertise to edit the stories researched and written by journalists.
Sustainable - Affordable Housing: submission to inquiry into first home ownership
Productivity Commission
The Institute made a submission to the Productivity Commission inquiry evaluating the affordability and availability of housing for first home buyers. This submission recommended the affordability of living in houses and not just their purchase cost should be examined. High energy and water bills and high transport costs can affect the affordability of housing because they reduce first homeowners' ability to repay their mortgages.
Tarlo, K., McGee, C., Campbell, S. Cheney, H., Goldie, C. and Lansbury, N. 2003, Sustainable-Affordable Housing: submission to inquiry into first home ownership, [submission to the Productivity Commision], Institute for Sustainable Futures, UTS, Sydney. Download/view
Community Learning and Innovation Centre (CLIC) Mullumbimby Redevelopment
Community Learning and Innovation Centre
The Community Learning and Innovation Centre (CLIC) engaged the Institute to provide advice on how to incorporate sustainability principles into the redevelopment of their site in Mullumbimby.
Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) Design and Documentation Operations Manual
An Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) Design and Documentation Operations Manual that if successfully implemented by Clarendon will position the company at the leading edge of sustainable development in the Australian Building Industry. The Institute is working with Clarendon Property Group, a major residential developer, to assist them to incorporate sustainability into their operations. We are providing technical advice, designing in-house training, and working with Clarendon staff to design a sustainability operations manual to ensure that sustainability is considered at every stage of the design and construction process for their developments, as well as in their own internal business operations.
Projects completed in 2002
Developing Strategies for Mainstreaming Sustainability: identifying constraints and potential solutions
Planning NSW
ISF completed an assessment of the barriers holding back the implementation of sustainability in the residential property industry on behalf of Planning NSW and the Sustainability Advisory Council. This project identified and mapped the main barriers to 'mainstreaming' sustainable residential development, using extensive stakeholder consultation across the relevant government and industry sectors, and an emergent process to map results. The value of having an independent group manage the process was demonstrated by the level of cooperation and positive feedback given by participants. The project has since been acknowledged as the most comprehensive consultation process the NSW development industry has seen.
Greening the Building Works
Institute for Sustainable Futures
Two-day course for local government, project managers, developers and design professionals. The course will cover how to integrate sustainability into building developments from a life cycle perspective, using concepts, case studies and tools. Greening the Building Works is aimed at an audience of developers, project managers, planners, architects, engineers and other development professionals. The course provides participants with an understanding of planning contexts, key environmental issues to be considered at each stage of the building's life cycle, and a range of tools designed to assist in integrating environmental issues with project planning. The course was originally developed in collaboration with the Centre for Design, RMIT University, and has been run several times in Sydney and Melbourne. Each time the course is run participant numbers increase, a reflection of the growing interest in these issues. The Institute is now looking to expand on the previous course format by creating specialised modules on top of the introductory level material.
Redesigning the Urban Water Cycle
Institute for Sustainable Futures
Redesigning the Urban Water Cycle was run for the first time last year and proved to be a great success. The course provides participants with an understanding of innovative approaches to water management at a range of development scales and across a range of building types. An interactive workshop in the afternoon allows participants to engage with the concepts being discussed. Last year, an existing inner city site was used as the basis for the workshop- participants worked with final year architecture students from UTS to create sustainable water management strategies, based on the student's design proposals for the site. Both the students and the participants found the workshop enjoyable and beneficial.
Projects completed in 2001
Shop Smart: buy green: A consumer's guide to saving money and reducing environmental impacts.
This booklet shows consumers how to assess the environmental impacts of the products they purchase. It allows consumers to choose products that use fewer natural resources and less energy during their manufacturing, distribution, use and disposal. It includes a handy checklist and practical tips on how to shop smart and green.
Product Innovation: the Green Advantage
Design for Environment, or Ecodesign, encourages businesses to design products in ways that minimise their environmental impacts, whilst increasing market advantage and fostering innovation. This booklet, produced for Environment Australia, shows the economic and environmental benefits of DfE and how to introduce DfE into a business. Case studies illustrate some Australian businesses that have successfully incorporated DfE into their business operations. A useful list of additional resources and contacts is included in the booklet.
Your Home: Design for Lifestyle and Future
This comprehensive national guide to sustainable home design and construction is presented as a magazine, with a series of technical fact sheets contained on a CD ROM at the back of the magazine.
Your Home was published by the Institute and the Australian Greenhouse Office to encourage the design, construction and renovation of homes that are comfortable, healthy and more environmentally sustainable.
The Your Home Consumer Guide is a 32 page, easy to read, full colour magazine with helpful hints on buying, building or renovating a home. The aim of the magazine is to generate consumer demand for sustainable home design.
The Your Home Technical Manual contains over 60 individual fact sheets full of all the technical information needed by designers and builders to implement sustainable solutions and create homes that are more comfortable, less expensive to run and more environmentally friendly. The technical manual covers all aspects of building, renovating or buying a home. Extensive stakeholder consultation has ensured the information is provided in a accessible and highly usable form. The guide was updated in 2002 with the addition of five new case studies. Both the consumer guide and the technical manual are available from the Your Home web site at http://www.yourhome.gov.au
Your Home won the Environmental Leadership in Communications award at the 2003 Banksia Environmental Foundation Awards. These awards acknowledge efforts that make a positive difference to our environment and so inspire and motivate others to pursue the practice of environmental excellence. The Environmental Leadership in Communications award recognises communication that raises public awareness and understanding of environmental issues and innovations.
Your Home also took out the Housing Industry Association (HIA) GreenSmart Partnership Award. The HIA GreenSmart Partnership Award recognises projects that best typify the collaborative partnership approach of GreenSmart in achieving environmental outcomes in housing construction and operation. At the awards ceremony HIA noted that the Your Home project had successfully brought together stakeholder groups from government, community and the building and design industries to create a suite of design guide materials for producing houses that are more environmentally sustainable and have a lower greenhouse signature. Winning the award gives the project key recognition within the building industry itself - an achievement that indicates the level of credibility that the guide materials enjoys amongst practitioners in the building industry.
The June issue of the Better Homes and Gardens magazine included a free CD of Your Home, promoting it as a guide to better building, buying and renovating. The sellout success and high consumer demand throughout Australia for Your Home was described in an article in UTS: News (25 February-10 March 2002).
Projects completed in 2000
Sustainable Management Guidelines for Buildings owned by the City of Sydney
City of Sydney
The City of Sydney owns an extensive property portfolio that is an integral part of the built and social landscape of the Sydney Local Government Area. This project developed a set of integrated guidelines for energy, water, waste and materials to ensure that the principles of sustainability are incorporate into the construction of new buildings and the management of existing buildings, in particular those with heritage significance such as the Sydney Town Hall.
Australian Conservation Foundation's 60L Green Building
60L aims to be the premier green commercial building in Australia, unique in its approach to energy and water consumption, and the use of recycled and re-used materials during construction. For a building of this type to achieve the goal of world's best practice environmental performance in a commercially viable office building, it is imperative that scheme water demand be reduced as much as possible. The Institute developed a series of water management options for the building, and undertook modelling of the hydraulic, technical, economic and other aspects of these options and their implementation. The practical limits of demand reduction were tested by detailed end-use modelling of various options incorporating water efficiency, reuse and dry sanitation technologies. See http://www.60lgreenbuilding.com/ for details.
Case for Green Buildings: capturing the financial benefits
This research examined the range of financial and other benefits associated with green buildings, through both new construction and refurbishment. A wide range of Australian and international case studies, demonstrating how numerous organisations have 'greened' their building stock and the resulting financial benefits were examined. Recommendations were made to the client on the organisational factors needed to successfully implement a green building program and the process for the AGD to take its agenda forward. The first section of this report documents growing evidence of a strong economic case for 'green' or sustainable building, synthesised from a wide range of international and local research, case studies and data. It examines the wide range of direct and indirect economic benefits associated with green building, including recurrent operational savings, potential capital cost savings, wellbeing and productivity benefits, regulatory drivers and financial incentives, improved risk management, improved investment value and the indirect economic value of leading by example. The second section of the report examines the most effective approaches to implementation of sustainability in buildings, and specifically the opportunities for the AGD in relation to its building portfolio. It examines the need for organisational commitment, a new approach to defining 'value', the use of innovative financing mechanisms, a new approach to cost planning, investment in quality design and a new approach to project delivery. The report concludes by outlining a staged implementation plan for the 'greening' of the AGD building portfolio.
Training in the Building and Construction Industry
The first stage of this project for Australian Building Energy Council (ABEC) involved design, management and analysis of a nation-wide survey for universities, TAFEs and professional associations within the Australian building and construction sector, in order to establish the level of coverage of greenhouse-related issues in current teaching and establish where the greatest gaps occur. The second stage of this project involved assembling a set of principles and criteria for the development of sustainability education, and analysing the 'best practice' educational offerings we identified in the survey against these principles and criteria. Recommendations were developed, as a result of this analysis, to assist education deliverers to integrate sustainability when designing programs and courses. These recommendations focused on both content and process. A subsequent project focused on enabling education deliverers to create sustainable change. This report has been created as a resource for tertiary education deliverers who wish to develop and deliver training aimed at enabling more sustainable practices in the building and construction industry. Stage II of the Australian Building Energy Council (ABEC) project on Training in the Australian Building and Construction Industry focused on enabling education deliverers to create sustainable change. The report was created as a resource for tertiary education deliverers who wish to develop and deliver training aimed at enabling more sustainable practices in the building and construction industry.
