Nathan Ball

Organisations of all sizes from all sectors are introducing ‘green’ agendas at an increasing rate. From introducing office recycling systems, developing carbon management plans, or partnering with community groups in meaningful ways, there are endless ways a business can help improve its environmental and social sustainability performance. Motivation to do so varies. Competition, first mover advantage, stakeholder pressure, cost savings, and a CEO’s prerogative can all be drivers for an organisation. However, corporate responsibility or green agenda setting is often reactionary and defensive. NGO outcry, supplier controversy or community uproar is a common reason you see an organisation painting itself green. Consumer trust of a business (as well as politicians and journalists) is generally low so how can an organisation place itself to improve its sustainability performance in a genuine and meaningful way?

Evidence of the divergence of environmental, social and economic crises continues to grow (Paul Gilding calls it the ‘Great Disruption’). Organisations across all sectors and of all sizes face increasing pressures to respond in a meaningful way to these. Without a strategic approach to problem solving many will continue to lurch from problem to problem with a series of reactionary solutions. How can a business address the fundamental issue that is driving its challenges?

The short term decision making cycle is a fundamental barrier to implementing a holistic, long term and meaningful solutions. How can an organisation move beyond thinking focussed on the next quarter or financial year, invest in the sustainability of its operations and stakeholders, and justify that to financial investors and other profit-centric stakeholders? Gunter Pauli, through his exciting work titled The Blue Economy, demonstrates examples of how organisations are breaking down these barriers. In the process the organisations are developing and delivering innovative and profitable solutions to a range of issues.

A psychology of risk management drives conventional sustainability management – for example reducing environmental damage, avoiding community conflict, saving money, and managing resource shortages. By moving past a reactive and defensive attitude to sustainability performance and acknowledging that these aspects of a business are more than clinging to treetops in Tasmanian forests or blocking coal seam gas exploration across the nation there lays fertile ground for business to prosper. Sustainability can become a significant advantage in the marketplace. Both in terms of your financial performance, but also in retaining and recruiting the best staff, developing innovative solutions enabled through a creative atmosphere, partnering with like-minded organisations and NGOs, and finding a successful solution to an issue that could land you in a different market or with a new product. Sustainability offers a new lens to examine the entire business, question existing leadership, systems and culture, and offer a pathway to becoming a better business.

Proactively seeking solutions to difficult issues can often be placed in the too hard basket for most organisations. However, burying your head in the sand is becoming increasingly risky as the market becomes more competitive and transparent. No longer can a business weave and duck from an issue with a supplier, or ignore ongoing leaks and spills from its factories.

As Pauli points out, real environmental and socially beneficial solutions that also help an organisation financially are possible when a problem or challenge is sought to be overcome by doing more good, not less bad. By removing the risk label or by looking at an issue as an opportunity it’s quite likely a solution can be found that is more sustainable.  One example he speaks of is the enterprise ‘Eco-mushrooms’. They take coffee waste (only 1% of the coffee makes it from tree to cup) and use it as mushroom substrate to grow a range of mushroom varieties. It creates multiple benefits – reduces waste to landfill, creates a new product and market, a profit, employment at several stages of the mushroom production life cycle, and is a three times more productive substrate than more common alternatives. Sydney’s great coffee maker Campos, are on board with ‘Eco Mushroom’, as they take what was previously a costly waste to dispose of into a useful and profitable substrate for a new product.

There is no one process or methodology for a business to follow to begin to unpack its sustainability risks and opportunities. However, it often relies on leadership that encourages creativity and innovation, the right systems and processes in place that support this and connect stakeholders, and a culture that is inquisitive, willing and collectively believes that a better way of doing business exists (who really doesn’t have an idea for how their business could works better?). Often the first step is simply discussing this internally and externally, picking up on the clues that could enable a new product, service or market, or a smarter, more effective and efficient way of completing a task. These conversations allow individuals, departments and groups to share knowledge and ideas, leverage opportunities in new ways, and to test and develop strategies that lead to greater environmental and social sustainability outcomes, and improve the bottom line and keep shareholders happy.

Our future is in our stories.

Last week I was at a workshop on local and global participation. One of the speakers wanted us to take away the message that “humans aren’t good at thinking about the future”. She reinforced this with images of environmental destruction.

I felt uneasy about this statement. Why? Because it doesn’t ring true to me.

It’s difficult to think about the future. It’s also very challenging when we’re immersed in stories of impending doom from climate change, peak oil, water scarcity, drought, famine and war.

For many of us, the future doesn’t seem like a place that we really want to be. 

So we don’t like to think about it.

But we need to remember that the future is written in our stories. Our future will be shaped by how we imagine it, how we talk about it, and what we say it will be.

Stories are part of our life support system.

Many of us are aware of the damage that we humans are doing to our planet. We differ in the stories that we tell, and the reasons we give, for this damage.

A dozen years ago I began working on social/environmental projects because a powerful story was at work in my mind. I’d picked this story up from other people and mixed it with my own experiences.

This is the story that framed my view of the world:

Our world is in crisis. We’re heading for collapse. Our ecosystems—the life support systems of our planet—are rapidly degrading. We’re threatening the conditions for our own existence. The poorest people suffer from this damage first. This is a huge injustice. It’s happening because of rampant individualism, consumerism and an economic model that often counts damage as progress. The world has gone crazy. We’ve lost sight of what’s important. 

Sound familiar? This is a storyline that we hear in many global and environmental narratives. It’s a story that challenges an old myth about progress.

I’m curious: how do you feel when you hear this story? Does it confirm your own story? Does it fire you up because you have a different view? Do you feel sad, angry or uplifted?

We need to look at “The Why” within our stories.

Hidden within the story above was something more subtle. It was the deeper “why” of the story:

Humans are doing this damage because we’re selfish. We’re only looking out for our own narrow interests—which may stretch to the interests of our family / business / nation. People don’t care.    

This belief that people don’t care was a weed in the core of my story. It’s also a common storyline in society. You know the one: it’s a myth about “survival of the fittest”.

This part of the story had become so ingrained in me that everything I experienced became shaped by this story. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy—but it didn’t help me to feel fulfilled.

As my career continued I worked harder and harder to “be the change” and “make things better”, because I told myself that I do care. But I was burdened by the belief that other people don’t care. I started to become cynical.

Then I grew depressed.

I realised that this wasn’t helping me in my work. What did I do? I added some hope to my stories. 

This is a well-tested method. If you read many environmental books, or watch presentations and see films about climate change, the narrative often goes like this:

In other words: there’s growing evidence of damage. The picture ain’t pretty. Actually it’s worse than you think. Much worse. It’s really rather grim. But wait! It’s OK. Everything will be alright. Look at all the things we can do. We can still turn this around. We just need to act. Starting with you.

Sound familiar?

The weakness of this storyline is that it focuses so much attention on what is wrong with the world that the hope doesn’t feel compelling.

Sometimes it even feels manipulative. It feels like the storyteller knows that they need to end on a high note to get action. But they don’t really have faith in what they are saying.

Today I realised that I’ve lost hope.

Hope is “a feeling of desire and expectation for a certain thing to happen” or “grounds for believing that something good may happen”.

Hope is a powerful belief. But it can turn into cynicism if our expectations aren’t met.

To me, hope only feels powerful when it’s really sincere. Then it’s something stronger than hope. It’s faith.

So today I’m declaring that I HAVE FAITH IN THE HUMAN SPECIES.

And I don’t just mean this. I whole-heartedly feel it.  

A crisis is the turning point of a story

My faith in humanity grew out of my own personal crisis—my depression and despair.

I used to believe that people don’t care. Now my understanding has shifted.

I can still hold that Big Story that says “our world is in crisis”, but the why of this story is different.

Another story has grown inside me, based on many observations, conversations and experiences over the last few years.

This is how the new story goes:

All of the social, environmental and economic “problems” in the world are symptoms of how we are being and how we are seeing. Many of us have become fearful and angry. So we struggle to protect just a piece of this world. 

Our view of ourselves is shaped by our stories. Many of these stories have become tired and twisted. They’re holding us back from realising our full potential.   

So the cure for these symptoms is simple: embrace life, love fiercely, see the potential in people, look for possibilities, and rework old stories to help us live well. 

I can’t see The End in this story.

The natural conclusion to my old story was that The World Is Going to End if we don’t do something big. Well, part of the world did end. Some of my old stories died.

That’s OK. Stories aren’t biological species. We just need to protect the ones that serve us well. We also need to let go of the ones that imperil our survival.

As for the future… I don’t know. My story about the future is an open book. I write it every day through my thoughts and my actions.

As for the future of the human species: that’s not just a story that’s waiting for us to discover. It’s a story that’s depending on us all to craft together.

NB: This article was also posted on Storypot. 

These animations, which you can watch below, cover everything from sustainable eating and apartment living to chemical-free cleaning.

If you’ve been inspired to get stuck in and take some small steps towards living greener here’s a small taste of the workshops that Green Villages. You can meet your neighbours and learn the basics for sustainable living at the same time. The FREE workshops range cover topics as wide-ranging as growing your own food, natural cleaning, worm farms & upcycling.

Green Thumb: What’s eating my basil?

Where? Glebe Community Garden, 132 St John’s Road, Glebe
When? 12/05/2012 1:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Discover how to invite the good bugs into your garden and keep the bad bugs out. This practical hands-on workshop demonstrates organic gardening techniques such as building healthy organic soil, choosing plants that are right for your garden and creating natural pest remedies.

Spotless: Natural Cleaning with Shannon Lush

Where? Surry Hills Library & Community Centre, 405 Crown Street, Surry Hills
When? 21/05/2012 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Learn simple, cheap and eco-friendly tricks and tips with the popular domestic guru Shannon Lush. Leave the workshop equipped with ideas, information and recipes to clean your home naturally and learn how to save money on expensive products while you’re at it. Bring along an item of stained clothing or fabric for an instant diagnosis!
If you can’t make the workshops, there are factsheets made available, like these ones:

• Natural cleaning: say goodbye to toxic chemicals
• Seed to plate: grow food in small places
• Upcycling: create beautiful things with stuff you already have

And in exciting news, the City of Sydney have partnered with Marrickville council to relaunch the Watershed as the Green Living Centre. Right in the heart of Newtown, you can drop in any time for tips, tricks and cups of tea!

Keep checking back at Green Villages for the latest workshops.

PS. were created by Digital Eskimo who are a digital agency doing good.

So, instead of making ads for chemical cleaning products, they’re using their powers (ie. their incredible creative talent) for good, to inform people about greening their lifestyles. How about that?!

The concept of sustainable consumption is taking centre stage at the Rio +20 summit and other organisations have followed suit. At this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting, the report “More with Less” was released, which very thoroughly depicts the need for a shift to sustainable consumption.

At face value, sustainable consumption can seem counterintuitive to economic growth, but the report illustrates the business opportunities and the pressing need to make the change – either driven by resource scarcity, population growth or rising concerns over hormone-filled meats and pesticides in our food.

And the need is evident. According to the WWF, five planets would be required if everyone had the lifestyle of the average citizen in North America and three planets if we all lived like in the United Kingdom.

One company that is trying to push the trend is the clothing company, Patagonia. At last years holiday buying season, they took out full-page newspaper ads saying “Don’t Buy This Jacket” urging consumers “Don’t buy what you don’t need. Think twice before you buy anything”, and asked customers to take a pledge toward sustainable consumption.

However, not all companies are taking such responsibility. Some need a helping hand. Last year, Greenpeace celebrated the success of their “Unfriend Coal” campaign that called on Facebook to power its data centres from clean energy instead of coal. After 20 months of agitating and mobilising, more than 700,000 people signed up for the campaign and Facebook agreed to use clean energy. This exemplifies that sometimes companies need encouragement and individual activism does matter.

One step at a time

As the WEF report also stresses, change starts with the consumer. At the heart of sustainable consumption stands the consumer and what we demand companies will produce.

Whether we choose to reduce how often and how far we travel by air, or reduce our electricity use or switch to a green energy provider plays a crucial role for how sustainable our consumption is.

Basic steps like switching to public transportation or cycling, car-pooling, reducing food waste, reducing consumption of meat, increasing consumption of organic food, or reducing the household heating all form a tapestry of solutions for overconsumption.

Other even smaller hands-on solutions are:

-        Running the dishwasher only when it’s full
-        Buying energy saving light bulbs
-        Washing full loads of clothes
-        Using baking soda and distilled vinegar as cleaning appliances
-        Using old newspaper as packaging material
-        Saving boiled water and use it to water your flowers

Or simply buy more experiences and intangible goods like theatre tickets instead of more material goods. For example, if you go to 10 concerts or 10 restaurant visits, you will approx. emit 100 kg CO2, while buying a flat screen TV will emit 1 ton and a trip from Europe to Bangkok by air will emit approx. 6 ton.

And this might be at the centre of it all. Sustainable consumption is more about quality and experiences than material consumption. Essentially it’s about living the good life and understanding that the choice we make today affects the way people live tomorrow.

More information:

7 trends will shape sustainable consumption in 2012, http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/01/7-trends-will-shape-sustainable-consumption-2012/

I recently spent a couple of weeks in Indonesia, and was shocked by the absolute mass of rubbish that fills streets, side roads and even remote areas. However, despite the lack of properly implemented recycling schemes and rubbish removal in many areas, glass soft drink and beer bottles continue to get re-used.

You will see thousands of plastic water bottles littering areas, but the vessels of choice for Fanta, Coke and your tasty Bintang, are re-used, old school glass bottles.  I can’t begin to know the ins and outs of the politics and specificities – I’m sure there are agreements between Coca-Cola and the government on how this all works financially, but it did get me thinking about container deposit legislations (CDL) in Australia.

I was born in the 1980s and thought I had some vague memory of there being schemes in place for aluminium can returns – but after some reading, it seems that NSW has never enacted a container deposit scheme. South Australia has successfully implemented such legislation and states that the scheme has been successful in reducing litter and promoting resource recovery. Since September 2008 the SA government has been giving by 10c for every beverage container, which is an increase from the previous 5c. This scheme has been running since 1977.

The Greens have been pushing for the nationalisation of container deposit legislation, and you can read Lee Rhiannon’s speech on the issue given in March 2012, here.  Since around 1990, local governments in NSW have been advocating for a state based legislation on container deposits in NSW, but the move for this to become a federal initiative has increased despite the 2008 Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery (Container Recovery) Bill being voted down.

According to Clean Up Australia, Australians use 14 billion containers every year, equating to around a third of all litter in terms of volume. These vessels are made of materials such as glass, plastic and aluminium, which have the make up to be reused many times over, while simultaneously reducing the long term impacts of land fill, use of virgin materials and energy consumption.

Dr. Stuart White of the Institute of Sustainable Futures was commissioned to conduct research and a review of container deposit legislation in NSW, and the findings ring pretty clear.

 When both financial and environmental impacts were considered on a whole of society basis, the potential benefits of introducing CDL in NSW were found to significantly exceed the costs. The annualised net economic benefit of CDL in NSW in the case where recovered container materials are recycled was found to be of the order of $70-100 million per year compared to the current situation. This net economic benefit is largely due to environmental benefits that were valued by the CDL Review at $100-150 million per year. This valuation of environmental benefits is exclusive of the value of improved visual amenity due to litter reduction. Litter reduction is, however, an important benefit to be gained from CDL and has historically been a major driver for its introduction both in Australia and overseas.[1]

With this in mind, the mind boggles as to why this isn’t something that is being pursued with more vigor by local, state and the federal government.

The Australia Institute was suggesting similar approaches back in the early 2000s, pre-empting aspects of ISF’s conclusions. As Lee Rhiannon says in her March speech:

Aluminium production uses 15 per cent of the electricity consumed in Australia, and much of that energy comes from burning dirty coal. Every way you look at it, the wasteful setup we have currently of throwing these containers into landfill commits crimes in so many ways. 

As always, such schemes need to be part and parcel of a bigger overall commitment to finding better ways to deal with waste creation and disposal, but I do believe it would be an important component of future legislation. You can read more from the ISF’s executive summary here. Or if you want to get involved in the campaign, take a look at these tools built by the Boomerang Foundation and being supported by Clean Up Australia.

The Boomerang Council's Cash for Containers postcard.

My two biggest challenges for personal sustainability (as mentioned in the video) are..

1. My clothes dryer.

The dryer isn’t so much mine as my landlord’s. And its use not so much mine as my housemates’. But for the sake of co-habitual peacekeeping I like to keep my nose out of my roommates washing.

Talking with friends, I found this was a common issue.

Particularly in apartments or houses with little outdoor space, you (or your housemates) may not have room to hang sheets and it’s so easy and tempting to just pop things in the dryer. But as the above video reminds us ‘an electric clothes dryer is one of the most inefficient appliances you can own..’ and if we’re honest with ourselves, using it has more to do with convenience and poor planning than necessity. So how do you stop?

Well – you could just get rid of your dryer. But ‘what about emergencies?’, your roomies might wonder. When it’s crucial to wear that one thing, right now?!

I’m going to offer to hang my housemates clothes for them. And next time I’m doing my washing and I don’t have a full load, I might offer to do theirs.

I’m going to ask my landlord to install a retractable clothes line so we don’t have to get by with small clothes horses for our sheets.

Then our sheets will be freshly aired, and their clothes and mine will be dry and ready ahead of time. Maybe we can keep the dryer, because we’ll never need to use it!

2. Looong showers.

These are bad news for my conscience. Not only am I washing all those nasty chemicals down the drain (fewer thanks to my recent conversion to Burt’s Bees everything) but I spend way too long washing my hair, face, body parts than is good for our planet and the precious resource that is water (and carbon-intensive hot water at that).

The crazy thing is I can remember having timed showers (3 minutes!) as a kid, and thinking that even a 5 minute shower was indulgent. So I just need to break the habit.

There are super easy ways to do this. For a start there’s the amazing ‘Short Sharp Showercast’ from Do The Green Thing – a downloadable set of 8 songs to shower to that won’t let you run over a few minutes. You can also recycle in the shower (the water that is) very simply.

Click the image below for the ‘Short Sharp Shower Deck‘ by Michael Wright.

If you’re interested to know what more you can do, The City of Sydney is launching an entire ‘Smart Green Apartments’ initiative, which provides loads of practical ways to get with the program. Given that 3 of 4 of inner Sydney’s residents live in apartments, this makes sense as part of the city’s commitment to reduce its carbon footprint 70% by 2030 (yes you heard that right).

So what habit are you most embarrassed about? What could you do to tackle it? Tell us in the comments below : )

The gorgeous Green Villages animations you’ve been seeing on Sustahood were created by Digital Eskimo who are a digital agency doing good.

So, instead of making ads for chemical cleaning products, they’re using their powers (ie. their incredible creative talent) for good, to inform people about greening their lifestyles. How about that?!

It sounds like something futuristic in the realm of flying cars, but its not. Air-cleaning paint is available and among other things – It’s an ecologically friendly product.

Usually when I venture out to buy paint for my apartment, I go for the cheapest bucket I can find. However, this time was different. Last week, when I went down to my nearby paint-store they had air-cleaning paint on sale. Air-cleaning paint! I had never seen anything like it so I decided to give it a try.

The secret behind the air-cleaning element is a process called photocatalytic activity. Through this process, the paint breaks down substances from car exhaustion, smog, fungus, mildew etc. These contaminants are transformed into non-toxic molecules and reduced to harmless small quantities.

In other words, the new generation of paint will not only give your walls a face-lift, it will also clean the air that you breathe.

The intelligent home

In recent years, the movement of smart houses has made everything possible from adjusting the lights throughout the day to seeing our energy usage in real-time. These new air-cleaning paints are the next step in this line.

Regular paint contains volatile organic compounds (VOCs) – chemicals that evaporate as the paint dries and gives drying paint a chemical smell. Thus, the lower the better. Usually after the paint has dried, small amounts of VOCs continue to be released for years. These chemicals are known to exacerbate respiratory allergies and are harmful if released to the environment.

The good news is that this new generation of air-cleaning paint does not include any petrochemicals. In fact, the paint has anti-microbial, de-odorizing, anti-pollution properties and a low-VOC formula – translation: fresh air. When painting the room, I was also surprised that I wasn’t accosted by the noxious fumes that usually accompany the task.

According to the World Health Organisation, 30% of all new buildings show symptoms of “sick building syndrome” causing headaches and asthma attacks, which is especially common in air-conditioned buildings. Air-cleaning paint helps restore better indoor environments.

I finished painting my room a couple of days ago. The only drawback is that it is a tad whiter than I originally thought. But I guess that is a small price to pay for a better indoor environment.

That’s the sage advice from the City of Sydney in another of their ‘Green Villages’ animations. The statement makes reference to the amount of chemicals we regularly expose ourselves to in our own homes. Check out the video below.

Hmm. Don’t be a lab rat.

Chemicals and toxicity weren’t things I thought a great deal about until a few months ago when I watched a Jared Diamond TED talk and he named ‘toxicity’ as one of the 5 greatest threats to our civilisation. This piqued my interest and led me down a path of inquiry.

In December, during a GreenUps presentation by Julian Lee (of Food Connect Sydney) he recounted working at a conventional farm (that is, a non-organic or chemical farm) where he was required by law to don heavy-duty protective clothing, gloves and a mask in order to handle the chemicals that were used to spray food crops.  I quickly became alarmed by this insight into the type of chemicals we ingest.

This led me on to research pesticides in Australia (did you know there are 17 chemicals in common use in Oz which are banned everywhere else in the world?)

Then I attended a talk by an expert who advises the EU on the regulation of pesticides and genetically modified (GM) crops, Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini.  This opened up another scary can of knowledge worms including these stats:

• In 60 years, 200,000 chemicals have been authorised to spread in the world – by 8 major companies
• 50 pesticides will be found in any kg of any form of life (including DDT which has been banned for decades and formaldehyde!)

The most dangerous problems with these pollutants are:

• The combination of chemicals
• The bioaccumulation in people and other life forms over years and decades

These ‘dangerous problems’, (like.. oh.. cancer, deformity, fertility and organ damage) have been tested on actual lab rats. They haven’t yet been tested thoroughly or over long periods of time, and these ‘problems’ are already apparent.

Don’t be a lab rat!

Chemicals can linger in our environment and eventually make their way into our bodies. Without even knowing it, and despite our best efforts, we come in contact with these pollutants everyday — in our water, soil, air, food, and manufactured products. Many industrial contaminants can be measured in our tissues and blood. Traces of these chemicals have even been found in the blood of Inuit in northern Canada, although they live thousands of kilometers away from the original sources.

Kristan Aronson, PhD, The David Suzuki Foundation

So it’s no exaggeration to say that we are exposed to a ‘toxic cocktail’ of chemicals at all times, the effects of which are unknown. While food is one alarming area of their reach, so are chemicals in home – which WE put there. As the above animation clocks: ‘it’s like we’re conducting one big chemical experiment in our home’.

But there is another way!

The City of Sydney’s ‘Green Villages’ guys are running natural cleaning workshop with Shannon Lush on 21 May 2012.

They have also created this easy, practical guide to DIY natural cleaning – and it all involves products you can find in your cupboard at home. And.. they work.

So let’s start the chemical clean-up close to home. Click on the images below for a closer look at the guide.

The gorgeous Green Villages animations you’ve been seeing on Sustahood were created by Digital Eskimo who are a digital agency doing good.

So, instead of making ads for chemical cleaning products, they’re using their powers (ie. their incredible creative talent) for good, to inform people about greening their lifestyles. How about that?!

Nathan Ball

Collaborative consumption, biomimicry, community and social hub creation. Indicators, indexes and stakeholder inclusivity. These were the topics that dominated discussions at Green Cities 2012, the annual property conference to meet and share stories of sustainability progress in the industry.

Big players like Stockland, The GPT Group, Dexus and Westfield presented on a range of topics, while ‘key thinkers’ opened each day with innovative and inspiring ideas.

Over 1,500 delegates congregated at the Darling Harbour Convention Centre on March 5, 6 and 7 to listen, chat, and hopefully leave inspired to act in their own workplace.

This series of posts will give you insight into the conference via the major market trends that I took away.

Trend #1: Increasing Priority of the Stakeholder

Traditionally, many organisations have done their best to avoid interaction with stakeholders, be they local community groups, NGOs, or government. Increasingly this trend is reversing.

Led usually by a realisation that stakeholders can and do add value when engaged and consulted in a meaningful way, some businesses now even employ community relations professionals to manage and oversee stakeholder relationships and engagement, supported by internal policies and voluntary standards.

Building places where people live, work and gather requires a strong stakeholder engagement process. Frank Becker from Cornell University discussed the importance of designing and building places with the people who will use it and  keeping the purpose they will use it for at the centre of decision making. By integrating stakeholder interests in the building design there are likely to be greater sustainability outcomes too.

Figure 1: The Arnold Palmer Hospital for Women and Children in Florida. Despite the impressive architectural aesthetics the cylindrical nature of buildings contributed significantly to increased staff turnover by over 30%. Source: Archboston.org

We heard repeatedly from a number of property companies that community consultation plays a significant role in many aspects of their work. For Lend Lease and The City of Sydney, the controversial Barangaroo development went through multiple stages of engagement across the Sydney basin. From presenting at universities to meeting with business councils in the city, it was a clear objective of the Council to garner as great a stakeholder perspective as possible.

Trend #2: Natural Systems Thinking in Design

Mary-Ann Lazarus presented a fascinating ‘Key Thinkers Session’ on the concept of incorporating principles of biomimicry into the design of individual buildings or spaces, cities and even regions.

Biomimicry is broadly defined as reflecting nature and systems in design and planning.

Lazarus’ key question was ‘how will we create a city that is sustainable in 100 years’ time?’ She went on to talk about the six life principles that all natural systems and designs include. These are:

• Evolve to survive;
• Be resource efficient;
• Adapt to changing conditions;
• Integrate development with growth;
• Be locally attuned and responsive; and
• Use life-friendly chemistry.

Figure 2: HOK designed orphanage in Haiti being built following the 2010 earthquakes. The building design incorporates local natural design thinking and is best positioned to capture sun and wind. Source: buildipedia.org

To bring this to life she highlighted several examples, from the shape and dexterity of the whale fin being replicated in wind turbine and fan design to how planners are researching natural erosion control principles in the Pune region of India to respond to mudslides and soil loss.

Incorporating some or all of these principles in designing urban forms can be useful in responding to local climatic challenges, improving resource efficiency, and helping residents and workers feel more comfortable and productive.

Trend #3: Measuring Intangibles

Arguably, externalities are the business function that is responsible for damaging practises. Not being able to value or cost externalities can restrict organisations from proactively responding to an issue. For the built environment, measuring aspects like energy consumption, emissions, water use and waste generation was the beginning of sustainability economics and has grown significantly over the past decade.

Nils Kok presented on the idea of green building economics and demonstrated a compelling financial case as to why property developments benefit in the medium and long term by incorporating aspects of sustainability.

Something like social return on investment, still largely a black art in the Australian market, is gaining increased attention from developers as they rush to design and implement community programs or measure the financial benefits of supporting communities and the programs to the community itself.

This practice can be extended to better understanding metrics regarding employee productivity in the workplace, modelling of climate impacts, even putting tangible figures on the damage to brand reputation when controversy arises. It’s important to measure relevant aspects depending on each development. A developer needs to remember which indicators are relevant and can be measured.

Figure 3: The changing drivers of development. Employees have a growing voice in how buildings are designed and built, driven by a greater understanding of metrics like employee productivity. Source: Nils Kok

The application of economic modelling in a sustainability context provides tangible evidence of the benefits of ‘designing in’ specific environmental and/or social aspects like double glaze windows or accessible public space. It has the ability to act as a true market transformation tool in helping senior management, particularly CFOs, in recognising the advantages of initial outlays if a return can be guaranteed.

Trend #4: Collaborative Consumption

Rachel Botsman grew her reputation a little more at Green Cities 2012 with a polished and impressive key thinker spot. Speaking passionately about the growing trend of sharing, renting, borrowing, leasing and swapping goods, Botsman delivered a presentation that raised plenty of eyebrows in the audience and was one of the most popular of the conference.

Figure 4: The trends lending itself to the promotion of collaborative consumption. Source: blog.zimride.com

Moving beyond swapping an old DVD for another, collaborative consumption, or re-thinking the use of idle capacity in the built environment is an exciting one for developers and communities. Many were left wondering what they could do with all the extra office space they could do without, or the laneway next to their office. The opportunities to better incorporate and make use of idle capacity, be that products, services or places is something that some developments and cities are beginning to grasp. New York City has grasped the concept in some positive ways including making vacant warehouse and office space available to artists, designers and other entrepreneurs who wouldn’t normally be able to afford rents.

Could a developer better engage stakeholders at the planning stage to improve the purpose and amenity of shared public space to reduce its idle capacity, at the same time creating a vibrant local meeting point that reduces crime and encourages community building? Like the City of Sydney and Melbourne have done with some success in turning once gloomy and sometimes dangerous alleyways and lanes into handy walkways that also support local economic development with pop-up stores or small cafes and bars, better utilising idle space is advantageous for all parties.

Collaborative consumption goes beyond swapping a DVD or borrowing a car. The applicability to the built environment is largely bound by the developers or designers imagination. Innovative use of space, either inside or out, will help shape the development of creative places that people want to live and work in.

Trend #5: Climate change resilience and adaptation

Green Cities 2012 unveiled the soon-to-be-released Green Star Communities ratings tool. It’s due for public release in June this year and delegates got a sneak peak at the credits that are captured across five categories. Moving away from its traditional environment-only lens, the GBCA is encouraging developments to better incorporate corporate governance and liveability into their designs, along with environmental credits, to help drive the next trend in sustainable development.

Day three of the conference was ‘Education Day’ where two of the Green Star credits were discussed in  full day training sessions. These were climate change resilience and adaptation, and urban design.

The climate change credit is captured under the governance section of the tool to get organisations to take a more strategic approach to managing climate impact risks over the medium to long term. Stockland,  a leader in this area,  have begun assessing and responding to site specific risks. Many local governments around the country are now obligated to assess their climate change risks. Other businesses have also conducted this work. The credit is set out to help guide organisations in developing an appropriate response to their significant climate risks.

Building on the earlier point of the increasing the role of the stakeholder, the climate change resilience and adaptation credit speaks to a largely forgotten stakeholder group, future generations. Designing buildings that incorporate expected changes to the climate in 2030, 2050, 2070 and even 2100 is becoming critical as the impacts of more intense and frequent downpours, cyclones, heatwaves and sea level rises play out.

Figure 5: Stockland’s shopping centre in Cairns became a makeshift resident refuge centre during Cyclone Yasi in 2011. Developers are increasingly required to incorporate climate change resilience thinking in their development concept planning to respond to urgent community needs regarding natural disasters or other climate related events. Source: abc.net.au/news

The Green Star Communities tool is an ambitious step for the GBCA and any developer that takes it on. 100 points are up for grabs across the five categories and significant work will be required to reach the minimum 45 points to achieve the Communities seal. By incorporating largely new ideas such as social return on investment, climate change resilience and urban heat island, the tool is pushing boundaries and will hopefully support developers design and create spaces that communities enjoy and can prosper in.

Congratulations to GBCA and the Property Council of Australia for hosting a fantastic Green Cities 2012. The industry’s sustainability cohort appreciates the opportunity to mix and catch up every year in a stimulating and inspiring atmosphere. Ideas were shared, ideas were created. Let’s hope these are taken back to workplaces and approaches to implementing them developed and delivered.

1. The Enablers

The City of Sydney are fully committed to reducing Sydney’s impact on the environment, and one way they’re doing this is by helping people reduce food miles and eat healthy, local, seasonal (delicious) food. Below is one the great series of animations that they’ve developed, with help from Digital Eskimo, as part of their Green Villages program to help people understand and reduce their ‘food print’.

The City are doing an incredible job at enabling innovation and experimentation with local growing and city farming. They are doing what they do best and taking away as many of the administrative, funding and red tape headaches that community groups often have to wrangle with.

Did you know we have fifteen community gardens and two footpath gardens scattered throughout our villages? Time to get your hands dirty! @greenvillagesyd

Initiatives supported by the City include the upcoming ‘FOOD Print Challenge‘, a smorgasboard of free workshops and the support of community and verge gardens through their environmental grant and matching grant programs.

2. The Finders

Grow It Local are seeking out and connecting growers in Sydney through a fantastic online network which lets people share the best bits of growing your own: the fun, made visible through the sharing of photos of gardens and gardeners, and the food.

It’s a project that celebrates backyard, balcony, community and windowsill food farming.

To participate simply register your patch, of any shape or size.

Then share photos and news about how your growing is going. And if you’re really good at it, and end up with some food, you can trade a bag of produce for a place at a Local Grower’s Supper prepared by the guys at Three Blue Ducks.

More images like ‘Figs and Eggs’ (right) can be viewed on their Pinterest board.

3. The Keepers

A keeper is one of those friends or heroes in your life who you would never let go of.

And a keeper if I ever knew one is Costa Georgiadis, who has the entirety of his head, heart and hands all working on shifting people’s attitude towards their food. You may know him as the energetic edible-plant grower on ABC’s Gardening Australia., but he’s also got his sleeves rolled up in and around
Sydney.

Indira Naidoo’s caramel voice was part of the Australian diet of politics and current affairs during her years as a presenter of SBS News.

Now she’s helping to transform diets by writing about her incredible small-space growing skills in her book The Edible Balcony.

Indira is active in the grassroots growing community in Sydney, the GreenUps crowd had a great chat with her at the ‘Paddock to Plate’ event in 2011.

4. The Wheelers

With the help of The City of Sydney, local vans are joining the global fleet food trucks.

The Veggie Patch food van is a collaboration between two Sydney businesses: Yulli’s – a vegetarian restaurant, and TMOD – a design studio. They’re taking locally grown food on the road and direct to punters.

The herbs for the van are to be grown on the roof. You can’t get any closer to the source than that! The remainder of the produce will be sourced from local farms, and will be eaten seasonally according to the principles of the ‘Paddock to Plate’ movement. Hear Karl from Veggie Patch talk about their van.

5. The Dealers

So what do you do when you’ve grown your own – but your selection extends only to carrots, tomatoes and parsley? And you’ve got too many of those! You trade with other people who are growing their own. Local Harvest is a new tool which helps you find good food, close to you.

It gives you a regional directory of producers close to you, and could connect you with people who might appreciate your surplus rocket.

So if you can’t grow it all on your own, this helps you grow it ultra-local.

The providores, merchants, distributors and vendors of locally farmed food are also becoming a force to be reckoned with in Sydney. Check out the legends at FoodConnect for your own seasonal, local, organic box.

The gorgeous Green Villages animations you’ve been seeing on Sustahood were created by Digital Eskimo who are a digital agency doing good.

So, instead of making ads for chemical cleaning products, they’re using their powers (ie. their incredible creative talent) for good, to inform people about greening their lifestyles. How about that?!