The State of Greenness in Melbourne, Australia: Part 3

February 22^nd to Feb 26^th, 2010

Green Cities and Universities Report: Part 3

by Garry Baverstock AM, Adjunct Professor, Murdoch University, Western Australia

Low Cost/ High Impact Solutions
I was impressed with the ANU program; led by Beth Mitchell, that engaged students in the implementation to same water wastage, waste minimization and reduction of energy use in the campus. This low-tech, low cost, economically viable approach will achieve more off the bottom line than the university going on the rampage developing a whole raft of green buildings around Australia, while demolishing old assets and not adapting them. The total ecological approach really has been a great strength of Murdoch University over many years, due mainly to economic necessity. It is strength, especially when current capital injections by the Federal government slow down. There is not a lot of money in green low-tech initiatives for the administration or the university economy as a whole. However such initiatives can a huge impact on our students and their integration into a real world and real jobs. One just has to look at the career of ABC celebrity Josh Byrne, an ETC product and how his career has blossom as a direct result of his hands on education at Murdoch. When “life after stimulus packages” occurs in Australia and the realities facing our economy crystallize out, there may impact on university managerial thinking in relation to infrastructure/building assets and the balance of expenditure on course development and practical research programs.

One of the key aspects of the conference that was mainly attended by administrators was the lack of cohesion between many administrators and academics. I was asked a question along those lines at my presentation. I basically pointed out that there was a large communication problem from my experience. The administrators should be more engaging with the academics that often have huge teaching, marking, tutoring and their own administrative burdens. The responsibility surely falls on the shoulders of the administrators, as they are the managers. A good manager not only manages the macro issues, but also sees it through somehow in a day-to-day situation. God is in the detail as they say. There must be a spirit of teamwork created and a sound level of trust between the two camps. The administrators must be capable of being good coaches and build respect from their academics. Often academics are on the brink of burn out due to the nature of their work and this must be a large concern for a good manager. While each party stayed in their own bunkers nobody was winning. Healthy linkage between camps is imperative as is the linkage to outside businesses and professionals. This is another important ingredient for the viability or sustainability of universities. I recount the Thomas Edison example given earlier. Universities need to tap in and help such people who through enterprise and genius can transform the world dramatically often with a single breakthrough. The reality is that they do not wait for universities to come up with the solutions, but could include them in the process if University administrators are prudent and creative enough to see it and use their time wisely to establish prudent linkages with such people.

Green Building Council Impacts
The Green Building Council of Australia tour as part of the Green Cities conference program was very well organized and presented. I went on the Dockland tour and it is obvious that the GBCA is making a difference with building developers and architects. I fully support this independent approach. It is healthy and cannot be hijacked by governments or any particular industry. My biggest fear is that eventually governments will attempt to control this as Greenstar approach as it is brought into the compliance system.

This will not be healthy and will impose a huge financial burden on the building industry if operated and policed by the bureaucracy. Eventually it will lead to corruption of the process and innovation as industry lobby groups through the political process hijack the agenda to advantage their vested interest. Professionals in the industry must keep a watchful eye on this danger to the system and support the organization and get involved to keep it a balanced ownership of all stakeholders and keep the focus on the public interest.

Having said all that, there is no improvement that will need to be made in serving the public interest first and the development industry in accordance with that mandate, we need to bench mark all greenhouse targets and quoting of emissions performances with a base line performance with 1990 energy and water use figures. This base line should be the averaged performance per square metre/annum for that year. If the performance percentages quoted as part of the GreenStar rating is related to a comparison with the worst practice for that building type then we are going to be sailing blind in assessing our progress in abating Climate Change. I will need to check this out more closely sometime with the technical people at the GBCA to clarify the basis for benchmarking the greenhouse emissions and energy savings figures quoted as part of the ratings.

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The State of Greenness in Melbourne, Australia: Part 2

February 22^nd to Feb 26^th, 2010

Green Cities and Universities Report: Part 2

by Garry Baverstock AM, Adjunct Professor, Murdoch University, Western Australia

Green Universities Conference
The main thrust of the Green universities program, apart from the show and tell presentations about built examples and renovations of university buildings, was the a concentration of how university campuses were going to adapt to Climate Change, increasing air temperatures and humidity, and water shortages, as well as the economic imposts in dealing with these changes. My Murdoch University/RISE presentation was different to most, because it focused on what we were doing educationally, not on what we should be doing. Administrators dominated the attendance list and for that reason I felt that mitigation and understanding Climate Change impacts in the long term, was not given the balanced treatment it deserved. All too often it was all about development and new buildings, to my mind was unfortunate because the main issue for the next 40 years is adaptive re-use of buildings. Big money, big investment means more consumption and uncontrolled growth and more adverse impacts on Climate Change.

Adapting a Way Where Failure is not an Option
Professor Geoff Scott University of West Sydney (UWS) was particularly fired up over the success of his university, in sourcing $40 million for a program of research into the elements of achieving a sustainable future for Australia and how UWS and others, as part of his network, could produce meaningful results. His enthusiasm was impressive and given his success in securing such large funding, he had a very good reason to be proud of himself and his colleagues. His emphasis on a collegiate approach between academics and managers made sense and his strategic advice to the audience was inspiring. However it occurred to me that Thomas Edison didn’t go to university, nor did he need a well functioning committee to invest and commercialize the light globe. The ability of leaders at universities to tap into good ideas, link into networks and secure the funding is the province of a well functioning university. But to suggest that sustainability progress will emanate from universities was lacking credibility because technological and economical advancements have never often occurred that way in the past. I doubt whether it will in the future either.

I understood what he was getting at. It is important to be wary of over zealous “white knights” in universities who seem to know more than most but have never done anything substantial in the real world under realistic economic conditions.

But, he and others pointed out the importance of adaptive management of all aspects from the big picture of population growth to downscale aspects of developing building and infrastructure and courses relevant for the 21st century.

The development of green buildings at the University of Sydney illustrated that there has been a huge influx of Federal funds into many campuses for the development of building and the sustainable strings attached. Given the fact that Australians consume materials at a rate that would need four planets, as pointed out by one of the speakers, to supply the rest of the world should every individual follow in our footsteps is sobering and questions the over use of the word ”sustainable”. Sustainable for whom, one could logically ask?

The conference presentations and papers were varied and definitely made the journey worthwhile. The case studies and impressive initiatives such as the Mirvac school of Development at Bond University, as delivered by Robert Stable, couldn’t help light a bright pathway to a sustainable built environment. I saw huge potential for Murdoch if handled in a prudent way and at the right scale. But on the other hand I saw much of the discussion centred round the adaptation to climate change rather than an attitude to conquer it. The Risk management discussion from AECOM’s Michael Nolan was particularly useful as it drew the audience back to the realities of Climate Change for the next 50 years and beyond and the different scenarios if abatement and mitigation actions were not taken. For me this the prime concern that universities should be using as a platform for their actions. Ultimately, it is definitely not about building as many state of the art “green” buildings as fast as possible.

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The State of Greenness in Melbourne, Australia: Part 1

February 22^nd to Feb 26^th, 2010

Green Cities and Universities Report: Part 1

by Garry Baverstock AM, Adjunct Professor, Murdoch University, Western Australia

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Co-Founder & Director Garry Baverstock reports on his visit to Melbourne, Australia where he attended the Green Universities Conference 2010 & the Green Building Council’s “Green Cities” Program.

Melbourne Tries to Practice what it Preaches
As a city encompassing sustainable living patterns, Melbourne seems to practice what it preaches. Like all cities in the modern world it still has a long way to go before it could be considered as contributing soundly to world progress. The avoidance of further damage to our natural world is what counts, and ultimately our own existence on planet earth. Though in watching and listening people present their views on the subject, I could help feel that “sustainability” has a new corrupted meaning for many people. They obviously believe that keeping business as usual is their interpretation of the word. This is of course a hijacked connotation of the original meaning of the term, emanating from the WCED UN decree in 1987. Very few of the presenters tied their actions to short, medium or long-term targets of performance, but more later.

Green Events in February
Late February saw a number of events spring up in the city that focused attention to sustainability issues as it applies to all Australians. The Green Building Council held a major event, the Green Cities Conference, Exhibition, Masters Classes at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre and tours to recently completed “GreenStar” rated buildings around the city. The Green Universities Conference was held concurrently at the Rendezvous Hotel in central Melbourne. As one of the guest speakers my mission was to present a case study of the new 50kW PV array on the library roof, as well give a run down of Murdoch University’s long history of Environmental studies and research, and the many facets that the university is currently involved with in the field of Renewable Energy and sustainability of the built and natural environments. It was obvious that Murdoch University is a small player in the over all action of securing “funding” for sustainability investment and course development. But it is obvious that we are very good at delivering educated and trained people for “green” jobs.

During the last week of February Melbourne was all a buzz about sustainability. There was a large expo in Federation Square that featured the all-important impacts on the natural world and human health. Land care programs, water resources Forestry and personal exercise and diet information featured strongly in the exhibits. There were some extremely relevant messages being presented about lifestyles and positive attitudes to their natural environment. As I walked around I wondered if the numerous obese, unfit, smoking crew that made up a large proportion of the visitors wandering through the stalls actually got the message when applied to them.

Surely, the next important step in addressing climate change properly will be that of the fostering of a solid public consciousness and what cultural changes are going to be mandatory. About that time, I looked up and across to the AFL’s headquarters nearby to Federation Square, the famous MCG Aussie football and cricket ground. I flashed back to the third quarter in a 1960s address at a nail biting Grand Final and couldn’t help imagining the voice of John Kennedy, the legendary football coach of the premiership winning team Hawthorn, screaming out “Don’t think, Do!” Culture change has some distance to go before walking the talk is a common way of looking at life. Evolution is the key. Revolution is definitely not on most government’s or industry agendas as evident in the ambivalent action emanating from Copenhagen.

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