Sydney’s green space is increasingly under pressure from a growing population and increased development. As discussed in The Urban Sanctuary report, the Total Environment Centre (TEC) has created the Urban Sanctuary campaign to foster an urgently-needed long-term vision for remnant …

Sydney Urban Sanctuary campaign Read more »

The NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer has released a report addressing cumulative impacts of activities in the Sydney water catchment, such as long wall mining and coal seam gas extraction, finding no evidence to suggest current activities in the catchment …

Study addressing cumulative impacts in Sydney water catchment, including from mining and CSG extraction Read more »

The new Brisbane City Plan 2014 has been approved and has a commencement date of 30 June 2014. It will guide how land in Brisbane can be used and developed. Environmental information resources include biodiversity and waterways, natural hazards (including …

Brisbane City Plan 2014 – environmental information resources Read more »

Mitigating summertime overheating is increasingly viewed as a key issue in urban planning – a warming climate and increasing urbanisation will exacerbate the problem. The research paper The effectiveness of retrofitted green and cool roofs at reducing overheating in a …

Effectiveness of retrofitted green and cool roofs at reducing overheating in a naturally ventilated office Read more »

Strategic approaches to biodiversity conservation can mitigate the cumulative impacts of development on biodiversity. For two perspectives on strategic approaches see Strategic approaches to planning for conservation and development on page 12 of the latest issue of Decision Point magazine, and …

Strategic approaches to biodiversity conservation Read more »

The Draft NSW Biodiversity Offsets Policy for Major Projects aims to clarify, standardise and improve biodiversity offsetting for major project approvals. The policy will apply to state significant development and state significant infrastructure under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act …

Draft NSW Biodiversity Offsets Policy for Major Projects Read more »

Integrating biodiversity into local plans and actions offers many opportunities for local sustainable development. The main goal of the EU Local Skills for Biodiversity Project is to improve the knowledge, skills and competences of local staff to integrate conservation and …

EU Local Skills for Biodiversity Project Read more »

The SURF Framework for a Sustainable Economy moves beyond the triple-bottom-line approach to sustainable development to place emphasis on the quadruple bottom line. As a result of analyzing the on-the-ground reality of attempting to transform products and services for sustainable …

SURF Framework for a Sustainable Economy Read more »