Carolyn Viney to co-lead Assemble with Kris Daff in ownership reshuffle
Super funds AustralianSuper and HESTA have taken majority stake in housing developer Assemble, in a move they say will boost housing supply and unlock institutional capital in a portfolio of housing assets through an “end to end” investment model.
Assemble will retain its name and operate under Super Housing Partnerships, an investment management company that initially gained funding from HESTA in November 2022 to invest in developing a pipeline of mixed tenure built to rent apartment projects in Victoria.
The new look Assemble will adopt a co-leadership model, with Kris Daff continuing as its managing director and Carolyn Viney, formerly Super Housing Partnership’s chief executive, moving over as chief executive of Assemble.
Assemble has staked its reputation on housing solutions for middle and lower income earners, and the social, affordable, essential worker and disability sectors.
Clients are offered an integrated build to rent model and home ownership pathways such as “build to rent to own” and “build to sell” living options around good amenities and capital cities.
See a recent note on Assemble’s Kensington project in Melbourne’s inner west.
Tree topping at Norwest Quarter
Norwest Quarter, Mulpha’s sustainable residential development, held a tree topping ceremony earlier this week. The Scandinavian tradition, now popular with builders, traditionally includes hoisting a pine tree to the top of a framed building to mark the start of the building’s enclosing.
The apartment plans to deliver 196 net zero ready apartments that will consume 50 per cent less electricity from the grid and be powered by 100 per cent renewable energy with an all electric design.
Ohme partners with OSW
Ohme, which produces smart electric vehicle charging technology, has partnered with OSW, one of Australia’s largest solar panel distributors, allowing customers to purchase Ohme’s ePod charger and its new home pro chargers, which are due to hit the market soon.
The chargers are compatible with solar technology, offer Wi-Fi connectivity, and are cheaper due to their dynamic tariff integration. The two companies hope to take advantage of the increasing uptake in EVs to push through greener and smarter technology to EV owners.
Drinks company flags sustainability achievements
After winning the best environmental sustainability initiative award at the 2024 Australian Drinks Awards, giant drink company Lion has released its 2023 sustainability report outlining some of its carbon emission reduction and science-based target achievements.
These include a near term SBT seven years ahead of schedule and reducing scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 64 per cent, saving 58,016 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent since its 2019 baseline level. The organisation has surpassed its reduction target of 55 per cent by 2030.
The beverage company noted that electricity was its biggest producer of emissions and had reduced its scope 2 emissions by over 99.9 per cent after securing its 100 per cent renewable power purchase agreement in Queensland and NSW.
Brands owned and produced by Lion include Tooheys, Little Creatures, James Squire, Four Pillars Gin and Stone & Wood.
Chris Bowen gets even more clear on nuclear energy
On Wednesday, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen delivered a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra on Australia’s Energy Choice in the Critical Decade.
He reminded Australians that the choice between renewables and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s nuclear energy plan over the next twelve months will “shape the next decade.”
He also flagged that the government would make “First Nations engagement one of the merit criteria under our Capacity Investment Scheme and make the First Nations Clean Energy Strategy a focus of the Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council Forum.
He said that 2050 was not the start date for action “it’s the deadline for delivery.” He also reminded the industry that “investment is vital now” after losing 4 gigawatts of dispatchable energy over the last decade.
He then called out Nationals Leader David Littleproud for saying we need to “sweat the coal assets for longer” – saying “he is describing a recipe for reliability ruin.”
Bowen also called out the Liberals for misinformation about “the world going down the nuclear road”, saying, “The world adds more wind and solar every few weeks than it does nuclear all year.
“We can have a mature debate on renewable energy and the nuclear alternative by all means.
“But a mature debate requires facts, and the Liberals and Nationals have provided pitifully few so far.”
Industry consultation open for B-Cycle
The Battery Stewardship Council is seeking industry consultation on design of its B-cycle Scheme.
The government backed scheme was launched in early 2022 as a national infrastructure program that makes it easy for Australians to recycle single use and rechargeable batteries.
The council said the review was necessary to recognise market changes and the evolving risk profile of batteries. It also acknowledged that the current scheme was limited and did not provide adequate financial arrangements necessary for the market and economic changes. Further regulations were also needed to ensure full participation and prevent free riding.
The feedback survey is available until 2 August 2024.
Infrastructure Australia releases new report
A new report by Infrastructure Australia, titled Embodied Carbon Projections for Australian Infrastructure and Buildings, has provided quantifying data on the baseline of upfront embodied carbon in Australia’s built environment.
It found that buildings and infrastructure are directly responsible for a third of Australia’s total carbon emissions and indirectly for over half of them.
Jeremy Mansfield, who heads Mansfield Advisory pointed to data that showed construction activity will produce between 37 to 64 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in upfront embodied carbon each year for 5 years to 2026-27. Totaling 247 metric tonnes of CO2e.
“Upfront emissions (A1-A5) account for 7 per cent of Australia’s national emissions in 2022–23, with most of these emissions originating from the manufacture of construction materials,” he wrote on social media.
The report recommended that 23 per cent of these emissions can be abated by employing practical decarbonisation strategies by 2026-2027.
Nectr partners with Plenti on low cost green loans
Solar and battery providers Nectr has partnered with loan providers Plenti to offer its customers affordable financing options to shift their homes to solar and battery.
Plenti had previously been chosen by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation as its inaugural financier for the government’s $1 billion household energy upgrades fund, allowing the lenders to receive $60 million to lend out at low cost and for the long term.
The loans are intended to make access to solar batteries and other eligible energy efficient technology more affordable by offering low interest rates exclusively to green loan customers.
Tae Hong Kim, managing director of Nectr, said access to low cost financing will allow customers, partner installers, and manufacturers access to clean energy solutions where they otherwise can’t.
NSW announces new Net Zero Commission
The NSW government has established a new Net Zero Commission – an independent body of experts tasked with monitoring, reviewing and reporting on the state’s progress towards its emission reduction targets under the Climate Change (Net Zero Future) Act 2023.
These targets include a 50 per cent reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, a 70 per cent reduction by 2035 and net zero emission by 2050.
Among the appointees is Maria Atkinson, a co-founder of The Green Building Council of Australia and moderator of the retrospective with David Chandler we’re hosting on Tuesday, 23 July, in Glebe, live and online.
Also announced for the new outfit is chair Dr Paul Grimes, with board members Oliver Costello, Professor Frank Jotzo, Katerina Kimmorley, Meg McDonald, Professor Andy Pitman, and ex-officio member Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte, NSW chief scientist.
Land sold on Parramatta Road raises question on broken election promise
The New South Wales government’s decision to sell public-owned land in Camperdown, in Sydney’s inner west has disappointed many people, but the silence in the public sphere has been deafening.
Not so from the Australian Institute of Architects NSW, however.
The institute noted t election promises made by current Premier Chris Minns to introduce a target of 30 per cent affordable, social and inclusive housing on unused public land.
Instead, the property was sold off with no mandate provisions on social and affordable housing despite the land on Parramatta Road being ideal for social and affordable housing due to its proximity to essential services and transport infrastructure.
The institute’s NSW president, Adam Haddow, said that the body is pushing for affordable housing provisions to be perpetual and managed by registered not-for-profit organisations to prevent short term profiteering and ensure long term stability for vulnerable populations.
New visual mapping technique unveiled
Australia will be strongly represented next week at the Netherlands’ prestigious Robotics Science and Systems conference next week.
Dr Alejandro Fontan Villacampa from the Queensland University of Technology School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics and Professor Michael Milford, the QUT Centre for Robotics director, will share insights into a new technology named the visual SLAM, designed to help robots, drones and autonomous vehicles navigate by creating a map of its surroundings and keeping track of their location within the map.
However, traditionally, SLAM systems require experts to manually switch between different features of a robot to navigate different conditions. The new technology upgrades the widely used ORB-SLAM2 by automating the switch between visual features and optimising the performance of each feature. Dr Fontan said that automating the cumbersome tuning process would make the systems more accessible and easier to deploy in real world situations.
Robots gain whiskers
More on tech: researchers at Flinders University have developed high tech “whiskers” to attach to robots, which enhances their ability to move around safely.
While lasers and camera vision might be used to instruct the robot on movement, research finds that lightweight, cheap and flexible whiskers could give workplace and domestic robots additional tactile abilities to navigate in confined and cluttered spaces.
The functionality of the whiskers will be similar to rat whiskers in that the sensors can be used to overcome a robot’s range finder or camera blind spot, said Simon Pegoli, a Flinders College of Science and Engineering PhD candidate. The whiskers can also determine the properties of objects and whether they can be moved aside, which is impossible with a camera or usual range-finder sensors.
Researchers hope the whiskers will function like human fingertips and help assess weight, shape, and objects in the real world and in different environments.
Pattern Book Competition
Expressions of interest are now open for the New South Wales government’s pattern book design competition. Architects and students worldwide are encouraged to submit bold and innovative ideas for terrace houses and mid rise apartments that are sustainable, easy to build and affordable.
The professional category winner will have the opportunity to bring their designs to life on several government-owned sites. Once published, developers who use the new pattern book will also have access to accelerated approval, allowing people to move into homes sooner.
The expression of interest closes on 9 August, and the first stage of the pattern book is estimated to be available in early 2025.
Kapitol installs new tech solar windows
The Construction, Forestry, Maritime, and Employees Union’s new training and wellness centre in the Melbourne CBD will become the first in Australia to install ClearVue’s solar glass technology, allowing their windows to convert sunlight to energy.
The smart building material specialists said it was contacted by the Kapitol Group, who were contracted to improve the union’s performance. The technology is estimated to generate 80 to 90 per cent of the building’s major power through existing or new glass surfaces and insulation.
The union was also the first project in Australia to specify ClearVue’s building integrated photovoltaics technology from the outset.
A new international standard on net zero is now in the works
BSI, a business improvement and standards company appointed by the UK government as its national standards body, is now undertaking work to develop an independently verifiable international standard on net zero. The process is expected to clarify net zero transition and provide robust climate actions to accelerate progress towards sustainability amongst all national standards bodies across more than 170 countries.
The standards will be developed over the next 18 months to launch at COP30 in November 2025. Public consultation is expected to open later in 2025 to support global input.
Retirement villages are helping with the housing affordability crisis
A new Property Council and PwC report finds that retirement villages are a key factor in solving the housing affordability issue suffered across the nation. The report said that the cost of a two bedroom unit in a retirement village is 43 per cent cheaper than those of the same postcode on average.
Retirement Living Council executive director Daniel Gannon said the data showed that retirement villages are playing a key role in affordable housing – meaning it’s time for the government to start tackling the crisis, starting with age friendly housing.
He said retirement communities help older Australians find the “right size” into a suitable home while injecting a bigger home back onto the market for young homebuyers. However, retirement villages operate at full capacity with a five per cent vacancy rate.
Building costs are rising
The Altus Group has released the latest in its Australian Construction Material Price Outlook, looking at the costs of eight construction materials monitored over the first quarter of 2024.
Four of the materials monitored have risen over the quarter, while the cost of two materials necessary for clean energy transition, copper and timber, is falling due to unpopular domestic demands. Structural steel and rebar have also stabilised this quarter due to slowdowns in major steel consuming sectors.
Meanwhile, housing statistics are not keeping pace with population growth, with only 172,000 dwellings completed last year – 19.7 per cent below the pre-pandemic annual rate of 214,000.
The report finds that residential projects are now becoming unfeasible as sale prices and projected rents won’t cover land, construction, labour, financing, and government fees, which calls for more government intervention in social and affordable housing.
CEFC tracks natural capital investments in new report
The Clean Energy Finance Corporation has launched a new report with metrics assessing existing and potential investments in emerging natural capital assets and decarbonisation.
The new Measuring what matters: an approach for natural capital investors report is also designed to attract capital to the sector by introducing a rating system to benchmark sustainability outcomes, which allows investors to compare and prioritise initiatives that improve the land against emission and sustainability targets.
Australia to gain its first commercial life science precinct
Life science and bio-medical property investors Kurraba Group flagged the launch of the nation’s first life sciences precinct, featuring a campus of high tech laboratories, knowledge workspaces, and other necessary infrastructure.
The $490 million development is slated for the 26,000 square metre development sites at 100 Botany Road, Waterloo, 2 kilometres from Sydney’s CBD and is estimated to create 1200 jobs.
The developers said the Campus will drive investment, productivity and growth in the advanced medical and health sector and assist with commercialising local research and development – which is lost offshore.
This new research finds alternatives to microplastics
A new study conducted by Hydra Marine Sciences, a German-based institute for aquatic research, documentation, and consulting, found that bioplastic polylactic acid (PLA) may be a suitable replacement for non-biodegradable plastics.
The PLA is currently one of the most common biobased plastics due to its versatility, circularity, and low carbon footprint. It is also used in various products such as cups, cutlery, bin liners, and food packaging. The material is made with plant sugar fermented using lactic acid – a non toxic chemical produced by the human body.
Results of the research found that when PLA is exposed to nature through composting, hydrolysis or biodegradation, the carbon dioxide and water contained in the original plant used to make the material will return to nature, leaving no traces of persistent nano microplastic.
However, HYDRA Marine Sciences managing director Christian Lott warns that degradation of any material must be balanced, and this research does not encourage littering or the slowing of global waste infrastructure development.