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Healthy Buildings in Brisbane

We’re at Brisbane at the Healthy Buildings Conference this week, so if you are there, come and say hello. The international gathering of researchers is interested in questions about maintaining indoor air quality and reducing energy use buildings. The premise is that a “healthy” building should really be both these things. Is you've been following Green Buildings Alive for a while you would know we are equally interested in people's comfort and productivity in their workplace as we are in finding low-energy solutions. The conference has set up Twitter @HB2012 and #HB2012, if you like to check in that way.

The opening plenary featured Professor Jiang Yi from the School of Architecture at Tsinghua University, who gave examples and data of how Chinese buildings are typically lower energy use than in many developed countries, simply because occupants have more control over their environments, they can open windows and turn air-conditioning on and off rather than relying on a central system. His presentation data showed that if the rest of the world operated buildings the way North America does, we would need 180% of todays's generating capacity to power them.

Learn about green leases on video

Earlier this year, Craig Roussac spoke at the first major event of the City of Sydney’s Better Buildings Partnership with UNSW Faculty of Law and industry leaders on the topic of Best Practice Leasing and “green leasing”. He shared the podium with Susan Bright, Professor of Land Law at Oxford, Prof. Richard De Dear, Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney.

Prof Bright introduces the topic as “how leases can support and promote better environmental performance” rather than some “pre-packaged idea of what should go in them.” In her view, this means looking at the whole leasing structure to see ways it could be amended and improved to enable better environmental performance of the built environment. The presentations explain how innovative leases can be used to boost our industry’s contribution to the productivity of Australia while decreasing our burden on the environment.

Video of the talks and vox pops from the attendees are available on the Better Buildings Partnership’s dedicated site.

Craig has co-authored a paper with Susan Bright, Oxford Professor of Land Law; a case study in improving environmental performance through innovative commercial leasing, which is published in the International Journal of Law in the Built Environment. There's a promotion of this journal this month, so if you would like temporary free access, please contact us.

Image Credit: Slavo Valigursky/Shutterstock