How to build a better world

In this episode of the How to Build a Better World podcast, The Fifth Estate's managing editor Tina Perinotto sat down with Sarah Ratcliffe, CEO of the Better Buildings Partnership, to pick her brains over several hot topics facing the real estate sector in the UK.BBP UK is a collaboration of major property owners in the UK with 51 members holding around £280 billion (A$493) worth of assets under management – so when this group turns its attention to energy efficiency and sustainability you can be sure you’ll get cut through in the entire market.Sarah said that although there is a long way to go in the UK when it comes to sustainability, she is optimistic about what the future will bring. “I think the UK is making some really good strides here... because time is short."read the article on our website: https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/rating-tools/sarah-ratcliffe-nabers-uk-optimism-and-collaboration/Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu

On this latest episode of How to Build a Better World, our managing editor Tina Perinotto talks to Mathew Nelson – the first Oceania chief sustainability officer at EY – about what’s getting big Fortune 500 companies ticking on the climate question.For someone at the big end of town, leading the sustainability team at a company that’s 300,000 strong globally, he’s remarkably down to earth and happy to share practical insights into the big questions around our transition to low or zero carbon and what’s getting in the way.Clients are larger businesses – ASX200 listed, NZ 50 listed or globally, fortune 500s – all big household names like BHP, Santos, Origin Energy, Mirvac, Stockland, and CSL. That larger reach – coupled with the fact he’s been at the company for 20 years – means he’s able to see the broader trends in the ESG and climate space.Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu

NEW PODCAST: On this latest episode of How to Build a Better World, our managing editor, Tina Perinotto, spoke with Paul King from Bentley about how new technology like building information models (BIMs) and digital twins can help designers and engineers make better choices about building design and maintenance. It’s an exciting world that is starting to look a bit like the sci-fi image we read about in stories about gaming or fiction. A parallel universe in cyberspace that we can – hopefully – step in and out of at will. That’s pretty much what these brainy people in the digital world are getting at. All in the name of generating and managing digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of buildings. Because quite frankly, once a building is built, it’s too late to do much to change its essential structure and much of its inbuilt services.As the solution director of construction at infrastructure engineering software company Bentley Systems, Paul King leads the global construction solutions engineering teams; he  implements the business strategy for the company’s software portfolio, supports the project delivery organisations with their digital transformation, and helps them to create tailored strategies focused on business value and integrating them into everyday operations.Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu

In our latest podcast, our managing editor, Tina Perinotto, spoke with Alan Pears about how he got started in the sustainability and energy efficiency space, and the “big challenge ahead of us”. Alan Pears is probably Australia’s favourite, most trusted and reliable “go-to” authority on energy efficiency. And no wonder. He’s been around since the dawn of the environmental movement in the 1970s and initiated many of its big leaps forward. While a lot has changed since then, Alan’s recollections on this podcast of the journey, the political setbacks, the successes, plus the challenges still in front of us are a clear demonstration of why he continues to hold that special place in the sustainability sector's heart. And he told The Fifth Estate that while the environmental movement has undoubtedly made leaps and bounds since its inception, much more needs to be done in the next few years. “We are locked into a lot of pain,” he says. “And what we need to do is plan ahead so that we help people avoid that pain or minimise that.” Find out what steps Pears says are critical to meeting that challenge – including specific technical requirements for energy efficiency, how government policy can push the needle, what’s happening overseas with hydrogen, the latest technological improvements in the sector, and the importance of cross-sector business collaboration.Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu

In our latest podcast, our managing editor, Tina Perinotto, spoke with Ainsley Simpson all about the surprising world of green infrastructure.Ainsley Simpson is the chief executive officer of the Infrastructure Sustainability Council (ISC), a member-based peak body that's purpose-driven, ensuring all infrastructure delivers social, cultural, environmental and economic benefits. At The Fifth Estate we’ve long been fascinated by the infrastructure sector – with some conflicting tensions playing a part.On the one hand is the enormous amount of carbon that’s consumed in traditional big projects, such as roads and bridges. On the other is the massive savings in carbon that can be made by bringing a sustainability lens to the job.But as Ainsley explains so beautifully in this insightful podcast, there’s so much more to infrastructure and much of it can enable our bright new better world.Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu

In our latest podcast, our managing editor, Tina Perinotto, spoke with Dan Hill all about his new role at Melbourne University’s School of Design. Dan Hill’s got a bit of a fan club in Australia. So there was no surprise that the announcement in April that he was to be director was well received. (No pressure, Dan.)It’s a job that’s lured him back to Oz after more than 10 years away, during which his City of Sound blog kept tabs on his projects in Scandinavia, the UK and Italy. Most recently he worked at Stockholm University in Sweden, where he held the position of Director of Strategic Design for the Swedish Government’s innovation and research agency, Vinnova.There was also the “influential” book Dark Matter & Trojan Horses: A Strategic Design Vocabulary, as the university noted in its announcement of the appointment.Dean of the school, professor Julie Willis told me at his appointment that what was particularly interesting was Dan’s blend of skills from urban infrastructure to technology that she thinks students would crucially need by the time they graduated.  Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu

On our latest podcast, our managing editor, Tina Perinotto, spoke with Dr Tyson Yunkaporta about his recent book, Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World. The Apalech clan member is a deep and wide thinker, an academic and poet who dabbles in traditional wood carving. He’s innovative, provocative, and pulls no punches when he’s talking about the impact of white settlers on this land and on Australia’s Indigenous People. As a senior research fellow at Deakin University, he has been responsible for establishing the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab – creating a space where Indigenous practitioners can come together and apply Indigenous thinking to different contexts around the world. “This economic system came from a 10,000 year old experiment of separating from the mother. They invented the word for nature in order to separate themselves: separate the human from nature – separate from the mother. Once you do that, you are then free to displace your matriarchs, you are then free to displace the centre of your community – which is the mother and the child – and all relationships in human communities.” Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu

On our latest podcast, our managing editor, Tina Perinotto, spoke with Beck Dawson, who has been Sydney’s chief resilience officer since 2015.Her role basically involves worrying about the potential disasters that might befall Australia’s biggest city, and how to build resilience in the community… just in case.It’s a big job. In Beck’s case it involves 33 councils in Sydney as well as state government, business and the community, and plenty of links to resilience experts in other cities around the world.Back when she first started her role, people didn’t always understand what she meant by “resilience”.After three years of fires and floods, not to mention the drought that preceded the fires, they sure do.As for what’s keeping her up at night? Quite a lot. But namely Aussie’s “She’ll be right” attitude.Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu

On our latest podcast, our managing editor, Tina Perinotto, spoke with energy efficiency expert Dr Paul Bannister. Last year, the physicist was awarded the James Harrison Medal, which is the highest honour bestowed by AIRAH, Australia’s body for the HVAC industry.Few people know more about energy efficient buildings than Dr Paul Bannister, who was one of the original architects behind the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS).Paul headed up his company Exergy for more than 15 years before it was absorbed into Energy Action. He is now director of innovation at Australian energy management consultancy DeltaQ. He’s now working on the next update to Section J, the sustainability component of the National Construction Code.Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu

Dawn O’Neill is one of those quiet achievers who’s helping to change the world. As the chief executive of eWater, she’s getting rid of toxic chemicals in our kitchens and buildings. If you care about the chemicals that end up in our waterways and oceans,  you’ll be fully behind her dream that her product could be to the cleaning industry and what solar panels have been to the fossil fuel industry.Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu

Ray Brown heads a practice of 700 people with Architectus, which, after the merger with Conrad Gargett in April this year, is now the biggest architectural practice in Australia.He’s led some of Australia’s biggest projects – from buildings to urban planning, in most sectors, from offices to rail, social housing and heritage – sometimes, for the biggest projects, in collaboration with big global architectural names. These include the stunning 1 Bligh Street in Sydney, which scooped sustainability hearts and minds when it was completed in 2011.Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu

Rob Bernard is chief sustainability officer for CBRE, the massive global property consultancy that has 115,000 people on its books across the planet and a responsibility to help transform real estate portfolios owned by the biggest institutional investors in the US where he is based, and across the world.Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu

Paolo Bevilacqua is group head of sustainability for Frasers Property Limited. The role is with the parent company that owns Fraser’s Property Australia, one of the earliest and most courageous movers on the sustainability and greening front. Think  Burwood Brickworks Shopping Centre in Melbourne, a Living Building Challenge project that really challenged the thinking on what is possible in development. Not to mention those who worked on it.Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu

Jua Cilliers, head of the School of Built Environment and Professor of Urban Planning at the University of Technology Sydney brings global framing to her view of the urgent challenges we face with nature and biodiversityHost: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu

On our latest podcast, our managing editor, Tina Perinotto, spoke with urban planner Rob Adams.Rob became Australia’s urban planning poster child when he launched an audacious goal to transform Melbourne’s CBD as director of planning at the City of Melbourne.In those days, the city was suffering from a prolonged recession. The city streets were abandoned, especially at night and on the weekends. People had not yet discovered that CBDs could be vibrant and active.So Rob started a program called Postcode three thousand.Part of the transformation involved refurbishing office buildings into apartments. As a result, the city’s population blossomed. Suddenly, living in the CBD was cool, not a sad, windy endurance test when the city workers departed for their homes.But that’s not all Rob is well known for. He’s recently launched a plan about concentrating development along the city’s transport routes, designed to leave the rest of suburban sites alone. This helps to “calm” residents so that they aren’t so fearful of development.Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu

 In this episode, our managing editor, Tina Perinotto, spoke with Amy Marks from Autodesk, the “queen of prefab”, on why building and construction is not an industry but an ecosystem. If the world’s buildings and cities are set to triple their footprint, as forecasters predict, sustainability will be a mighty challenge. Firstly, where are we sourcing our diminishing natural materials from? And can we still build and construct the way we’ve done traditionally?Amy Marks is head of Industrialised Construction Strategy and Evangelism at the global technology company Autodesk. She says so much needs to change.Her job is to transform building and construction so that it’s way more efficient and sustainable. This would have multiple dividends for businesses and the planet, she says.Amy is one of those brilliant American outperformers that rightfully stand out on the global stage. She’s educated at Harvard, she’s a successful entrepreneur, a great thinker and a great speaker.Thankfully, for the building and construction industry, she’s made her voice one to be reckoned with.She says building and construction is NOT an industry. It’s an eco system and this means it can’t be disrupted or reformed from the bottom up. It has to be disrupted from the top down. She means by influential clients such as large corporates or governments who can demand new outcomes through different methodologies.Amy is focused on the value and efficiency of digitalisation and prefabrication. These are the ways that we can start to be conserve and repurpose our dwindling natural resources. In construction, a wastage rate of 30 per cent is common. New technologies can go a long way to solving that problem. And they can also help the sector integrate new building materials that are more sustainable and efficient.Amy has construction in the blood. Her family owned a construction management company in New York and she grew up on construction sites. So it’s no surprise she is such a fascinating person to talk to about this sector.This episode was produced with the support of our corporate sponsor, Autodesk.Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu

On the podcast this week, Tina Perinotto, the managing editor of The Fifth Estate, was joined by Tim Hollo, the executive director of the Green Institute.Tim’s background is fascinating. He was a political advisor to Christine Milne during the highly volatile Gillard-Rudd years, which arguably had the biggest impact on the climate agenda in Australia.He’s also had a background in environmental activism, with many insights gained from his training in law, and the intriguing field of political theatre, where he learnt about some of our most deeply ingrained human traits. Among those is that when it comes to politics, we humans activate the most primitive parts of our brains – the part that works on our fight or flight responses.Now that goes a long way to explain the choices we make at the polling booths.Tim has also spent a lot of time thinking about democracy and why it’s crumbling: he says the deliberate obfuscation of reality in pursuit of self-interest can be truly frightening, but there are remedies. He’s a great believer in the power of trust and close communication with the people closest to us – our community. He has deep respect for the notion of political ecology, which challenges the dominant political theory over the last 100 years, which sees humans as separate from the natural world and each other. Although Darwinism has led us to believe that competition is the key to a species’ success, cooperation has been proven to be just as powerful.Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu

Some people have a knack for driving change, and Esther Bailey is one of them. Joining our managing editor Tina Perinotto on The Fifth Estate's podcast this week, Esther talked about what she’d been up to at NABERS, the government’s environmental rating program for buildings. NABERS has transformed the office sector and is now overhauling other energy intensive sectors, with hospitals one such quiet achiever. She’s really interested in the circular economy, and says growing piles of waste might be even harder to control than climate change. With her training in behavioural science, Esther knows how to influence people’s behavior, but all for the better. This skillset came in handy for her eight years at the City of Sydney, where she worked on the Better Building Partnership and CitySwitch, two collaborative programs designed to encourage learning between leaders already vying for change. For Esther, a bit of healthy competition is one easy way to inspire action. Also, a heads up: NABERS is offering free ratings for a limited time, doing their bit to keep assessors in work during this uncertain time.Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu

In this episode, the managing editor of The Fifth Estate Tina Perinotto talks to Dr Brad Pettitt, the longstanding Mayor of Fremantle. The Freo community has been receptive to Brad’s big, bold visions for a thriving, sustainable community, in fact, he says the locals actually push the council to do better.  But the portside city has had its ups and downs, and it’s already feeling the bite of climate change – it's seeing days and days of 40-plus degrees, and record-low rainfalls. Even though Fremantle is home to some top-notch buildings, including Josh Byrne’s 10-star house, there’s also a culture of sub-standard, unsustainable development in WA. That’s one reason the Greens member wants to have statewide impact, so is making a run at the next state election.Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu

If you ever need a dose of optimism, you can always rely on Professor Peter Newman, a true legend of sustainability. The professor of sustainability at Curtin University joined editor of The Fifth Estate, Tina Perinotto, on the podcast this week and worked his usual hope-inspiring magic. He tells us why, despite what the federal government says, gas is over and done with. He tells us how there are 400,000 jobs in iron ore processing, using renewables, just waiting for us in the Pilbara. He takes us on a bird’s eye view of how big countries, such as China, are navigating the low energy transition. Interestingly, the politics are strangely familiar. Peter isn’t afraid to get philosophical – he’s worried about Africa’s sustainable shift out of poverty when the global community is turning inwards, reminding us that aid is not just charity, but rather an investment in fellow humans that ultimately benefits us all. Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu