CEFC to boost energy efficient community housing in Australia

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation has announced a $250 million Community Housing program, in partnership with the federal government. The scheme, designed to ramp the construction of cutting-edge, energy efficient community housing, will help build up to 1,000 new dwellings across Australia. In addition to new builds, finance to retrofit existing buildings will also be provided to improve energy efficiency and reduce bills for tenants.

Along with the announcement, the CEFC released a market report, which states, “Evidence indicates that low-income households tend to live in buildings with poorer energy efficiency, leading to higher energy costs. Poor building energy efficiency and high energy costs can have significant financial and health effects on households in community housing.

“There are many energy efficiency improvements with payback periods of five years or less that can be incorporated into the building fabric during construction. New-build community housing should be designed to ambitious energy efficiency standards and the existing stock should be refurbished to improve energy efficiency.

“While energy efficiency improvements involve upfront costs, more energy efficient community housing would lower energy bills and increase thermal comfort, improving households’ financial, health and carbon emissions.”

CEFC Community Housing Sector Lead, Victoria Adams, said, “Over the next year, our goal is to help finance the construction of 1,000 new dwellings, built to an average seven-star rating under the Nationwide Housing Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS). With this standard, energy use can be reduced by an estimated 25 per cent.”

image credit . Kaz Pierce

National Park Service to Protect Rim of the Valley?

Last week, the National Park Service proposed a movement that would encompass an additional 170,000 acres of land, doubling the size of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. This proposal is in response to the completion of a study of the Rim of the Valley, and the San Fernando, Santa Clarita, Simi, Conejo and La Crescenta valleys comprise the Rim of the Valley Corridor. Begun in 2008, Rep. Adam Schiff successfully had a bill authorized to study “…the natural and historical resources around Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley…”

In a public statement in response to the verdict, Schiff said, “I applaud the park service for embracing a vision of an expanded recreation area to preserve this wonderful natural landscape. I wish, however, that the park service went even further in some of the areas as was clearly the hope of the many thousands of constituents who submitted public comment and advocated for an even bigger park, as provided for in Alternative D of the park service’s draft report.”

Martha J. Lee, Acting Regional Director of the National Park Service’s Pacific West Region stated, “Expanding Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area would provide one of the most densely populated areas in the United States better access to open space and recreational opportunities, as well as increase protection of ecological connections for wildlife.”

If the Park Service does move forward and collect land, the long term effects are positive, though plans would have to be set in place to allow for higher expenses and more employees to manage the land and wildlife. Much of this land would be accessible to the public, allowing for increased opportunities for recreation and education of locals.

The National Park’s news release on the proposal now submitted to Congress further states, “The expanded area would further contribute to the high biodiversity of the Santa Monica Mountains with functioning wildlife corridors. Exceptional public enjoyment opportunities in the expanded area include historic and archeological sites, geologic and paleontological resources, highly scenic landscapes, thousands of acres of open space and recreation areas, and miles of trails.”

Source. Daily News | NPS

More Trees amongst Kennett’s wishes for Melbourne’s Urban Future

Earlier this month, Victoria’s former Premier Jeffrey Kennett spoke at MPavilion on the topic of Melbourne’s 21st century urban frontier. With a strong emphasis on the arts, culture, sport, and capital works during his tenure, he retains a strong interest in the growing challenges and future of Melbourne and presented some suggestions for the city moving forward.

His five wishes included: a new parliament house, a new underground railway network, good “creative” design, better apartments, and a masterplan for Melbourne’s gardens.

Kennett said, “A defining issue [for Melbourne] is the quality of our gardens right around the city. They are assets that are very hard to repeat or to replicate.”

With the federal government recently announcing plans to increase tree canopy coverage in Australia’s cities, Kennett said, “[The federal environment minister Greg Hunt] can outline a plan and he might give some money, but I think he’s just making an observation. A lot of our trees are going to die in the next 20 to 30 years. How are we going to replace them? With what are we going to replace them? We have to have a masterplan for our gardens and priority attached to how we’re going to maintain them. The intrinsic value of what we have here is so important. Governments must play a role in all of this because unfortunately if they don’t, then of course decay sets in very quickly indeed.”

Daniel Bennett, The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects’ (AILA) National President, remains optimistic, and is looking forward to the opportunity to work with the federal government in shaping policy outcomes. He said, “There’s so many scales that this would apply. It’s understanding the levers the federal government want to use and how that can influence state policy, local policy, right down to the individual tree.”

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