Green Prints

The Plan

Achievement of a sustainable city requires a 'greenprint' to reduce a city's environmental footprint. TEC has been campaigning since 1999 and is making some headway.

The environmental footprints of cities are enormous. Our campaign for a sustainable Sydney reached a crucial stage during 2004-5 when the government undertook work on the Sydney metro strategy, incorporating TEC proposals. However more work needs to be done and the plan is under review.

The government released City of Cities in December 2005. It incorporated sustainability principles. TEC was represented on the Environment Committee and made a key submission on targets.

We also helped form an alliance of peak developer, union, social welfare and environment groups to participate in and review the strategy. The Alliance has issued a Report Card on City of Cities.

The Commonwealth Parliament has held a public inquiry and released the report, Sustainable Cities (2005).

In 2003 we published a major report on urnan sustainability for public and government discussion. It which revealed a growing crisis and community demands to improve liveability and environment protection:
Sydney: the urban sustainability challenge [2003, 479KB]
Economic analysis of urban forms [2003, 87KB]
Urban ecological footprints [2003, 110KB]

Office Buildings

TEC and major property owners have worked on the Existing Investment Grade Office Buildings Project to upgrade dozens of buildings to be more energy efficient.

Not everyone can afford an 'A' grade office tower or floor but it's still important that smaller tenants have access to green offices. Developers have faced major hurdles to obtain consents from various agencies and obtaining committed tenants. Our pioneering study for the St James Ethics Centre looked at a case study in Double Bay, Sydney and produced a road map for developers and tenants:

Sustainable Office Building Roadmap [2009, 209KB]

Sustainable Office Building Tools for SMEs [2009, 2MB]

Case Study of Building and Tenanting a Small Office Building [2009, 2.1MB]