Shaking it up at Green Cities 2016

Shaking it up at Green Cities 2016A discussion on the fringes of the industry has transformed over the last decade into a mainstream conversation, say industry specialists reflecting on the evolution of Green Cities.”Green Cities gave green buildings a name,” says Lendlease’s head of sustainability investment management, Rowan Griffin.”A decade ago, few people were even on the ‘sustainability planet’,” he says, adding that even a 4 Star Green Star building was awesome and earth-shattering. “Green Cities provided a platform for the industry to learn and share real-world case studies and understand what sustainability meant and what they were signing up for.”It also brought the property fraternity together. Everyone – owners, architects, engineers, developers, property and facility managers – gathered to learn and share the stories of sustainability. And it was those stories that gave the green building movement life.”Property consultant Marcia Bowden (pictured) presented at many early Green Cities conferences and says the dialogue was “all about the value of green” and how to establish a business case.”Green Cities has played a big role in bringing sustainability into the mainstream. Today, investors demand it, commercial tenants want it – and no one would build a commercial building without achieving a Green Star rating. But back then, it was a very different story,” Griffin says.Bowden agrees. “The conference presented ground-breaking material. I remember sitting in discussions about the use of timber in high rise buildings – and it seemed light years away,” she says.Today, buildings like Lendlease’s Forté in Melbourne – the tallest timber high rise in the world – provide demonstrations of how the industry has evolved, Bowden says.”The next challenge is to tackle the residential market – and that’s far more difficult. People spend more time researching the purchase of their new car or lounge suite than they do the biggest investment they’ll make in their lifetime – their home.”Which is why the next wave of ‘disruptive’ ideas are needed.”We need to educate home owners – just the way we did with commercial tenants. And we need to engage with new parts of the industry to shake it up again,” Bowden concludes.Green Cities is calling for innovative and provocative ideas to ‘shake it up’. Submissions close on 31 August.