2012 Endorsed Sustainable Building Designer Program

The 2012 program for Endorsed Sustainable Building Designers who are due for an update and for Building Designers who wish to become endorsed as Sustainable Building Designers

Each program will be four days and will be repeated in four regional areas:

Ø  Gympie                      Fri/Sat 18 & 19 May; Fri/Sat 25 & 26 May

o   Gympie Conference Centre, Fraser Rd (cnr Bruce Hwy), Gympie

Ø  Toowoomba              Wed/Thu 23 & 24 May; Fri/Sat 1 & 2 June

o   Grammar View Motor Inn, 39 Margaret Street, Toowoomba

Ø  Mackay                    Wed/Thur 6 & 7 June; Fri/Sat 29 & 30 June

o   Mackay Resort Motel, 154 Nebo Road, Mackay

Ø  Townsville                 Fri/Sat 8 & 9 June; Wed/Thu 27 & 28 June

o   Seagulls Resort Townsville, 74 The Esplanande, Townsville

PROGRAM

The program includes:      Day 1 – Sustainability Legislation: Local, national, global

                                      Day 2 – Global trends in Sustainable Design

                                      Day 3 – Sustainability and the Client; Required outcomes, budget

                                      Day 4 – Evaluate Design Options for Sustainability

Successful completion of this course constitutes the training requirement for certification as an Endorsed Sustainable Building Designer for BDAQ full members. An Endorsed Sustainable Building Designer will receive promotion through BEDI Ltd programs and can use the ESBD logo.

            

            PROGRAM COST

            BDAQ Member  $300;        Non-member $400;            Student $150  (incl. gst)

To register please contact the BDAQ Office on 07 3889 9119 for your registration form.

            (Instalment plan available, please phone the BDAQ Office 07 3889 9119 or email admin@bdaq.com.au.)

National BIM Guide Released

The future of design and documentation for all but the simplest projects is the “Integrative Design Process” or IDP as described in the Building Green Training Program delivered this year by BEDI in partnership with ecospecifier. IDP involves a design and documentation team made up of people who have synergy, education, enthusiasm, expertise, experience and who are risk managers rather than risk avoiders.

Another key component of IDP is the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) with an integrated platform for information sharing between design and construction stakeholders for the project.

NATSPEC has announced that the NATSPEC National BIM Guide has been released for the building and construction industry and is freely available from www.natspec.com.au. (Once in the site click on the NATSPEC BiM logo.) This project has been the result of industry-wide collaboration and the support of the Built Environment Industry Innovation Council.

BIM (Building Information Modelling) has the potential to provide a platform for integrated project delivery; improve sustainability outcomes through modelling; increase productivity through decreasing variations during construction; and provide a tool for facilities and asset management.

The objective of the NATSPEC National BIM Guide, used in conjunction with a Project BIM Brief, is to clarify what is meant when BIM is required on a project.  Too often a Client has talked about wanting BIM on a project without clarifying their requirements in a consistent manner.  The Guide will reduce confusion and wasted effort.  The Guide can also be used as a planning tool by consultants to clarify the services they propose to provide when preparing bids for projects.

NATSPEC is a not-for-profit organisation with the objective to improve the quality of construction in Australia.  NATSPEC believes that digital information, including 3D Modelling and Building Information Modelling will provide improved methods of design, construction and communication. 

Consultation begins for cost recovery under national environment law

The federal environment department is calling for public comment on potential cost recovery mechanisms under national environment law.

Federal environment minister Tony Burke recently announced major reforms of national environment law, and noted that cost recovery options would be further investigated.

The department has now released a consultation paper outlining options for recovering the costs of regulatory activities and reform under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

“All submissions received will be considered, to help the government make a fully informed choice on cost recovery options to resource the activities delivered by the legislation,” federal environment spokeswoman Vicki Middleton said.

The cost recovery consultation paper will be open for public comment for six weeks until 31 October 2011.

The paper is available at: www.environment.gov.au/epbc/reform, by emailing epbc.costrecovery@environment.gov.au or by calling 1800 423 135.

WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Winners of the inaugural Sustainable Building Designer Awards - Australia have been announced at the BDAQ gala awards dinner in Brisbane. Two hundred and thirty guests enjoyed a sumptuous dinner, great entertainment and celebrated with the winners of a variety of awards.

The sustainable building designer winners were:

Winner Sustainable New House
Travis Quennell,  QUBD for Ecovillage256


Runner-up for Sustainable New House
Brett Grimley, Ecolibrium Designs for Currumbin Ecovillage

Winner Sustainable Public Building
Ray Brown, Regency Design Centre for Community Centre Castle Hill

Winner Sustainable Small Commercial Buildings
Ian Darnell, nspire Planning and Design for Condimine Veterinary Clinic

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL WINNERS AND ENTRANTS

Sustainability gets side-tracked by Climate Change

Tony Blair once said; “We can debate this or that aspect of climate change, but the reality is that most people now accept our climate is indeed subject to change”.

It really is sad that any movement towards a more sustainable world has been totally side-tracked by the argument about man-made climate change. The answer to the question, of course, is that it doesn’t matter if man made climate change is real.

What really matters is that we cannot sustain the world as we know it without changing the way we operate in a number of ways, including;

·         stoping the depletion of the earth’s resources at a greater rate than nature is able to renew,

·         stoping polluting our natural environment whether it be the air that we breath, the oceans that are so necessary to sustain life on earth or the land from which so much of our sustenance comes,

·         stopping the destruction of ecosystems which maintain the fine balance of flora and fauna,

·         begin to rebuild the biodiversity on which our whole existence depends.

It is all very simple really and should not be lost in a dumb debate about the science and the reality of climate change. It really doesn’t matter why or how the problem occurred or who is to blame.

It only matters that we all work towards a sustainable future.

Everything else is just a distraction from the main game or is political point scoring which is only working to polarise the population, create unhelpful animosity and doing plenty to discourage people from actually acting sustainably. Unfortunately, the language so often used by the proponents of climate change indicates that they hope to bully the rest of the population into submission. This won’t work.

Buildings and how we use them are crucial to sustainability and this puts building designers at the frontline in efforts to secure the future.

Over the past month BEDI has been equipping Endorsed Sustainable Building Designers to effectively address the four imperatives mentioned above. These designers will be able to design buildings which meet the sustainability requirements of the Building Code of Australia and the Queensland Development Code.

More than this they will be able to research materials and technologies to design buildings that don’t deplete the earth’s resources, don’t contribute to the pollution of the environment and don’t destroy our ecosystems. They will actually work towards restorative sustainability by attempting to assist nature to repair some of the damage of the past and will advise their clients on how to occupy the buildings in a more sustainable way.

It’s time for all the talk, all the bravado and all the bully tactics to end and be replaced by real action and we know that Endorsed Sustainable Building Designers are ready to stand up and lead the way.

Russell Brandon

We are creating a mountain of waste!

Waste reforms, guided by the Queensland’s Waste Reduction and Recycling Strategy 2010-2020, are progressing full steam ahead. To keep up to date with the news and read about the programs available to assist business visit the reThink business waste pages on the Department of Environment and Resource Management website. Click here to subscribe to the waste reform upcoming newsletter updates.