ProfSara Wilkinson

Participated in Human Centred Design activities to guide the development of the reports: Group Research Insights and Researcher Insights.

Guest Editor

Email Twitter3 Facebook48 LinkedIn Print The government’s HomeBuilder scheme allows certain home owners to apply for a tax-free grant of A$25,000 if they are spending between $150,000 and $750,000 renovating a home or building a new home. Eligibility criteria are strict. The scheme has boosted renovation talk in some circles (although, as CoreLogic has pointed out, it may merely bring forward works that were already planned). Here are some questions to ask yourself when trying to decide between renovating and moving – and how to add value to your existing home.

The Government's HomeBuilder scheme allows certain home owners to apply for a tax-free grant of $25,000 if they are spending between $150,000 and $750,000 renovating a home or building a new home. Eligibility criteria are strict. The scheme has boosted renovation talk in some circles (although, as CoreLogic has pointed out, it may merely bring forward works that were already planned). Here are some questions to ask yourself when trying to decide between renovating and moving — and how to add value to your existing home.

Sydney’s Inner West Council has a new policy that it is reported means “residents will no longer need to seek council approval to prune or remove trees within three metres of an existing home or structure”. Hold on, don’t reach for that chainsaw yet, because research shows good green infrastructure – trees, green roofs and walls – can add value to your home. Green infrastructure offers significant, economic, social and environmental benefits. Urban greening is particularly important in dense urban areas like Sydney’s Inner West. Among its benefits, green infrastructure: improves air quality provides space for social interaction manages stormwater reduces the urban heat island effect provides space for urban food production improves biodiversity. Some of these benefits accrue to owners/occupiers, whereas others provide wider societal benefits.

While some fret over their daily calorie intake or whether or not their food is certified organic, many are struggling to even get dinner on the table. Barriers around the cost of food feed this disparity, but it's the motivations behind food distribution that favour those living in metropolitan Australia while pushing our most vulnerable communities even further into food distress. In this episode, we unpack what these motivations are and why Australia as a nation is failing to address food security. This is part one of a series exploring the classism of the environmental movement. Featuring: Teresa Davis - Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Sydney. Sara Wilkinson - Associate Professor in the School of the Built Environment at the University of Technology Sydney. Tanya Lawlis - Assistant Professor in the Discipline of Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Canberra. Matt Daly - Research Consultant from the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney.

Anonymous peer review

City roofs and walls covered in greenery not only look nice— they’re also a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Successive benefits are endless, including lowering city temperatures, improving air quality, and reducing stormwater run-off from buildings. However, when compared to cities like Toronto and Singapore, Australian cities are lagging behind in greening up their buildings. Why is this the case, and how can Australia get on board? Joining us on the line to discuss further was Sara Wilkinson, Associate Professor of the School of the Built Environment at University of Technology Sydney, one of the experts involved in this research.

he United Nations Panel on Climate Change conclusion that we are on track for a three degree increase in global temperature by 2100 means the need to explore innovative technologies has never been greater. With aging infrastructure in many city centres it makes sense to focus reducing energy use and adopting technologies that deliver partial, or full, independence from the grid. There have been increases in standards in energy efficiency within building codes globally over the last three to four decades. Passive Haus design and high thermal mass as design technologies to reduce energy demand for heating and cooling are familiar to many. On-site energy generation technologies such as wind turbines and solar panels have improved their efficiencies too. However overall energy consumption increases and reliance on new build innovation and improvement will not deliver sufficient reductions to make an impact. There is an innovative evolving technology that may offer another option to reduce energy use and environmental footprint over the building lifecycle. This technology is; Algae Building Technology (ABT). ABT comprises biomass production on site in glazed façade panels which deliver solar thermal energy for hot water and heating. The biomass is converted to biofuel to supply HVAC equipment. One residential building in Hamburg has adopted the technology and a prototype panel in in research and development at UTS to assess production rates in Sydney, Australia. This keynote explains the technology and explores the feasibility for new build and retrofit across a range of building types.

Covering roofs and walls of buildings with vegetation is a good way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And these green roofs and walls make cities look nicer. Toronto’s central business district adopted a policy of establishing green roofs on around half of all city buildings in 2009. Research shows this could reduce maximum city temperatures by up to 5℃. We spent the past 12 months analysing the case for more greenery on Australian city buildings, drawing on international comparisons. We’ve shown that a mandatory policy, coupled with incentives to encourage new and retrofitted green roofs and walls, will provide environmental, social and business benefits.

Chair

Anonymous peer review

CRC Low Carbon Living, UNSW Australia

Anonymous peer review

Anonymous peer review

Following our controversial article covering a recent attack on green walls, UTS associate professor Sara Wilkinson looks at the good and bad of the technology. Icelandic turf houses with green walls and roofs were the combined result of locally available building materials and a cold, harsh climate. Turf houses were, and are, well insulated buildings, providing good levels of thermal comfort. In Norway, turf roofs are a traditional form of building construction and, from the Viking period and Middle Ages onwards were the norm, and not the exception. It was only at the beginning of the 18th century in rural areas that tile roofs gradually superseded sod roofs. Corrugated iron and other industrial materials replaced these centuries-long traditional building materials and techniques. How short our memory is that we now perceive green walls and roofs as new technologies.

Co-chair

Pacific Rim Real Estate Society (PRRES), Pacific Rim Real Estate Society (PRRES)

Anonymous peer review

Anonymous peer review

Anonymous peer review

Anonymous peer review

Guest Editor

Anonymous peer review

Anonymous peer review