Australian
cities face unprecedented challenges. They’re continuing to grow but display
the symptoms of chronic underinvestment in mass transit infrastructure. They
operate under fragmented governance and are among the least affordable in the
world. In the face of terrifying climate change acceleration in 2016, they
continue an upward trajectory of carbon emissions. The urban sustainability
movement has never been as important to our future prosperity as it is right
now.
The
narrative for urban sustainability has reinforced a compelling message for the
past decade: incentivise the construction of higher quality buildings and the
refurbishing of old buildings and we will materially address the sustainability
challenges faced by our cities. This narrative has been applied broadly
and successfully – green building rating tools are now fairly standard in the
higher end of commercial property, mandatory disclosure has triggered building
upgrades in CBDs across the country and energy efficiency is a regulatory
consideration in both residential and commercial sectors.
But
has it materially changed the trajectory of urban development to enable the
competitive, equitable, resilient and sustainable cities that are so critical
to our shared future?
The
research presented by ASBEC and Climateworks in the Low Carbon High Performance
report
– showing only marginal carbon emissions intensity reductions across commercial
and residential sectors over the past decade (2% and 5% respectively) – would
suggest not. It is only one indicator, but it points to a growing malaise
within the sustainability community that our efforts are not bringing about the
change we hope for and need. Our efforts do not appear to be of a scale or
speed to meaningfully shift our cities to be the places we need.
Transforming
our cities requires net reduction in emissions (ultimately to zero). Marginal
improvements in emissions intensity do not cut the mustard. Our movement has
targeted the top quartile of the industry, and this trickle-down approach to
sustainability has not worked to transform the market across the board.
We
need a sustainability discourse that seeks levers to accelerate our progress.
This piece discusses three emerging opportunities to reframe the urban sustainability
narrative: how we transition to a clean urban grid, an amenity-based approach
to affordable density and a metropolitan approach to enhancing our urban
biodiversity.
Zero-Carbon
| Grid Transformation
Progressing
toward zero-carbon is a core compact between global green building councils in
response to the Paris Agreement of COP21.
There
are fundamental reasons why buildings cannot achieve this on their own terms –
through efficiency and on-site generation. At current business as usual consumption,
the ratio of solar generation footprint to building area is approximately 1:1.
Even with deep cuts in efficiency (60-70%) – those same cuts we have failed to
achieve universally in a decade of trying – the ratio only improves to about 3:1.
We simply cannot resolve our challenges for in-fill development, transport
connectivity, affordable housing and a high quality public realm at that level
of density.
Our
only hope to achieve a zero-carbon built environment is to transform our grid. And
fast.
Right
now there are substantial barriers to achieving a zero-carbon built
environment. On-site generation is insufficient to meet demand. Selling power
across site boundaries is difficult (and often impossible) under the current
regulations. Power Purchase Agreements don’t alleviate the infrastructure
burden on tariffs (which can make up more than half the costs for building
owners). Regulatory change is slow and complex – as the recent efforts for rule
changes for distributed generation with the Australian Energy Market Commission
(AEMC) attest. Transitioning to zero carbon is urgent.
Private
and embedded networks present the best current opportunity to by-pass some of
the challenges of current energy regulation. By increasing the scale and
diversity of demand on the private side of the meter, the ability for embedded
generation to be fully utilised is substantially increased. And broadly our
cities need flexible intermediate frameworks for generating renewable energy,
distributing it over short distances and selling it across property boundaries.
If
we’re serious about zero carbon cities, this is a current and urgent need. It
demands our collective effort – lobbyist, advocates, designers, engineers,
planners – to the building of a national consensus for a transformed urban
grid.
Density,
Amenity and Affordability
We
need to have a compact connected city. People need to live close to where they
work. People need to be able to afford a home. These two issues – proximity and
affordability – are imperatives for a competitive city that demand greater
density. But there is a social licence battle to be fought about our requisite
density and the balance of private and public amenity. NIMBYism is rife and
vested interests hold massive sway over planning and development outcomes –
either refusing development altogether or pursuing density without addressing
either public amenity or affordability.
At
present, private amenity is addressed through SEPP 65 and the Apartment Design
Guide in NSW. However, responsibility for public amenity is held by a
fragmented local government structure. Uniquely for a rich, progressive country,
housing affordability doesn’t seem to be held by anyone.
Asa
result densification beyond current planning allowances is an ad hoc affair of
hastily negotiated voluntary planning agreements and financial contributions
that seldom deliver the public amenity or social infrastructure needed to
support the urban intensification.
There
remains a huge gap in our industry in developing planning guidelines for the
quantity and quality of accessible public space, private space and social
infrastructure needed to support the substantial densification of parts of our
cities. Coupled with requirements for affordable housing, an innovative
planning framework to enable density on the basis of amenity and social
infrastructure is one of our biggest unrealised opportunities.
We
need to fight the NIMBYs, fight FOR urban amenity (our parks, our trees, our
sunny squares) and we need to make a case for high quality, affordable, compact
development.
Urban
Habitat and Biodiversity
Finally,
we must address urban ecology – we cannot afford to have a city dead to the
natural world.
Habitat
functionality is not just a function of it being big. Or green. Or even
native. But rather it’s a complex
arrangement of size, level of degradation, and perhaps most critically –
connection to other high quality habitat.
If
we’re serious about creating cities that are resilient, attractive and
competitive, we need to enable coexistence with the life systems that underpin
our human existence. We ignore them at our peril. This means establishing green
corridors across our cities, connecting nodes of parks and gardens. It means
re-purposing the veins of our cities – our roads and transport corridors – and
rewilding our urban spaces.
Conclusion
The
sustainable design movement has won important ground this last decade. We have
made consideration of environment, social and governance factors a fundamental
part of property investment. We have enabled new low-impact products to find
and consolidate a market. We have introduced a common language for urban
sustainability. These initiatives, and many others, have transformed the
discourse on sustainability in the property industry.
But
let’s not pretend the wellness of bankers and lawyers, the rental premiums and
returns in commercial property or the latest air conditioning system or fancy
façade are material to the big environmental challenges of our day.
We
need a zero carbon grid.
We
need a substantial injection of affordable, amenable housing.
We
need enabled biodiversity and amenity to supports living city.
Our
industry must get its hands dirty with the (AEMC). We must engage with the
planning profession and the Greater Sydney Commission on housing, density and
the public domain. We must build capacity in supporting urban ecology and
highly functional, connected habitat.
Addressing
these key sectors and systems within the built environment offers us real
leverage in transforming our cities. So let’s get our industry fighting these
battles with everything they’ve got.
*This post first appeared in an edited form in The Urban Developer: http://www.theurbandeveloper.com/urban-sustainability-its-time-to-lift-our-game/