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Media Release

October 21, 2003

Seeking sustainability in the Australian dream

In the midst of a building boom it is timely to look at sustainability issues and ask how the building industry is responding to a groundswell of public and government demand for environmentally responsible development.

Should we be legislating for such matters as durability, energy, waste, air quality, noise and water recycling, and how do you incorporate these concepts into the Building Code of Australia? What are the latest developments from around the world in sustainable building practices, codes and legislation, and how does Australia stand in comparison?

These are just some of the topics that will be discussed by UniSA lecturer and Chair of the SA Building Advisory Committee, Associate Professor George Zillante*, at a free public lecture, Sustainability and the Building Code of Australia, to be held at UniSA’s City East campus on Wednesday October 22, from 6.00 – 7.30 pm.

The lecture will be the second in a series of free public lectures, Visions for Environmentally Sustainable Development, presented by UniSA’s Division of Information Technology, Engineering and the Environment.

Prof Zillante says that while private industry is typically most concerned with the bottom line, sustainable and environmentally responsible building practices actually make good economic sense in the long term.

"What tends to happen is you get a lot of architects and planners recommending more sustainable building methods, but at the end of the day the big decisions are being made by owners and financiers who are worried about the bottom line and don’t often look at a development’s life cycle costings," he says.

"If you save money by using low grade, polluting materials today, you will probably have to pay for it in future."

While emphasising that legislation was only one of various ways of making the building industry more environmentally responsible, Prof Zillante says he does see a strong case for greater regulation in some areas.

"The government is going to have to look at legislating on some issues, because private industry generally does not act before it’s forced to," he says.

"I think over a period of time that sustainability will become part of the building industry’s psyche… at the moment we’re just at the beginning."

 

FREE public lecture
Sustainability and the Building Code of Australia
Presented by Associate Professor George Zillante
DATE: Wednesday October 22
TIME: 6.30 - 7.30pm
VENUE: Centenary Building (Room C3-16) City East campus, UniSA
RSVP: moira.lawler@unisa.edu.au 

 

*About the presenter: Co-director of the University of South Australia’s Centre for Planning and Building Studies, George Zillante has qualifications in architecture, urban and regional planning, building surveying and business administration and a professional history which has seen him work in private practice and local government before joining the UniSA in 1991. Since then Zillante has become prominent in the field of building legislation and has been appointed Chair of the SA Building Advisory Committee, a member of the SA Development Policy Advisory Committee, as well as representing the Australian construction industry on the International Association for the Professional Management of Construction.

 

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