Discuss about the Corporate Sustainability Management.
According to Bardsley (2015) urban planning is a process that involves development and improvement of the built, natural, social and economic resources. It is an uphill task and very technical process. It requires a lot of stakeholders for it to be successful. Urban planning guides the orderly planned development in rural localities, suburbs, and the urban cities. Architects have to carry out research and analysis, develop policies and think strategically in implementing their resolutions for urban planning to succeed. The federal government of Australia plays a bigger role in developing the needed policies for urban planning to be undertaken. Urban development is primarily based on the environmental protection and biodiversity conservation. Urban planning covers areas such as infrastructure, transportation, distribution networks and communication in urban areas. It also includes; the protection, development and use of land and environment, the design of the urban environment and buildings, the air, and water systems put in place in buildings. The Australian government plans for a cleaner environment that is vital for a stronger Australia. This report tries to summarize the current state of urban planning and proposes sustainable strategies for future development.
The Australian government launched a plan for a cleaner environment in September 2013. The plan was purposely developed to deliver real solutions to Australia. The cleaner environment has four pillars namely; Clean land, clean air, clean water and heritage protection (Hedgcock and Pidala, 2014). It was recently reviewed to include support for innovation and a 20-year strategy to develop Antarctica. The government works with other stakeholders such as business people, communities, and individuals for urban planning to be successful and develop an ecologically sustainable Australia. The plan includes reducing emissions by 78 million tons in 2020, deliver more electricity from renewable sources by the year 2020, and develop low emissions technology. The government is also building towards a cleaner, greener environment in urban areas with smart cities plans. Plans for the clean land pillar includes; protecting and repairing Australia’s natural landscape and the 20 million trees initiative. The clean water pillar plans are to develop community-based projects for practical environmentalism, plan for the Murray-Darling basin and protection of the Great Barrier Reef (Garrick et al. 2012). To protect its heritage, Australia is instilling a new sense of pride in Australia’s heritage. Through sharing of stories, their heritage is preserved for generations to come. The government has developed a 20-year action plan to ensure Antarctica remains valued, protected and understood.
Ecologically sustainable development involves the process of enhancing the community’s resources to maintain and protect ecological processes of life and increase the quality of life as the years go by. Since its endorsement in 1992, Australia has been making tremendous gains in achieving environmentally sustainable development. From 1992, indicators show that Australia is moving in the right direction and will be able to reach some of their targets (Beatley and Newman, 2009). Through economic development Australia is enhancing most aspects of community well-being and equitable distribution within the current generation. Remember the whole plan to achieve ecologically sustainable development depends on protecting the ecological processes that life depends on and the community’s ecological resources and processes. Australia is making great strides towards the achievement ecological sustainability and development. Plans and policies for ecological and natural resources management are being put in place i.e. through reducing emissions significantly and building ecologically sustainable buildings.
The Council House 2 in the city of Melbourne is a holistic system with its occupants as participants. Its model promotes a more interactive role between the city and nature as they all depend on each other. The building sends out a statement that Melbourne aims at achieving zero emissions and reducing the energy consumption of commercial buildings by 50 percent. The building seeks to reduce energy consumption and emissions significantly (Rauscher and Momtaz, 2015). The key areas of achieving ecological sustainability in the building include; shower towers, phase change materials, and the air cooling system. It has a water plant that treats and recycles water for reuse. It has a garden that reduces glare and increases ambiance. Finally, an air conditioner that allows all the occupants to enjoy 100 percent fresh air at the same time.
The Council House 2 has some significant ecological sustainability development considerations in the following areas; management, energy, water waste emissions, air, transport, and materials. A building user’s guide was made available to promote the effective and efficient use of the building. The building is naturally cooled at night through night purging, the heat from tenants is absorbed through chilled panels, and general lights levels are kept low (Robinson and Edwards, 2009). Highly energy efficient equipment is used for example LCD monitors to reduce heat and energy emission. During its construction, 80 percent of the waste was recycled. All the staff is provided with recycling facilities for office waste. Lower floors are fitted with bigger windows to reduce heat. Though they have a water mining plant, rain water is also collected and used to the recycled water.
In the year 2001 Australia’s National Museum was opened. Though there were limitations to achieve high ecological sustainability development, the museum continues to develop its ecological performance. Its primary environmental sustainability development considerations include; natural lighting, energy efficient lighting, thermal mass and passive design, materials, water efficiency and people (Beatley and Newman, 2009). Through these considerations, the Museum is promoting ecological sustainability and conservation. The building has skylights and large windows in its hall for penetration of natural light. The exhibition galleries use natural filtered lighting. In most Museums, light takes up a lot of energy and produces a lot of heat too. Australia’s National Museum has gone to greater lengths to make sure that it is adhering to the conserving the environment. The lamping configurations have also been changed from 50 W to 35 W lamps.
The architects used modernly developed materials to meet the modern layout. Water conservation is also a priority in the building. It used auto flash urinals and dual flush toilets to reduce water wastage. The Museum has effected saving strategies to help in managing the load sharing across the whole plant. The bigger responsibilities and opportunities rest on the fact that this is a public building. It provides the best of opportunities to teach and educate the people about their history, art, history and the environment. It is amazing the work that the National Museum adds in the achievement of ecological sustainability development in Australia. The Museum regularly shares ecological conservation and sustainability information to its visitors. This is a bold move that ensures the people who visit the Museum get information on environmental preservation and protection of the ecological systems that support life.
Located next to Canberra airport, Brindabella Circuit has been built to conserve the ecological environment. The building is energy efficient. It is built to reticulate heating and cooling. Through active chilled beams, the building can control the temperature of its air. The building has an automatic system that controls the perimeter lighting. The system controls the amount of light produced during the day and can turn off lights if its motion sensors do not detect anyone around. Brindabella Circuit saves incredible volumes of water per year. Its water saving strategies lead to 40 percent or more reduction in water consumption (Pemberton and Searle, 2016). They also collect rain water which is added to the whole system. The building has urinals that do not use water and sensor controlled water taps. Its shower heads use only 5 Amperes. All water used is recycled and used again.
Brindabella Circuit is fitted with a general exhaust riser. Heat emitted from printers, photocopiers and other office equipment is collected and exhausted. It has lower noise levels due to insulation and double glazing. Most of the materials used in its construction were recycled or reused especially steel and timber. The waste collected during its construction was reused and recycled. Workstations have recyclable and non-recyclable bins (Xia et al, 2015). The refrigerants used have no ozone depletion potential. The building has created social amenities such as a secured and enclosed bike storage. The staff have a changing room located next to the motorcycle store.
The urban form, community, and the federal government have different roles to play in the achievement of ecological sustainability development of Australia. The government on itself is very committed to restoring natural processes to a better status, manage resources and develop and adhere to policies. Both three parties are important in managing ecological resources and developing policies. Urban form, community, and the government have to strike a rapport and share ideas and offer each other support consistently. For example, the government starts projects such as Solar Towns and renewing energy. These programs are community-based and involve cultural form. The government and the communities have the right attitude that helps them coordinate such initiatives to improve local environments and manage resources well. In developing policies, the community supports the government entirely. The enactment of two acts namely; the Environmental Protection Act and Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of 1994 and 1999 respectively received huge support from most Australians (Newton, 2008). These three parties seem to be very different, but it is the relationship they build between themselves and the attitude and commitment they show towards these projects that will help them achieve them manage resources well.
Conclusion
There is still much work to be done in environmental management and planning in Australia. The government should continue to lead from the front. All the stakeholders in all sectors affected have to be accountable for all their actions. The projects and initiatives the government is starting up such as Solar Town and green cities are very vital for achieving ecologically sustainable development for a stronger Australia (Xia et al, 2015). The government should encourage communities to visit the National Museum where they will gather a lot of information concerning their heritage, culture, and arts. In doing this, Australia shall have secured the future of coming generations and preserve their roots. Businesses have a responsibility of embracing green technology. Through using energy efficient building materials, recycling and reusing materials, using renewable energy and reducing water consumption then the ecologically sustainable future for Australia is secured.
The government should continue releasing and sourcing for funds to fuel the initiatives it started. To obtain renewable energy targets it has to encourage more generation of electricity from sustainable and renewable sources. Australia should develop and implement policies to enable it to achieve ecological sustainability development. Some policies should promote the use of energy-efficient materials, reusing and recycling materials such as steel, tapping rain water, reducing water consumption and managing the ecological resources that support life (Arthuson, 2012). To ensure the well-being of communities, more initiatives and training needs to be done to community members for the proper management of ecological resources. Strict laws and costlier fines need to develop. Any individual found guilty of breaking these environmental conservation laws have to be punished under the law. Some policies have to be made into laws with the goal of creating green cities to become a reality. It should be made compulsory for architects to use energy efficient materials.
The government should seek to build partnerships with non-governmental organizations to in environmental management and planning in Australia. Recognizing best performers especially buildings that help conserve the environment and giving the six star ratings is a good method but what about the buildings that have not embraced the technology yet? The government and other stakeholders have to bring every Australian on board for this process to be a success. Australians need to be made aware of the benefits accrued from being ecologically sustainable. Businesses have also to be shown the benefits they can accrue such as building a better image and attracting investors. This will be an incentive to both parties.
References
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Australia. (2012). Yanyuwa: Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Territory : declared an Indigenous Protected Area in July 2011.
Australia, & Australia. (2012). Nationally threatened ecological communities: Natural grasslands on basalt and fine-textured alluvial plains of Northern New South Wales and Southern Queensland, and natural grasslands of the Queensland central highlands and the northern Fitzroy basin.
Bardsley, D, Weber, D, Robinson, G, Moskwa, E, & Bardsley, A 2015, ‘Wildfire risk, biodiversity and peri-urban planning in the Mt Lofty Ranges, South Australia’, Applied Geography, 63, pp. 155-165
Beatley, T., & Newman, P. (2009). Green urbanism down under: Learning from sustainable communities in Australia. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Chakraborty, J, & Green, D 2014, ‘The relationship between industrial air pollution and social disadvantage in Australia: national and regional inequities’, Air Quality & Climate Change, 48, 4, pp. 35-38
Garrick, D, Bark, R, Connor, J, & Banerjee, O 2012, ‘Environmental water governance in federal rivers: opportunities and limits for subsidiarity in Australia’s Murray-Darling River’, Water Policy, 14, 6, pp. 915-936
Goods, C, Rainnie, A, & Fitzgerald, S 2015, ‘Ecological modernisation, industry policy and the Australian automotive industry, 2007–13’, Australian Journal Of Political Science, 50, 1, pp. 93-113
Hedgcock, D, & Pidalà, A 2014, ‘Education, practice and professionalism: a comparative history of the development of urban and regional planning in Italy and Australia’, Planning Perspectives, 29, 4, pp. 527-542
Newton, P. (2008). Transitions: Pathways towards sustainable urban development in Australia. Collingwood, VIC: CSIRO Pub.
Pemberton, S, & Searle, G 2016, ‘Statecraft, Scalecraft and Urban Planning: A Comparative Study of Birmingham, UK, and Brisbane, Australia’, European Planning Studies, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 76-95.
Rauscher, R. C., & Momtaz, S. (2015). Sustainable neighbourhoods in Australia: City of Sydney urban planning.
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Wood, R, & Garnett, S 2009, ‘An assessment of environmental sustainability in Northern Australia using the ecological footprint and with reference to Indigenous populations and remoteness’, Ecological Economics, 68, 5, pp. 1375-1384
Xia, B, Chen, Q, Skitmore, M, Zuo, J, & Li, M 2015, ‘Comparison of sustainable community rating tools in Australia’, Journal Of Cleaner Production, 109, pp. 84-91
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