Browsing: <a href="/tag/finance-awards-good-practice">Finance, awards, good practice</a> <i class="grey">•</i> <a href="/tag/built-environment">Built environment</a>

• Green Building Council certifies 400th building
  
• Westpac launches new leasing product for energy efficient equipment
  
• Marathon payout avoids litigation over mining rights
  
• New Carbon Farming Initiative guide launched

• Combet names carbon scheme supremo
  
• Three energy efficiency grant schemes open for applications
  
• Property trusts to benefit from changes to state 'green upgrades' law

A building in Melbourne's CBD will be the first to undergo a green retrofit that is funded through a NAB-backed 'environmental upgrade agreement' designed to provide cheap finance and prevent tenants free-riding on energy efficiency expenditure by owners.

A new sustainability rating tool for infrastructure projects can reduce the risk of legal challenges, ensure ACCC green marketing tests are met and serve a useful purpose in tender processes, Clayton Utz partner Nick Thomas said today.

Transport and logistics company Toll Holdings says a carbon price won't have a material effect on its business and aims to reduce its CO2 emissions intensity to 20% below 2009-10 levels by 2020.

Green-star rated buildings, and those with a high NABERS energy rating, deliver higher returns to their owners than less efficient buildings, according to a study of office buildings in Sydney and Canberra.

Research by NAB and ClimateWorks on retail sector energy efficiency opportunities concludes retailers could add an extra 3% to 14% to EBIT – but they would need to boost capital expenditure by about 25% to do it.

A trigeneration network switched on today in Sydney has adopted a commercial fix for a technical problem that has plagued the roll-out of tri-gen units in Australia – and it could prove a better model for Sydney City Council's efforts to deploy the technology, says Investa's Craig Roussac.

• Government delays green tax breaks scheme
  
• Expect 'modest' abatement from forests and soils, CSIRO tells Senate
  
• NZ wind farm decision-makers obliged to consider 'national interest'
  
• Don't scapegoat renewables, Climate Institute says
  
• Major emitters to meet next week

The Australian Green Infrastructure Council says its sustainability rating tool, to be trialled mid-year ahead of a 2012 launch, will help investors decide which projects to support and make tender processes cheaper and more equitable.