MARIA ATKINSON
Global Head of Sustainability, Lend Lease

Maria Atkinson was a Founding Director of the Green Building Council of Australia, also its Chief Executive from 2002 to 2005. She shares with FuturArc Chief Editor, Dr Nirmal Kishnani, her think-forward perceptive, a belief that the property sector needs to unlock its own potential, investing in capacity building and innovation, and connecting the dots between policy today and profits tomorrow.

The following are excerpts from the interview.

NK: Does the financial crisis change the way a developer, like Lend Lease, approaches the market?
MA: The crisis is constraining capital; new construction and new projects are slowing down and, in some places around the world, have stopped. If we can get into repositioning existing buildings, then that creates a development play and an opportunity to revitalise cities. Our construction business is looking to build capacity in 'greening' existing buildings. It takes, on average at least, five years for changes in the way we do things to be delivered routinely on the ground—for example, for a plumber to understand how solar installations and water reuse solutions change a building's plumbing—a shift to 'greening' the trade if you like. We can use the Green refurbishment of existing buildings to drive Green collar jobs, and if we have enough work in this area we can have new skills and innovation to apply when the markets recover for new projects. The global financial crisis compels us to focus on what will be the future value of the market and the value of 'retro-greening' our cities.

NK: Carbon is not a part of that discourse yet. Policy instruments are driven by the idea of efficiency, energy efficiency specifically. Rating tools in many places reward this. Globally we are getting to a point where we need a new definition of the problem and tools for dealing with it.
MA: You're so right, we absolutely do. We need a carbon disclosure tool. The root cause of existing rating tools is that governments have been more interested in energy, not carbon. And they've been interested in reducing energy consumption because every dollar that they spent in demand reduction, they're saving A$6.50 in new or upgrading existing energy generation infrastructure. What we now need is to address the carbon economy, to have carbon as a measure of performance.

So I think you're right; current rating tools in some areas do limit our understanding because they're not enabling a transparent and open way of calculating your greenhouse gas emissions. But I believe it's just the tweaking of tools that is needed rather than replacing existing tools with something new.

NK: What needs to happen here in Asia to deal with climate change? What, for instance, limits the dialogue on greenhouse gas abatement?
MA: In many parts of Asia you have environment departments or ministries working in isolation from the treasury or finance or where they exist the government's utility powerhouses. I think everyone needs to go back to one dollar spent in demand abatement through energy efficiency in buildings saves A$6.50 in investment in new power generation needs or upgrades to existing infrastructure. If you can guarantee the government that the money they spend in energy efficiency in buildings actually delivers them this saving of deferred investment that they need to make in building coal-fired power stations or the upgrading failing systems—then you will have their attention.

Environment departments everywhere don't understand buildings or the real estate and construction sector and therefore buildings never enter the conversation between an environment department and economic department. It's important to show transparently that one dollar invested in energy efficiency and green buildings actually helps governments with its development objectives. I haven't seen anyone in governments make that connection.

To read the complete interview, get a copy of the 3Q 2009 edition at our online shop or at newsstands/major bookstores; or subscribe to FuturArc.

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