GRA NEWSLETTER July 2013
GREETINGS MEMBERS NEW AND OLD
The NEW Website is spanking green and our commitment to foster Community of GR & GW lovers has been realised with GRA memberships and GRA Facebook Friend numbers cracking records. Our focus since holding another successful National GREENING CITIES Conference in Melbourne has been to provide our members with the most comprehensive website on GREENROOFS & GREENWALLS in Australasia, which also has not gone unnoticed internationally.
As a Not-For-Profit Organization GRA CAN NOT CONTINUE WITHOUT YOUR SUPPORT so please, accept our warmest THANKS to our faithful members and WELCOME to the many new members for 2013.
WHY BE A MEMBER?
There should be BENEFITS, right?
This is a fact we have been working on - GRA now provides Members with more benefits at reduced Fees:
INDIVIDUALS & STUDENTS
There is now FREE membership so you can browse part of the website functions and be informed on News / Products / Basic Information / watch videos / join our FB page and more.
In addition, fees have been reduced to $30/annum for Students & $50/annum for Individuals. This gives you complete access to all the Library Info / Project Galleries / Business register / Keynote Presentations / Images / Conference Discounts in Australia and abroad and more.
SOLE TRADERS & BUSINESS
The fees have been reduced for you also. Sole Traders now $75/annum; Small Business now $220/annum & Business now $440/annum.
The great benefit for any size Business is that GRA has a NEW Business Listing for all your details; there is also a Project Gallery for you to upload your Projects with all specifications or add your projects to the Image Gallery.
There are clients, professionals, councils, students, developers, home owners ... ALL looking for either information on green roofs & walls / designers to specify them / installers to do the work / suppliers to provide systems AND the first site they search is GRA. Put up your details, put up your projects, your services, products and ALLOW US TO PROMOTE YOU.
GRA is about providing Information and Promoting the Industry BUT we need everyone on board to do that comprehensively.
Project of the Month
Prince Alfred Park Pool Client: City of Sydney
Project by: Neeson Murcutt Architects / Sue Barnsley Design
The Pool was officially opened in June by Mayor Clover Moore and is another example of the 2030 Vision for Sydney. Read more in Project Gallery.
HERE'S WHAT'S NEW ON THE GRA WEBSITE
- GRA Membership Registrations are NOW done online and reminders will be automatically sent out.
- Meantime please Check to See if you are still active, as we changed over the system early 2013.
- If you require assistance don't hesitate to contact our administration by email info@GRaus.com.au or admin@GRaus.com.au>
- There is now a FREE membership which can keep you informed however this does not provide full access to our website.
- All levels of Membership Fees have been greatly REDUCED so help us increase our advocacy work by spruiking NEW members.
- An abundance of NEW images, projects, research, news, power points, videos - all listed further on!
The HEADINGS below refer to the TAB HEADINGS on our website HOMEPAGE for easier NAVIGATION.
CHECK OUT WHAT'S NEW!
INDUSTRY
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Business Directory
Members can upload all their Business Details under specific Professions eg Architects, Landscapers, Nursery
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Upload Projects
Members can simply upload GR/W Projects - images, specifications, comments.
Advertise and Inform us about your latest project - big or small.
The GRA FB page is spiking with contributors from all across the Globe. Join this ever expansive community it's amazing what gets posted. Join Up!
LIBRARY resource centre
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Image Gallery:
There's now a comprehensive gallery of Australasian GR/W images & from around the World.
Send in any New Images you want us to upload. -
Image Gallery:
2011 / 2012 National Conference Images - Social, Tours, Delegates, Awards.
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Media:
This new addition has videos filmed by GRA:-
Patrick Blanc, speaking on 1 Central Park, Sydney.
Ed Snodgrass, USA expert speaking on GreenRoof Maintenance.
John Loomis, SWAgroup speaking on the 'Giant' buildings massive GR in Shanghai.
Larry Reed, SWAgroup USA speaking on the California Academy of Sciences GR.
Daniel Baffsky, 360 degrees speaking on the Ivy in Sydney. -
Publications
Many new articles, papers and Research from Australia, NZ and overseas.
Very special thanks to Anthony Kachenko (Nursery & Garden Industry Australia), Mostafa Razzaghmanesh (UniSACentre for Water Management and Reuse), Robyn Simcock (Landcare Research New Zealand) and Sheryn Pitman (Botanic Gardens of Adelaide) for sharing with us all this very useful information and materials.
If you are working on new and exciting projects or have heard of one in your area, we want to hear from you. We are always happy to hear from new research groups and people interested in collaborating with us.
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Power Point Presentations:
2011 / 2012 National Greening Cities Conferences
Speakers are available on MP3.
The 2012 Melbourne Conference is available for listening on the audio file.
GRA News
GRA
will be hosting
the
WORLD GREEN ROOF CONGRESS
2014 SYDNEY
Venue: Australian Technology Park, Sydney.
Dates: September 02-05 2014
Call for Abstracts / Sponsorship Packages / Congress Program & Registrations available soon.
!!! BOOK THESE DATES !!!
*********************************
IFLA World Congress 2013 – New Zealand
Congratulations to ASPECT Studios (Project: Victorian Desalination Project) for winning 2013 IFLA APR Awards for Landscape Architecture - Award of Excellence for Landscape Planning Category!
National News
Sowing the seeds for greener cities
The University of Melbourne and the Lord Mayor of Melbourne today launched Australia's largest green roof research and outreach project at the University's Burnley Campus near Richmond.
Architect Vince Squillace plans City Rd tower with vertical garden over seven levels
Platinum, a 52-storey tower on City Rd near Kings Way in Perth, will have a vertical garden over seven levels - one of the world's biggest.
The Green Infrastructure Project hosted by the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide
Botanical Gardens of Adelaide have recently completed a significant document - the Green Infrastructure Evidence Base - a review of research and literature from around the world on the values and benefits of Green Infrastructure.
Neighbourhoods will be turned into "neighbourwoods" as part of a new program to turn Sydney's hot spots into cool urban forests.
Research Project on the Rooftop of ANZ House in Adelaide, South Australia
Current research in Adelaide involves monitoring thermal performance, water quality and useage, and plant performance characteristics of extensive and intensive green roof beds on the 22nd level rooftop of ANZ House in Adelaide.
International News
Green infrastructure upgrades to protect waterways from raw sewage, USA
King County and the city of Seattle have agreed to invest in major upgrades to local sewage and combined stormwater collection, piping and treatment under settlements with the Department of Justice and the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Rooftop gardens spring up in the Pee Dee, USA
Plants on the roof? A gable garden? What the heck is going on?
Researchers produce findings of green planted-roof pilot study, New Zealand
The University Of Canterbury (UC) is investigating the benefits of green planted-roofs for the New Zealand built-environment.
Landscape Park Duisburg: Re-Use of Abandoned Land, Germany
Have you ever walked in a park between old industrial buildings getting a scent of the industrial era, while having a thousand things to explore?
THANKING OUR SPONSORS
PLATINUM SPONSORS: FYTOGREEN AUSTRALIA
GOLD SPONSORS: INTERNATIONAL LEAK DETECTORS / THE GREENWALL COMPANY
SILVER SPONSORS: SIKA AUSTRALIA / RONSTAN / ELMICH AUSTRALIA
Recent Projects
Singapore ITE Headquarters & College Central
Singapore’s Institute of Technical Education’s College Central has made a bold statement to embrace Singapore’s transformation into a ‘City in a Garden.’ Green walls up to 35 m (115 feet) high covered the facades of eight campus blocks, together totalling 5,324 sq m (57,307 sq ft), making it the largest vertical greenery installation at a single development in the world.
In addition, Elmich Extensive Green Roof system greened 2,400 sq m of rooftop space atop three campus blocks. Pearl Grass was selected for its heat tolerance and low maintenance. An automated pop-up sprinkler irrigation system was installed to ensure that a rich jade-green is sustained on the rooftops.
The living walls are part of the college’s “Vertical Greening – An Eco-Initiative” drive to be eco-friendly whilst offering a conducive learning environment for its students.
Book Recommendation
Ecosystem services come to town: Greening cities by working with nature
by Gary Grant
Book description:
The need to find new approaches to the development of cities is becoming increasingly urgent in this age of continuing population growth, demographic transition, climate change, fossil fuel peak and biodiversity losses. Restoring ecosystem services and promoting biodiversity is essential to sustainable development – even in the built environment.
Ecosystem Services come to Town: greening cities by working with nature demonstrates how to make urban environments greener. It starts by explaining how, by mimicking nature and deliberately creating habitats to provide ecosystem services, cities can become more efficient and more pleasant to live in. The history of cities and city planning is covered with the impacts of industrial urban development described, as well as the contemporary concerns of biodiversity loss, peak oil and climate change.
The later sections offer solutions to the challenges of sustainable urban development by describing and explaining a whole range of approaches and interventions, beginning at the regional scale with strategic green infrastructure, looking at districts and precincts, with trees, parks and rain gardens and ending with single buildings, including with green roofs and living walls.
Technical enough to be valuable to practitioners but still readable and inspirational, this guide demonstrates to town planners, urban designers, architects, engineers, landscape architects how to make cities more liveable.
Past Events
MAY:
13-15 May: 3rd International Green Roof Congress, Hamburg, Germany
http://www.greenroofworld.com/
21-22 May: Grey to Green – The Economics of Green Infrastructure, Toronto, Canada
http://www.greytogreenconference.org/
24 – 26 May: Roof India 2013, Chennai, India
JUNE:
5 June: World Environment Day
JULY:
5-6-7 July: Queensland Garden Expo
http://www.qldgardenexpo.com.au/
Upcoming Events
30 July: SYMPOSIUM: Green Roofs and Walls for Sustainable Cities
SEPTEMBER:
9-13 September: WGIN -World Green Infrastructure Conference, Nantes, France
GRA MEMBERS WILL RECEIVE DISCOUNTED REGISTRATION.
17-19 September: GREENBUILD ASIA 2013 Exhibition & Conference, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
http://www.greenbuildasia.org/
19-22 September: 2013 World Green Roof Congress (WGRC), Nanjing, China