Sustainability in the urban environment

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

RMIT University presents 

Online Lecture:

Sustainability in the Built Environment.

 

RMIT

A Global University of Technology and Design

Associate Professor Usha Iyer-Raniga

Deputy Head International

School of Property, Construction and Project Management.

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

Okay good afternoon everyone or good evening or good morning, depending on which part of the world you are. So, this presentation is to give you a little bit of information about some of the programs that we run at the School of Property, Construction and Project Management. I also got with me one of our students from the Management Program ─ Srivaths Parayil. He will be talking a little bit later on his experiences as a student and at my team. So, to commence with let me tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Usha Iyer-Raniga and I’m Deputy Head International of School of Property, Construction and Project Management. What I’m going to talk to you about a little bit today is about Sustainability and why do we need to think about Sustainability issues in the built environment.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]                        

Why consider sustainability in the built environment?

[PICTURE]                             

A lady in the background.

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

A little bit about myself first. I am originally from India. I have been in Australia for almost 30 years. I did my Masters in Architecture from the University of British Columbia in Canada after doing a Bachelor’s Degree from the university thankful […], and I did my PhD in the University of Melbourne. So, let me tell you a little bit about sustainability and why this is important in the built environment.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

                                         Built environment is part of our day-day activities.

 [PICTURE]

                                        1. Factory

2. Shelter-residential homes

3. Clothing-shirts

4. Food -vegetables

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

The built environment is a part of our day to day activity. Food, shelter and clothing are essential that we need on a day to day basis but when you think about the built environment. You don’t just think about where you live or where you work. You also need to start thinking about where you get your food and your clothing as well as the products that you use on a day to day basis.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

                                         Movement

[PICTURE]     

                                        5- Horse on a carriage

6- Ford car Picture

7- Roads and road transportation

8- Train

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

The world is constantly changing according to the slide. About 100 years ago, or 150 years ago, it is very common to have a horse on a cart and then people look restricted with what they did. But come to Industrial Revolution and you’ll see this the first Ford Car that was manufactured […] in the picture that is marked 6 of the slide. That has changed the way we build building, the way we build our city. So, seven (7) and eight (8)- (7), depicting roads and road transportation and (8)-being one of the different forms of transportation that we use today.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

Current built environment.

[PICTURE]

9-Factories in New York City

10- Singapore city view

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

So, the current built environment is continuously changing- slide Number three has got a picture number nine (9) at the top which talks about, which really showed what the industrial age was like. This picture is again of a city in New York where a lot of factories were built and in those days, we did not have as much transportation as we do now. So, the major needs of transport […] railroad and backseat but now the picture on the ten (10) which is Singapore, a lovely picture of Singapore, shows a high activity that takes place on a daily basis.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

Why? As a global society, we spend 90% of our time indoors, in buildings that account for at least 40% of CO₂ emissions worldwide.

                                               

[PICTURE]

Different type of buildings or infrastructure (university, flat, factory, office).

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

So, when you think about the built environment, what are some of the images that brought to your mind? Of course, we live in a home – we live in a flat. You may be going to a university, you may be going to a place of work, you may be going off as a tourist and the important thing is that, we spend quite a lot of our time indoors. And that is why, the quality of our built environment becomes very, very important.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

Health and sustainability?

“The most important process in preventing indoor air problems is material choice at the design stage, whether during new construction or refurbishment of existing buildings.”

-OECD 2002

 

Indoor air level of many pollutants can be 2.5 to 100 times higher than outdoor levels.

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

There is a very tenuous link between the quality of our built environment and the way people live within a built environment. And sometimes, and this show the OECD of 2002.

Sometimes the air quality in the built environment were actually be even worse than that of the outer environment and this is particularly the case when you’re looking at cities such […] in India or China or Indonesia where there are not as many controls of pollution. If there is no ventilation of spaces within the indoor environment, then some of these pollutants can actually stay inside for days and the weeks to come. And that in turn, impacts our health and the conditions within which people are working.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

International drivers

Internationally:

□  Kyoto Protocol (1997)

□  Stern review (2007).

□  Bali Roadmap (2007)

□  Copenhagen (2009)

□  Cancun (2010)

□  Durban (2011)

□  Rio +20 (2012)

□  IPCC report (2014)

□  CoP 2015

□  SDG 2015

□  Cop 2016.

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

Let us now look at some of the drivers from an international perspective that is putting sustainability, climate change, resilient, adaptation on the world state or on the world map. A lot of work around sustainability even though it started in the 70’s and 80’s, recent attention has only been highlighted or has been in spotlight over the last 10 to 15 years.

Two recent events that I want to highlight. One is the development of sustainable development goals of Climate Change. So, we have the millennium development goals that was set up in two parts and for whatever reason which I won’t go into now, these millennium development goals didn’t actually get a lot of attraction and part of the reason why the attraction did not happen was because it was very skewed up towards the inputs that are provided by developments.

And so, it is really important to hear the voices from developing countries such as India and China who have brought the highest population of the world and also going through a rapid phase of modernisation.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

17 GOALS TO TRANSFORM OUR WORLD

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

So just moving along in terms of these international drivers, I want to focus a little bit on the sustainable development goals. Why are these goals important? These goals are important because from a global perspective, the sustainable development goals became the main and the maker by which we can start putting a yard stick around our own processing of developments. So, what are these 17 goals?

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT WITH LOGO]

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

1.     NO POVERTY

2.     ZERO HUNGER

3.     GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

4.     QUALITY EDUCATION

5.     GENDER EQUALITY

6.     CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION

7.     AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY

8.     DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWNTH

9.     INDUSTRY INNOVATION AND INFASTRUCTURE

10.  REDUCED INEQUALITIES

11.  SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES

12.  RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION

13.  CLIMATE ACTION

14.  LIFE BELOW WATER

15.  LIFE ON LAND

16.  PEACE. JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS

17.  PARTNERSHIP FOR THE GOALS

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

No poverty, no hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordability and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate action, life below water — thinking not just about what happened in the ground but also what happened below ground and as well as our seas — life on land, peace, justice and strong institutions and partnerships for the goals.

Now as you can see, these 17 goals quite focus not just on one aspect but also bringing – it’s a framework that brings with it a range of different issues. So, this is actually the part of the reason why these sustainable development goals are getting a lot more attraction because it doesn’t provide just the one means but it provides the framework, which is fair and equitable for both the developed countries as well as the developing countries.

And what is really interesting if you look at it from a built environment perspective is that it catches on a number of – it could be health and well-being, education, water and sanitation, affordability of energy, cities and communities, consumption and production, climate action and partnership.

So, it is not possible for us or any one country or any one set of population across the world to be focusing on only one of these 17 goals. We have to work in partnership between developed and developing countries between the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere and everybody is to work together to realise this sustainable development goals.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

10YFP Sustainable Buildings and Construction Programme (SBC)

10 Year Framework of Programmes post Rio+20

□  STP

□  SLE

□  SCI

□  SPP

□  SBC

□  SFS.

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

In 2015, as part of this Rio+20, a new frame of this launch called the 10-year framework and under the 10-year framework there are six programs. The six programs are:

 

(1) Sustainable Tourism.

(2) Sustainable Lifestyle Education.

 (3) Sustainable Consumer Information.

(4) Sustainable Public Procurement.

(5) Sustainable Buildings and Construction and

(6) Sustainable Food Systems.

So, as you can see, these six programs are link with some of the framework and on which the 17 goals of the sustainable development goals sit.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT AND LOGO]

                                          Leadership of the 10YFP Programmes

✅  KEITI   Korean Environmental Industry and Technology Institute

✅  Morocco

✅  Republic Francaise

✅  UNWTO

✅  ICLEI   Local Government for Sustainability

✅  Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety

✅  Ministry of the Environment

✅  MCST

✅  UNEP

✅  World Green Building Council

✅  Consumers International

✅  RMIT University

✅  Swedish Government

✅  WWF

✅  Republic of Indonesia

 

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:    Under the sustainable buildings and construction programs, you can see lots of the players and this is worldwide. So, they are the industry players, there are government, there are NGOs, as well as RMIT University.

 

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       10YFP SBC Organisation

                                                Shown on screen is the organisational chart of SBC.

                                                Lead and Co-Leads | SBC Core Team | Coordination Desk

                                                            World Green Building Council

                                                            RMIT

                                                            UNEP

                                                            Ministry of the Environment

                                                                       

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:    In addition to this, we work with a range of people globally. So, we work with people across the UN. We work with big industry bodies such as we work legally counsel, we work for the Ministry of Built Environment based on Finland. We also work across a range of people and you can see this, I mean, there’s MAC, the Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Committee, which includes people from 23 different economies.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT AND LOGO]   

SBC Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Committee (MAC)

                                        Logo of the Ministry of the Environment

                                        RMIT Logo

                                        UNEP Logo

                                        World Green Building Council Logo

Governments of Argentina, France, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa

                                         Business organizations of Skanska, WBCSD

Academia: Energies 2050, France + Africa, Politecnico, Italy, Tsinghua China

IGOs: UN-Habitat, UNPOS

NGOs: Bioregional UK

Development Alternatives India

RICS

SEEA US

TERI India

UNEP-SBCI

WWF

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

These are some of our partners in the sustainable building construction programs. We have governments from Argentina, France, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa. Business organisations such as Skanska which is well known in Europe as well as North America, The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), a range of people from Academia, international built organisations such as UN-Habitat and UNOPS, as well as a range of different NGOs.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       10YFP SBC Themes:

Pictures depicting social and economic issues, policies, capacity building, health and safety, innovation, resilience, refurbishment of buildings, resources, housing, water, energy, cooperation and in the center, depicts the future where children are shown.

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

These are the themes that make up the SBC Programmes.  We’re looking across the board at social economic issues, poverty, water, housing, resources as well as other information.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

                                        SUSTAINABILITY

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

Let me now talk a little bit about sustainability. So, with this framework, that is back job, of what is happening in a global context, I’m hoping that you are able to get a bit of context around the issues of sustainability.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

What is sustainability?

►         Definitions

►         What does it really mean?

►         What does it mean to you?

►         How do you put it into practice?

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

So, I’m going talk to on some very quick definitions around sustainability. What it really means? And what might it mean to you? And how do you put sustainability into practice?

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [PICTURE]

Shown is a picture of an open cut gold mine in Utah.           

                                               

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

A couple of examples to start with. This is a picture that shows what is left behind when you happened to open cut gold mine. So, this is a picture of an open cut gold mine in Utah. To deliver one kilogram of gold, you need to use about 540 tonnes of earth. And this is what is going to happen.

So often the process of consumption, the process of production leaves behind quite damaging legacy back unto the earth and back unto the environment which is going to take a number of years – thousands of years perhaps involved to heal.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       T

he Drying of the Aral Sea in 1990. Shown is a picture of a ship docked on dry land.

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

And some consequences are really unknown or unknown at this time but also very difficult to predict. So often unpredictable. And here is another example of using water for cotton production. This is an example of the Aral Sea in the late 1990’s, where there is diversion of water for cotton production and this is what it looks like. So here again is an example of where water sources are being diverted either from damming or for the purposes of agriculture, downstream can have some very seated impacts and of course, added to that, would be where does the person downstream or where does the community or villages that are living downstream have at least water for the day.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

Built Environment Production and Consumption.

[PICTURE]

Shown is a picture of a factory and a dump site.

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

So, the process of production and consumption of the built environment does leave an impact. So, buildings typically consume about 30% - 50% of available raw materials. They account for about 25% - 40% of final energy consumption and generate about 40% of waste to landfill in OECD countries. And below this I have given you further details on different types of materials and the impact they will have. Now, put this into context with what is happening in countries like China and India where there’s massive growth in infrastructure in city building and just imagine what you have – the system it has on the planet in the years to come.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

What to Change?

[PICTURE]

Shown on screen are two pie charts. First pie chart showed percentage of greenhouse gas emissions from residential sectors, and second pie chart shows water usage by the residential sectors.

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

Here is an example from Australia. On the left-hand side of the pie chart that shows what are the carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gas emission from the residential sector and on the right- hand side is just focusing purely on water. I’m not going to dwell further but just to highlight that in all these pie charts household water use or the way people use the houses, the way people use water can actually have quite a large impact in terms of energy conservation.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

                                        What is sustainability?

                                       [PICTURE]

                                       Shown are the front cover of the following reports:  

OUR COMMON FUTURE -The World Commission on Environment and Development

KICK THE HABIT

Cannibals with Forks

CLIMATE CHANGE 2014 – The Physical Science Basis

GREEN ECONOMY

 

[TEXT]

Sustainability vs. Sustainable Development

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

Things can be learned by taking a revolutionary framework to sustainability.               

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

Our understanding of Sustainable Development

►         Sustainability as a process:

►         Evolutionary

►         Combination of ecological, social and economic problems, rather than each of these separately

►         Embrace change

►         Passive-adaptive (historical)

►         Active-adaptive (dynamic modeling)

►         Systemic problems across various spatial and temporal scales

►         Interdisciplinary approaches to sustainability

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:  

So, the current understanding which is being the framework which is helping us drive things like sustainability development goal is along these ideas that sustainability is a process and therefore we need to innovate and that’s one of the sustainable development goals. We need to ensure that there is equity across different parts of the planet there is no way that there is a responsibility of too much consumption. We need to think about something that is happening now but also bearing in mind what is going to happen in the future.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

Traditional views – Triple Bottom Line

Shown on the slide are three interlocking circles, locking at the center is the word Sustainability. The first circle contains the word Environmental, the second circle contains the word, Economic, and the third circle contains the word, Social.

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

So essentially, we need to know HOW and we need to project –bearing in mind that these lessons from the past are going to help us develop and move ahead towards sustainability and we work together on the partnership approach.

So, you may have read about the Triple Bottom Line where the sweet spot is the sustainability, the environmental, the economic and the social. Unfortunately, when this happens, when we started going on the direction of sustainability, we started very much with the environmental and the economic approach because both financial considerations are very important consideration of what are we going to do.

The social side of sustainability has largely been – a collective high and there are lots of others in value that in the culture side of sustainability is responsible […]. So, this Triple Bottom Line or as we call it a “three-legged stool” is currently not an evenly balanced stool. It’s cure to work environmental and economic but hopefully the sustainable development goal which is socially sustainable and cultural sustainability […]

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

                                       Shown on the slide are definitions of terms:

⊳  Zero/Net Zero

⊳  Energy

►   Net zero source energy building

►   Net zero site energy building

⊳  Cost

►   Net zero energy cost

►   Emissions

►   Net Zero energy emissions

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

I’m going to also – very quickly because I realise that I’m over the half an hour into the presentation. I also want to very quickly touch on some other term that are being used and you probably have been hearing about this in the media or through studying.

The terms that are currently being used particularly if you are in the Asia Pacific region or the European Region, you would hear bottoms or deal or make deal or positive or you hear about nearly net zero. So, these are all issues that are dealing with how can we try and ensure that what we take in terms of the energy use is actually positive at the end of the day.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

                                        What does it mean?

Shown on the slide is a diagram showing the energy cost of operating a building and utilising energy from utility provider.

                                                           

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

So, when we operate a building, we rely on sources of energy that come in usually from a utility provider. But there are countries and there are increasingly – policy being directed towards ensuring that people are becoming more saving when in terms of using the label. So, it’s, for example, it’s not unusual and this is being an issue in Australia for the Federal Government to support policies around… and they have given subsidies… […]

As a result of this approach, there are opportunities where, when even there’s somebody not at home during the day, the solar panel, particularly where there is sunshine, the solar panel will then produce energy which can then go back into the wage. Some developments are now taking place particularly around small places in India, around new developments in China where large development are actually having access to renewable energy sometimes it may be solar, sometimes it may be […] where these sources of energy are actually developing and implementing, and ensuring that there is enough energy for use during the daytime.

Some of these developments have factories associated with it so you can also store the energy and you can use it at night time and this is where some of the positive sides and positive development are coming into picture. There’s also the issue of cost of course and there is along with these terms of energy that are positive is also the issue of cost and of course, no utility provider is going to take energy from you and pay you more money than those – so there are issues that are being debated particularly in Australia.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

                                        Poll

►  Do you think 100% sustainability is possible?

►  Why? / Why not?

►  What are your considerations?

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

So, with this add as a sort of a background and this knowledge about sustainability brings something that will continuously striving to achieve, do you think—I’m not going to ask people but I want you to think about it, do you think it is possible for you to achieve 100% sustainability at any one given point of time and if you think it is possible think about why that might be okay and if it’s not possible why not? And what are other situations that will come out something to think about and perhaps discuss with your friends and family […]

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

                                       Is 100% sustainability possible?

Shown on slide is the result of a survey conducted at a design show, London 2006.

53 % Yes

47% No

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:  

Here is an example of a design show in 2006. Prior to making a stand report, people were made to answer if 100% sustainability is possible— 53% said yes, and 47% said no and interestingly enough with people who said yes – they all had the same perception of what it needs to be sustainable.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

■         100% Sustainable initiative launched at 100% Design in London 2006 to map perception of sustainability

■         Survey of 2000 people: half believed that 100% sustainability is possible

□   no consensus on what ‘sustainable design’ is

□   design practice is governed by the perception of sustainability is, what people think is best, achievable and effective

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

Here again for a while we’ve had a lot of discussions from debates and agreement that are still not being adhered to in spite of the [situation today] …] So, even though people might think that it might sustain the world, you would actually unless they would go back and measure it. We are not actually going to get a feedback or evaluation of what it means to be sustainable.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

                                      Sustainability….

“……is one of the most complex and confusing subjects that a designer has to tackle.

-Tom Dixon, designer, creative director 100% Design, London 2008

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

And this sort of – I think, summarises the issue of sustainability particularly on a design perspective, it’s one of most complex and confusing subjects that a designer has to tackle.

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       Sustainability will mean Going Beyond Light Globes and Water buckets.

[PICTURE]

Shown on slide is a picture of a light globe and a water bucket.

But does this mean you as an individual or a citizen of the planet—it doesn’t mean that you don’t do anything or just sit and wait people to make decisions for you. I will leave that to you but when you do think about changing your light bulbs at home, think about what globes you will be using. Here in Australia, we have actually phased out the old incandescent and we only use only these – but still it is expensive, halogens are gone in the market and we used very highly energy efficient globes.

During the period of drought we were very careful particularly in Victoria, we have something that is target on flat 0.5 where every person in every household shouldn’t be using over 155 litres a day and we are very careful in how we use water in the house, whether those for bathing or for drinking or cooking and we use a lot of water for laundry purposes as well, high increase of […] So it’s really up to you to decide what you think is appropriate from your perspective. We have a lot of debate or discussions and transportation as well particularly in Australia. We tend to have now, it’s common to have […] average of a 2.3 – we also have an average number of car so it is certainly here in Australia, we tend not to use another public transport but we still rely on the car as the means of getting around [?].

 

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

‘if every Australian household switched to renewable energy and stopped driving their cars tomorrow, total household emissions would decline by about 18% ‘

[Dey, et al, p. 291]

Is this realistic?

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

Dey, said it very well, when he says that ‘if every Australian household switched to renewable energy and stopped driving their cars tomorrow, total household emissions would decline by about 18 percent’

And of course, this is theoretical. It’s not realistic and even if Australia, the 24 million population in Australia did this, what about what’s happening to the massive population in North America?

VISUAL DESCRIPTION:       [TEXT]

                                       Learn from the present and plan for the future….

                                       [PICTURE]

                                       Shown on screen is a stack of words forming a circle with the word “building” in the centre.                                                

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

So, given that, we just have a minute of solace. I want you to stop thinking about how can you focus on some of the skill that you might be able to develop and of course RMIT is one of the organisation that will help you to develop it. And if you are thinking of working in the built environment space, just bear in mind that we are classified above all standard in the built environment sphere which includes Engineering and Architecture – I leave it there.

Thank you very much. I’m happy to hear some questions.

Okay, so there’s a question that addresses that ‘only rich countries can afford to go sustainable’ –

And that’s not really true because if you think about villages in Asia or in Africa or even if you go back to the pre-industrialized age, we live within what we could afford – or in terms of resource so that we could get form within our local environment – and of course things have changed so much now. So, when you consider what we have lack from thousands of years ago, and what the future is going to hold in terms of the food we eat, the clothes we buy, the gadgets that we have or the electronic gadgets that we have, it is actually far remarkable in terms of how far or long that we have come.

 But one of the things that I want to highlight is that perhaps compared to the IT industry, the built environment industry is not as fast-paced in terms of the change. It’s a relative dive and soar in terms of making changes like I’m hoping that when you get a chance please […] video and that might change things quite drastically.

So, on things that basically not what you think they are going to change a lot in the future. I also got a question from Moaaz, who’s asking ‘what does it mean to live within the means, with the resources they have, does it mean that community or nation are not supposed to trade?’

Not at all, in fact, it is not possible for one country or one, or one community to geographically be untouched by sustainability. So, what I mean when I say that, is that for example if you look at the vision that is global, it doesn’t have any geographical boundary and so if you take something from the ocean everybody is affected, if you spew something into the atmosphere everybody is affected.

And so, that is why we need to trade and we need to collaborate and we need to make sure that were not stepping on each other’s stone and were learning to respect people for what we have and for the things that they don’t have. I hope that answers your question.

Perhaps, while you’re typing your question, I can bring Srivaths forward. So, Srivaths is one of our student in the Master of Project Management program at the School of Property Construction and Project Management. And I will hand you over to Srivaths…

SRIVATHS SPEAKS:            Hi, everyone. thanks for that wonderful presentation Usha– I mean, it was a real wonderful — I, understand that there’s a lot of questions that was popping in, even she answers the questions from my— because she actually did tell about 540 tonnes of gold being wasted when gold is – now I understand why gold is so costly.

So, let me speak about myself. I’ve completed two semesters in RMIT and I’m from India. It’s been about eight months and it’s about three more months for my next semester to begin. I’m doing my Masters in Project Management with a specialisation in IT and what I practically experience over here is just not the way it is here, how Usha told.

Yes, it is combined with a practical experience because the teachers will do teach us, they’re just not professionals, and they’re not just academics in order to be very specific but they are the ones who’s really have industrial experience so they know a practical – what things happened and you know they kind of can combine with the theory with the practice. That’s what you actually realise when you study in RMIT. And to start with, Usha did tell about the weather in RMIT, it’s windy, it’s rainy, it’s sunny.

Similarly, it’s the culture is always here in RMIT. You know, you find people from China, you find people from India, you find people from Indonesia. It’s a cross culture that is actually seen in Melbourne, similar culture is actually seen in RMIT. So, in your class when you do get a study, when you do projects in groups, you split into different groups, you have all these. You have people from New Zealand, you have people from your own country, you have people from China.

So, the cross-culture growth and the learnings that you receive from— for example, from the way I never knew how Australia, how people in Australia think or I never knew how people in Indonesia think of, you know, what do they think on things? All that happened because you know, we’re affected in the way RMIT is structured in having it multi-cultural. So, that really has helped and yes, another thing, it really helped me to understand the sustainable aspect because another important aspect will you know when you think of studying in Australia or any other place for example is about the part-time opportunities where you get to work or something like that.  This presentation was very helpful because I actually worked as a Solar Consultant, so because very easy for me to understand. This is the first two aspects of sustainability and yes sustainability has really helped me to get a part-time job.

So, in terms of part-time job, many students would have many concerns – would we be getting a part-time job? Would we be getting something related to the same industry and how was life in Melbourne? Or is it already student friendly or is it only study that happens in RMIT. A range of different things that happens in RMIT among the extra-curricular activities that will happen, about the sports that will happen and the way they recognise the multi-culture in RMIT. You know people of different nations, once in a year, or maybe like twice in a year, we do have a seminar, and also different cultures, they do show — they dance, they have their songs, and things like that. So, it’s a wonderful experience for everyone to impact on what they feel and of what I actually what felt in RMIT. I do not know if you have any other ‘cos when it even regards to how life in RMIT is or anything in regards to sustainability?

 

PROF. RANIGA SPEAKS:   

While you’re pondering some of Srivaths’ experience at RMIT. I think three questions that have resulted from presentation that I made. Yasha says, “I think the amount of sustainability in any country depends on its criteria and also every country is just good because it’s related to their indigenous resources”.

I’m not quite sure what the question he raised but I think yes, we all have to live within our means and I think people do that from an economic perspective so you want to buy a car and think if you can afford or she wants it but can’t afford but we don’t think about the environment in that same way and so when we start thinking about sustainability, we look at it purely from an environmental perspective. There is nothing wrong with that and then of course the cost of the thing – why? So, we started thinking about its economic perspective but what we didn’t do was we didn’t think about equity. We didn’t think about the culture and the way we behave on a day to day basis and that is why I say that the “three-legged stool” is actually a very imbalanced tool.

So, a lot of the work is now being done around in bringing a good quality in life so just because you have money, you have things around. You might have a very high footprint from your consumption perspective but that doesn’t necessarily give you a better quality of life so that is very, very, important.

Another question that […] is “does it mean that African countries can possibly obtain 100 per cent sustainable environment as compared to the world?”

I’m not saying that you need to not develop, that you should not have growth and development as a part of sustainability. What I am saying though, is that if you think long-term, if you think about the fact that we only have one planet to live in, I most likely describe what has been going on in terms of discovering another planet or living on Mars.

The reality though is that in the next shot of living terms and yet I’m saying in terms of hundreds of years, the fact is going to remain that we are going to live with what we’ve got and so we need to think about long-term, it’s really up to different countries and to people to decide what they believe – that benchmark of sustainability. So, I hope it answers that question […].

Moaaz has asked, how do we combine construction with sustainable built-environment and-and how does this relate to bring a point like exporting on important countries? We are having questions in this presentation, different measures on sustainability between the built environment.

So, we haven’t covered in this presentation, things like breaking tools, breaking tools on a building level, breaking tools for products otherwise known as equal level. We haven’t talk about breaking tools in a community level, we haven’t talk about smart cities and so, you know, there are different measures and nobody is agreeing on what these common measures are or what this common measures are to be.

To be very much – at a very early stage of trying to understand, what it is that we can use to measure, what is it that we can say – that’s target. And one of the biggest trick is it for this measure to sustainability is that everybody looks at it from a design perspective but nobody actually – after the building or the infrastructure has been completed— nobody actually goes back and evaluate. So, those feedback […].

I hope that answers that question. And the final one, we have, is from Yasha, who says, ‘I believe in sustainability as a comprehensive approach is helpful to increase for instance the quality of life, but first we should think that in what scale we want to have sustainability’.

 Absolutely, and I agree with you. That is why we cannot have, you know, the billions of people in this world all wanting to have the same approach and that is why it has to be for debating and discussed at the country level, the city level, at the regional level, at the local level because we’re all masters of our own destiny and we eat what we want on a day-to-day basis. We live how we like on a day-to-day basis. We buy what we want on a day-to-day basis but I hope that this is giving you something to think about. When you eat some food, hopefully you wonder where the spoon is coming from. When you’re getting water, I hope you try not to drink bottled water if it’s possible because there is a lot of transportation and plastic and everything else that goes into the production of bottled water and there are lots of things that you can see in watching videos.

Paul is saying, ‘wonder if 100% sustainability is not easy when man stops being selfish’.

Well, I think that’s a decision that people have to make. Are there any questions for Srivaths?

Another question that has come up is from Moaaz, ‘what’s gonna be the outcome of COP 2015 especially since president-elect is debating on a rethink of the US participation?’

Sorry it’s a little bit political but still lies in our agenda sphere – absolutely right. Quite frankly, I’m a bit worried because we don’t really know the way and how President Trump, President-elect Trump is going to lead America and often the rest of the world is looking to America for leadership but yes, time will tell, time will tell.

So, we are coming to the end, it’s just a few minutes past nine, but I hope you’ve had a good experience about some of the things that you think about in a university— that is not just thinking, but acting with what we’ve talked. We have a great student population and I hope too that would be an insight thinking about the student population. If you have any questions about studying in RMIT, Ryan, who is our moderator today, will place a link that you can use to get in touch with us.

So, I hope this has been a good insight into what it is that we do at RMIT and if there are any questions raise so Ryan has put the information you can get in touch with isu@rmit.edu.au.

Thank you everyone. I hope this has been an interesting hour for you and wherever you are and whatever you do. I hope you think about sustainability whether it is food or drink or it’s fashion. Thank you all very much.

 

 

[End of Transcript]

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