Low carbon green growth: tracking progress in Australia's built environment industry towards a green economy

The 21st century's economy will be urban and green. The urban transition is well advanced globally, albeit unsustainably (Newton, 2008; Newman and Matan, 2013). The green economy is in its infancy. Yet like other revolutionary socio-technical transitions before it, there are irrepressible sets of push and pull factors massing that can trigger transformative change. The push factors are those capable of delivering innovation. New technologies are among these (see Figure 1) as well as business strategies and practices and government policies and programs that all need to shift towards facilitating this new economy. The pull factors are also clear and relate, among others, to the challenge of creating sustainable and resilient built environments capable of functioning within the ecosystem limits of a single planet subject to climate change and forecast to be home to 9 billion people by 2050 (Newman et al., 2009; Pearson et al., 2013). This study represents a first attempt within Australia to explore the extent to which a green economy is emerging within different sectors of industry. Its emergence is underway within the energy sector (Newton and Newman, 2013); less so elsewhere. For the built environment sector, given its critical role in sustainable urban development, it is important to understand where the industries that constitute this sector are headed. The survey on which this report is based probes senior managers in both private and public sector organisations in relation to: (a) Perceptions of their current operating environment; (b) Corporate strategies; (c) Green business opportunities; and (d) Areas where government can assist business in creating an environment conducive to low carbon green growth.