Initiatives

SMExcellence

SMExcellence (opens in new window) is a free online interactive learning and planning system that helps you to start up and manage your business, particularly Small to Medium businesses (SMEs).

Green Skills Hub

Australia’s third largest industry for employment, the building industry employs nearly 10 per cent of the nation’s workforce. Accorinding to WSROC the Western Sydney economy is worth around $85 billion a year.

Green Skills Hub at Nirimba TAFE WSI

A state of the art green skills living laboratory has recently been completed at TAFE NSW - Western Sydney institute, NirimbaCollege. The laboratory models sustainable practices and delivers a range of green skills sets and qualifications. This enables innovative, multidiscipline, inter-related training across a range of areas including Building, Electrical, Electrical Engineering, Plumbing, Refrigeration and Information Technology. This approach allows the sharing of ideas, resources and interdependent practices.

The facility enables the Institute to address significant national skills shortages through the delivery of training in new green technologies.

A virtual tour (opens in a new window) is available for the GreenSkills Hub if you would like to find out more.

Sustainability Roundtable

The University of Western Sydney recently hosted an Industry Roundtable for Careers in Sustainability, as a way of involving students in important discussions about the future of the field of sustainability. The Roundtable, held at the UWS Parramatta campus, included discussions about the development of curriculum content, as well as the opportunities that exist for careers in the field of sustainability.

Senior staff from 14 organisations were in attendance, providing UWS with valuable insights regarding the employer expectations of UWS graduates.The attendees included representatives of Chartered Accountants, Deloitte, Eco Transit, the New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage, IBM, SITA Australia, Sydney Water, Western Sydney Institute TAFE, Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils as well as the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities - some of which are RCE-GWS partners.

Building Better Returns

Sustainability has taken on increased importance in the property industry in recent years. The property industry has a major impact on the environment, with buildings contributing up to 23% of carbon dioxide emissions, 40% of energy requirements, 16% of water usage, 30% of solid landfill waste, 40% of raw materials and 71% of electricity consumed.

Research undertaken by the University of Western Sydney (UWS) and the University of Maastricht, Netherlands in conjunction with Jones Lang LaSalle and CBRE is the first major Australian study to assess the added value of green office buildings. This study indicates that green office buildings in Sydney and Canberra have a higher financial performance compared to non-green office buildings.

To read the full report visit the Australian Property Institute website (opens in new window).

The above projects were carried out by our partners outside of RCE-GWS.