Chats for the Goals: Sustainable Homes

Housing is critical for our own wellbeing as well as the planet’s. This session will explore the challenges of delivering and financing sustainable housing.

About your presenters

Gordon Noble

Gordon is a Research Director with the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) focusing on sustainable finance and business practice. Gordon has worked across financial systems in a variety of capacities over a thirty-year career including in frontline roles in banking, superannuation, investment management, employee relations and policy/research. 
Gordon was one of the first employees of the United Nations backed Principles for Responsible Investment, founded what is now the Principles for Responsible Investment Academy and in 2020 co-authored the Australian Sustainable Finance Roadmap released by the Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative.

His work includes chapters in the Cambridge Handbook of Institutional Investment and Fiduciary Duty (2014), Palgrave Studies in Sustainable Business’ Sustainable Real Estate (2019) and the Palgrave Handbook of Climate Resilient Societies (2021), Gordon holds a Bachelor of Economics from Australian National University (ANU), Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance and Investment and Graduate Diploma in Industrial and Employee Relations.

Kerryn Wilmot

Kerryn Wilmot leads smart cities and healthy urban environment research programs at ISF. Her research approach takes a user perspective, focussed on creating change in the urban environment that benefits people foremost.
Recent and current projects focus on the health and well-being impacts of the urban environment. Kerryn is working on the ISF smart cities program that uses environmental sensor data to inform planning, construction and operational decisions, particularly as they influence air quality and urban heat. Project examples are environmental sensing for planning and construction management for a major residential development at Melrose Park under a Smart Cities grant, and air quality monitoring and management for City of Sydney. She facilitates workshops to define sustainability aspirations with development teams, and undertook a study of planning scheme changes for improved daylight in buildings. Kerryn led ISF’s role in a wider UTS team that undertook a randomised controlled trial on the health impacts of improving residential thermal comfort for Sustainability Victoria, completed in 2022.

Kerryn combines a practical background with current applied research work. She understands the impact of buildings and infrastructure on the amenity and functionality of the urban environment. In particular she focuses on city systems and infrastructure, the development of regenerative built environments, and passenger focussed public transport.

Ed Langham

Dr Edward Langham is a specialist in low carbon energy transitions, working with new and emerging energy market players to develop Decentralised Energy Resources to accelerate climate action. He works on energy strategy and planning, business model development, open data mapping tools and regulatory reform for the new energy landscape. Ed has driven much of the Institute for Sustainable Futures work on Network Opportunity Mapping and Local Electricity Trading, as concepts to keep public grid assets viable, and open up neighbourhood scale business models in an era of distributed generation and storage. He has worked extensively with local and state governments, universities, utilities and precinct developers, and served in governance roles for the Coalition for Community Energy (C4CE) and Pingala Community Renewables.

His experience includes working on the NSW Government Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) solar program, consulting in planning for energy efficient building design, as well as several years working on energy efficiency and renewable energy with utilities and government in Fiji and Samoa.

Ed is an environmental scientist and holds a PhD in collaborative business model innovation as well as a Masters of international environmental law, focussing on legal frameworks for climate change mitigation.

Caitlin McGee

Caitlin leads the housing research in ISF’s Healthy Environments Program and contributes actively to the related areas of sustainable cities and climate resilience. Her research explores what it takes to create regenerative, resilient neighbourhoods and communities, with a focus on collaborative, transdisciplinary projects that create change towards sustainable futures.

Caitlin has been at the forefront of some high impact applied research projects over the past two decades, including award-winning publications and pioneering research in the emerging field of ‘collaborative housing’.

She has longstanding expertise in the design, analysis and evaluation of policies and programs for sustainable, resilient built environments and thriving communities. Her research has informed policies and programs for all levels of government. This includes recent projects for the NSW Government on setting embodied carbon targets for residential development, enabling sustainability upgrades in apartment buildings, and exploring the benefits and implementation challenges of innovative, non-speculative, collaborative housing models that build community and promote long-term affordability.

Caitlin also draws on her past experience as an architect, working with governments and developers to apply world-leading regeneration and resilience approaches to precinct scale development. She has provided advice to prominent urban sites in Sydney including Barangaroo and Green Square, and developed a regenerative framework for the NSW Government to use on major urban renewal projects.

Caitlin specialises in communications and capacity-building, working with and for communities on sustainability and climate resilience initiatives. She has developed a number of innovative guides and toolkits, including the award-winning Your Resilient Home Guide, the Energy Ready Toolkit, and (as one of several primary authors) the multi-award-winning Your Home guide, now in its 6th edition. She has also developed sustainability training programs for the housing industry, including ‘Green Living’ for the Master Builders Association, and is a regular contributor to media on housing and resilience.