The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Leadership and Change for Energy Efficiency Program is sharing approaches that bring energy efficiency onto the radar for accountancy professionals and students. Guest blogger Patrick Crittenden shares his discoveries and seeks reader views on how accountants approach the efficiency business case.

Here are some hot fashion tips for summer, and for office workers they might make shedding a few kilos so much easier…

Sharing recent video of green leasing presentations in Sydney and news from Brisbane where researchers into indoor environments and sustainability are meeting to share the latest developments in their fields.

Want to drill deeper into the new Pulse tool? Lodge your questions for the team who will be online Friday March 16, 11am Sydney time (UTC +11). ...

The new Pulse tool provides a window into the operations of real office towers and the team will be available online on Friday March 16 (Thursday March 15 for Americas) to answer questions and hear your views. Pulse has grown out of a trial focused on human factors in making buildings greener. Our discussions here focus on: changes that cost little; regular feedback to building operators; and trial and error. The premise is 'find out if something works', and if it does - do it again. We're keen to hear what other similar innovations are taking place elsewhere.

Complaints about office building air conditioning surge every weekday morning. Does this reflect serious thermal comfort and productivity concerns? Or could it be that most of us would just rather be somewhere else?

An analysis of 500 million Tweets showed most of us are happiest each weekday at 8am and our mood steadily declines until we’re heading for home in the afternoon. The study published in Science also concluded that people feel generally more positive heading into summer and we’re happier on weekends after a sleep in. However, the buildings complaints database containing 59,494 requests from occupants of buildings logged between July 2008 and yesterday shows people are most irritated by their temperature late morning and we complain less at hometime. Do the two studies contradict each other? What's going on? What can we do to respond for building energy efficiency?

The ultimate adaptive building with features like a moveable skin or a sweat response in high humidity is still a way off, though it appears from our portfolio wide trials that using more dynamic temperature setpoints in existing buildings is a good early step to more responsive building management.

Building occupancy rates and electricity use should in theory be closely linked if buildings are well managed. In practice they may not be. We look at energy data for a selection of buildings that experienced periods of substantial vacancy. One explanation: it's easier to run a full building efficiently. What do you think?

Feeling weary and uncomfortable at your desk on a Monday morning? A new analysis of workplace complaints shows you’re not alone, with more people complaining on Monday than any other day.

Around the world, organisations are launching projects that share real measurements to verify and improve what it means to be ‘green’. Here are two new overseas initiatives that have caught our eye. Is transparency part of the Zeitgeist?

This insight shows the greenhouse emissions intensity in kg of carbon-dioxide-equivalent, per square metre for 53 Australian Buildings. Looks a bit like tangled spaghetti? Find out how to decipher the graphs...

Here is our first insight and we would love to hear your views! This example shows the monthly averages for energy and gas use between 2003 and 2010 for 53 commercial buildings in six Australian cities.