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Energy poverty (EP) is the product of three main factors ¶ the cost of energy, household income and the energy efficiency of the dwelling. Climate change and rising energy costs are likely to accentuate EP. This study extends our knowledge about EP in Australia and examines its relationship to housing and health. Drawing on 23 semi-structured interviews, we map the impacts of EP on older low-income people residing in Sydney and Melbourne. These impacts include food insecurity, an incapacity to purchase essential consumer items, an inability to afford required medical procedures, thermal discomfort and social exclusion. We found that many interviewees do not recogni ¶ ze their own EP situation or are too ashamed to ask for help. Thus, the overall cost of EP to individuals and the broader society can be far higher than what statistics indicate. The article proposes a conceptuali ¶ zation of the relationship between housing, health and EP drawing on a figure we have created. The severe impacts of EP suggest that measures to lessen it among older vulnerable households are urgently required.

Visual Management (VM) is a strategy for information management strongly related to one of the core concepts of Lean Production Philosophy, the increase of process transparency. VM is especially important to support continuous improvement and it relies on the effective transmission of information at different hierarchical levels. However, there are some challenges in the implementation of VM in construction: each construction project is unique, site layouts are dynamic environments, and the construction itself might become a visual barrier. This paper aims to analyse the role of a set of VM best practices to support production management, understanding the features that distinguish these practices as advanced ones, i.e. the reasons behind the effectiveness of some VM systems. It is based on two case studies carried out in leading companies in the implementation of Lean Construction in Brazil. Differently from previous studies on VM, this investigation explored the integration of those practices in managerial processes that might use a set of visual devices; whether visual devices are used dynamically in order to support decision-making, especially in collaborative processes. Another contribution of this paper is concerned with classifying VM best practices according to the degree of integration to the managerial routines.

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Lean Construction has become a popular concept to improve performance and reduce costs in construction projects. Assessment tools and implementation strategies that focus on lean practices such as the Last Planner ® System, the use of Kanbans, the routine of Kaizens and, recently, the integration with information technology are also common. However, barriers to the wide adoption of lean principles remain and implementation challenges continue to intrigue scholars. Previous studies suggest that barriers to the successful implementation can be either political, economical, social and/or technical, with the focus on lack of knowledge about lean concepts, resistance to the required organisational culture change, and lack of support from top management. Few studies present the lean implementation process from the practitioners' perspective. Using the narrative enquiry methodology, the authors aim to describe how a construction company from Brazil matured from the implementation of lean operational tools to achieve excellence in the lean culture and mindset. Key themes that emerge from this study for a successful lean construction journey are; effort to stabilise the environment, knowledge creation and management, transparency in the process to enable simplicity and shared understanding, and building trust for further growth.