Engineers Australia has selected the ‘Make it so’ idea, which will be made a reality by the engineering profession. It is to ‘make it so’ developing communities can re-use their agricultural waste to create energy for cooking and heating.

As the 2009/10 financial year comes to a close, corporations are busy with their financial reporting requirements. The end of the fiscal year also signifies the approach of greenhouse gas and energy reporting deadlines under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 (NGER Act), where corporations over a certain size are required to report their emissions and energy by 31 October.

The Plastiki, a 60-foot (18.2 m) catamaran made from plastic bottles, sailed into Sydney Harbour on Monday 26 July. Designed to raise awareness of the amount of plastic waste in the ocean and plant the seed in everyone’s mind to think about minimising waste and re-using materials intelligently, the Plastiki expedition is the creation of adventurer and environmentalist David de Rothschild and his organisation, Adventure Ecology.

As a country which has continually had to deal with the scarcity of water, Australia is ideally placed to become a leader in the US$400 billion global water market. But a detailed analysis of our water innovation patents has found Australian companies are failing to leverage their valuable intellectual property (IP) into global markets.

Since 2000, the National Packaging Covenant (Covenant) has been an innovative and unique national approach to dealing with packaging waste. It has engaged the packaging supply and recovery chains, governments and community groups. There was a specific target to divert high-embodied energy materials from landfill and through these activities contribute to a reduction in GHG emissions.

The future ISO 50001 standard for energy management was recently approved as a Draft International Standard (DIS).

City of Melbourne conducted a trial of drain litter strainers between July 2009 and December 2009. The purpose of this trial was to survey the litter captured in each trap. A unique aspect of the trial was the use of filter cartridges that were placed at the bottom of each drain strainer to prevent smaller particles of litter and dissolved pollutants in the stormwater run-off from entering the waterways. The filter bags were filled with Reactive Filter Media Technology supplied by Star Water Solutions. These were described in a report on the findings by URS as ‘carbon pillows’.

Today’s emerging sustainability requirements in the building industry are creating new types of considerations, particularly when designing modern solutions for heritage-listed properties.

The Glass Packaging Forum recently released the latest data about New Zealand’s glass packaging production, consumption and recovery showing that New Zealanders recycled 166,575 tonnes of glass packaging last year and that two out of every three glass containers is now being recycled.

Applying a whole-of-catchment approach to water management is now possible thanks to Source Catchments, the first component of eWater’s integrated water modelling suite, eWater Source, to be publicly released.

Energy-efficiency legislation is powering up the government agenda but how should the government ensure any new schemes are widely adopted? Peter Garrett, Managing Director, mySmart CTI, comments.

A Cardia Bioplastics and Sulo MGB (Australia) collaboration is providing a household food waste recycling solution. Cardia will supply certified compostable bags enabling Sulo to provide a fully integrated organic waste diversion service to local governments.

The biggest wetland ever constructed in Victoria has been completed and will play a key role in improving the health of Melbourne’s waterways, particularly Dandenong Creek and Port Phillip Bay. Water Minister Tim Holding officially opened the 48-hectare Dandenong Valley Wetland in Scoresby, which is 24 times the size of the MCG.

Village Building Co (VBC) has been recognised by the ACT Commissioner of Sustainability and the Environment for taking the initiative to set up its own recycling plant to manage building waste on its Brindabella at Macgregor site for all of VBC’s housing developments.

Traditional methods of dust suppression proved ineffective for a building material recycling plant. Tecpro Australia collaborated with Jeff Hill Plumbing to create a solution that surpassed the site operator’s environmental obligations.