The City of Sydney is inviting 20 high-rise apartment buildings to join Smart Green Apartments — a free program that is intended to reduce emissions and slash utility bills. [ + ]

Conergy will soon begin construction of an Australian solar and storage project, designed to consistently feed renewable energy into the grid and demonstrate the capability for large-scale solar and storage to provide reliable future power quality and supply at a fringe-of-grid location. [ + ]

The Victorian Government will reboot the Greener Government Buildings Program, which was removed in 2013, with a $33 million investment over the next two years. [ + ]

The City of Melbourne has installed eight more BigBelly bins with smart sensor technology, following a successful trial of six bins in busy CBD locations. [ + ]

Conversio has become the first Australian company to sign the pledge to join the Climate Neutral Now initiative, led by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat. [ + ]

The Western Australian Government has announced its intention to introduce a container deposit scheme (CDS) for drink bottles and cans, expected to commence mid-2018. [ + ]

As pressure mounts for a global ban on microbeads, researchers from RMIT University and Hainan University have for the first time shown that these tiny polyethylene particles directly contaminate fish with toxic chemical pollutants. [ + ]

The Clean Energy Regulator (CER) will hold the fourth Emissions Reduction Fund auction from 16–17 November. The auction format will remain largely unchanged from previous auctions, though the auction guidelines give the CER some additional flexibility to choose the volume of offered abatement it will accept. [ + ]

Perth's Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council has released its call for tenders for a new resource recovery facility (RRF) for the region. The RRF would use thermal, chemical and/or biological means to recover usable materials and/or energy from household waste, diverting between 70–90% of waste (by volume) from landfill. [ + ]

UNSW is unveiling a pilot microfactory that safely transforms toxic e-waste into high-value metal alloys, offering a low-cost solution to a fast-growing problem. [ + ]

All-Energy Australia will take place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre from 4–5 October 2016. [ + ]

Members of Australia's paint industry have launched a new waste collection and treatment service that offers professional and home painters an easy option for disposing of unwanted paint and packaging correctly. [ + ]

pitt&sherry and KMH Environmental are merging operations, in a deal which is anticipated to deliver greater consistency and certainty in outcomes for clients. [ + ]

Australian Utility Week 2016 is a large-scale expo dedicated to the theme 'Building digital futures'. [ + ]

Greg Hunt has demanded that CSIRO restore its focus on climate science, less than six months after the organisation announced a number of job cuts in the area. [ + ]