The link between sustainability and business performance
26 March, 2010 by David Trewin*, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water NSW
There’s been an exciting shift in sustainability in the past five years - businesses have realised there’s no disconnect between good environmental management and business performance. We help these businesses integrate environmental and other business activities to reap productivity increases and reduced costs - all the while improving our sustainability.
Technology - the key to sustainability
26 March, 2010 by Nikki Williams*, NSW Minerals Council
The NSW Minerals Council recognised that climate change was a major issue more than a decade ago and the mining industry is now positioning itself to be part of the solution - it is currently developing sophisticated technology to reduce emissions and to capture and store carbon.
R&D Tax Concession assists tyre recycling company
26 March, 2010 | Supplied by: AusIndustry
Melbourne-based company Tyre Crumb is recycling every component of tyres - the rubber, the steel and even the polyester fibre. All of these tyre elements are then crushed and used in everything from playground and sporting surfaces to carpet underlay and even shoe soles.
Driving sustainable change
26 March, 2010 | Supplied by: VECCI
Isuzu Australia Limited (IAL), and the truck industry in general, is working hard to overcome the perceived dirty image of trucks belching black smoke. Paul Evans, IAL’s Business Planning Manager and Company Secretary said, “Trucks have made considerable gains over the last decade, due to a range of new technologies, making trucks greener and more economical than ever before. In fact, 60 of today’s new trucks produce less carbon emissions than just one truck in 1995!”
Wyndham Civic Centre lights up
26 March, 2010 | Supplied by: Lateral Technology
Werribee City Council recently completed the upgrading of the lighting in the car parks and roadways of the Wyndham Civic Centre in Victoria. After careful consideration of the available energy-efficient lighting options, including T5 and CFL options, the council chose a Pecan Lighting Grid Tied Solar Public Lighting (GTSPL) system using Beta-LED LEDway luminaires. The supplier, Lateral Technology, worked with the council’s engineering consultants to provide technical and historical information on the system.
Unsure about sceptics?
26 March, 2010 by Scott Losee*, AECOM
There is a subtle but pervasive challenge in working as a climate change practitioner, namely, dealing with sceptics. When one works day to day in helping to mobilise the immense global effort which is required to claw back human-induced climate change, it is easy to forget not everybody’s ‘on board’.
Councils work with national waterwise label
26 March, 2010
Now with widespread federal and state government support and good recognition of water conservation issues at the consumer level, Australia’s independent national outdoor water-saving label, Smart Approved WaterMark, is seeking greater involvement from local government in water-saving programs.
Competitive solution to climate change
24 March, 2010 by Heather Ridout*, CEO of Australian Industry Group
The biggest dilemma we face when setting climate policy is how we successfully tackle climate change while still maintaining the competitiveness of our national industries and without stifling the opportunities for economic growth within both developed and developing countries.
First scheme recognised under new green star assessment framework
23 March, 2010
The Carpet Institute of Australia’s Environmental Certification Scheme (ECS) is the first to be recognised under the Green Building Council of Australia’s (GBCA’s) Assessment Framework for Product Certification Schemes.
Murray river town Echuca attains biogas re-use
19 March, 2010 | Supplied by: CST Wastewater Solutions
A combined effort from a number of suppliers has resulted in the successful operation of a water reclamation scheme at Echuca, on the Murray River, north of Bendigo.
$20,000 to encourage Australian university students’ innovation in broadband and environment
19 March, 2010
Alcatel-Lucent will again sponsor the Alcatel-Lucent Australia Broadband Challenge for the Sustainable Environment, alongside the Telecommunications Society of Australia.
Water awards for Melbourne’s south-east
19 March, 2010
South East Water customers Inghams Enterprises, Amcor Australasia, Coca-Cola Amatil and Rossdale Golf Club were all finalists in the Prime Minister’s Water Wise Awards with Inghams announced as the inaugural winner of this prestigious water-saving award.
Green energy system could power home and car
18 March, 2010
A wireless green energy system to supply the home and the car is being designed by University of Auckland engineering research fellow Duleepa Thrimawithana.
The Rosenfeld named after California’s godfather of energy efficiency
18 March, 2010
Pioneering French physicists Marie and Pierre Curie have the curie, a unit of radioactivity, named after them. Renowned inventor Nikola Tesla is honoured with the tesla, which measures a magnetic field. And now, the Rosenfeld, proposed as a unit for electricity savings, will be named after the man seen by many people as the godfather of energy efficiency, Arthur Rosenfeld.
SMEC awarded African river feasibility study
18 March, 2010
The Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (SMEC) has announced that it has been awarded a contract for the Eastern Nile Irrigation and Drainage Study.
