With increased threats from climate change, pollution and diminishing natural resources and biodiversity, it’s important to reconsider the way we live and the way we utilise our environments. Parson Brinckerhoff’s Director of Sustainability Darren Bilsborough* proposes the idea of a ‘biophilic city’ as one potential solution to these increasing pressures. He has developed a paper on an economic rationale supporting Biophilic Cities which is summarised in this article.

Households throw away billions of dollars of edible food each year, equating to around 3 kg of food waste each week per household. This is not only a massive waste of food, but it is also a waste of energy, water and resources which have been used in the production of that food. This was one of the topics discussed as the recent Zero Waste conference held in Sydney in September.

Rooty Hill RSL has completed installation of a tri-generation power plant which is designed to future-proof its growing power requirements in a green and efficient way. At a total cost of more than $4.5 million, it is expected Rooty Hill RSL will lower its carbon emissions by 50% as a result of the installation.

Changes to waste recovery, because of co-mingling of recycled materials, which results in as little as 30% of collected glass being recycled into new bottles and jars and threatens some export-related jobs in Auckland, were called for at a seminar hosted by the Glass Packaging Forum as part of the 22nd WasteMINZ Conference.

The NSW Government has awarded a water recycling licence to Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies to build a recycled water plant at the $500 million Darling Quarter development. The mixed-use development, located in Darling Harbour, Sydney, is one of the first to be granted a water recycling licence as part of the 2010 NSW Metropolitan Water Plan.

How can the efficiency of energy and resources be increased, in the long term, in the manufacture of PET bottles? As part of a project sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research, and run by the Research Center of Karlsruhe*, experts have been investigating just this in the stretch blow-mould process chain. The project started in 2009 and should be completed by 2011. The first results have now been published.

LanzaTech has produced 2,3-Butanediol (2,3-BD), a key building block used to make polymers, plastics and hydrocarbon fuels, using its gas fermentation technology.

An Australia-based contract manufacturer of generic prescription pharmaceuticals has contracted Donaldson Australasia to upgrade its waste disposal system.

Pacific Beverages’ Bluetongue Brewery in New South Wales features a water recovery plant, which targets best-practice, water re-use standards. The water recovery plant also provides renewable energy for the brewery.

Reductions in carbon dioxide emissions and energy use, thanks to innovative technology, have secured Alcoa a win at the 2010 WA Engineering Excellence Awards.

Critical communications specialist Broadcast Australia has commissioned its first broadcast transmission site to be majority powered by renewable energy. The Mount Owen site near Queenstown in Tasmania has been recently upgraded to use site-generated wind and solar power, which are together expected to reliably meet the site’s 8 kW power needs for 80 to 90% of the time.

An Australian environmental management consultancy is playing an integral role in a major overhaul of the Abu Dhabi tourism, construction and transport industries.

Commercial products and services can now gain Australia-wide recognition for their water saving attributes through Australia’s water saving scheme, Smart Approved WaterMark, which has broadened its parameters to assess commercially oriented claims.

Mars Petcare Australia has implemented a customised compressed-air system from Champion Compressors, optimising production, reliability and energy efficiency.

Adelaide-based GTL Energy (GTLE) has announced the completion of construction and commissioning of its coal upgrading plant module near South Heart, North Dakota in the US. The GTLE Dakota plant is a single-module, commercial-scale plant which has been designed to provide proof of the GTLE technology for coal consumers and producers. The company intends to increase both the length and volumes of production runs through the remainder of 2010.