Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formally launched the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute (GCCSI) at the inaugural meeting of institute foundation members in Canberra on 16 April 2009. The government announced the institute back in September 2008 with annual funding of up to $100 million to accelerate the deployment of commercial-scale CCS projects globally.

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Modern manufacturing methods are spectacularly inefficient in their use of energy and materials, according to a detailed MIT analysis of the energy use of 20 major manufacturing processes.

More construction groups are choosing solar photovoltaic panels than all other renewable energy technologies put together — making it the most popular, green energy system for the trades to diversify into, according to recent research from the Britsh government’s Department for Business & Regulatory Reform (BERR).

The Southern Hemisphere’s largest water recycling project is using a community grants program to help grassroots organisations deliver environmental programs in South East Queensland.

An engineering and environmental adviser has called for a set of uniform voluntary national emissions reporting standards to guide the development of emissions reporting by companies lying outside mandatory reporting regimes.

Following an influx of close to 12,000 customer service requests last year, primarily for missed bins, Hume City Council in NSW has implemented a Spatial Waste Collection & Incident Recording System to streamline workflows for its waste services crew.

Institute supports paper on emissions assistance program and points out tight reporting timeframe.

A discussion on the potential benefits of biochar technology in the fight against the global warming challenges — provided by Best Energies Australia.

Trials promise a new era of solar cells that are printed like money.

The Southern Hemisphere’s largest water recycling project is using a community grants program to help grassroots organisations deliver environmental programs in South East Queensland.

A scale model of a wave-energy device is being tested at Southampton University, UK. Its inventors believe the device may provide a practical way of producing low-cost electricity from the energy in sea waves.

An alternative to a flat-rate waste collection service is one in which households are charged per unit of waste they produce. This technical paper, written by Dr Joe Pickin of Hyder Consulting, discusses a case study in Melbourne that studied the effect of unit pricing of household garbage. Did it improve welfare, reduce garbage, or neither?

In a continent where the evaporation rate is typically four times more than the average annual rainfall — which is declining in any case — limiting the loss of water from farm and station storages is becoming a priority, according to a report released by the Desert Knowledge CRC. The study looks at several of the new methods for lowering evaporation — floating blankets, shade cloth, floating modules and thin layers of a chemical to ‘seal’ the surface.

Melbourne-based food rescue charity FareShare has estimated in a new report that it will save 620 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2008–09 as a result of its waste reduction efforts. The charity turns surplus food donated from businesses, including food wholesalers and catering companies, into healthy meals for people in Melbourne who are hungry and homeless.