Nissan invited Sustainability Matters to test drive the Nissan LEAF - its purpose-built, all-electric car, which is now on sale in Australia. [ + ]

On 15 September 2011, Castle Hill RSL Club’s C2K Aquatic Centre turned on a new source of electricity and heat in order to improve energy efficiency while reducing its energy costs and its carbon footprint. After just five months of operation, the results prove that the cogeneration system installed by Simons Green Energy has significantly reduced energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. [ + ]

When Eurobodalla Shire council was looking to control blue green algae and improve dissolved oxygen and pH levels at Deep Creek Dam, it installed five SolarBee long-distance water circulators. [ + ]

At Property Council New Zealand’s annual industry awards, the Christchurch Civic Building ‘Te Hononga’ took out the best of the best in the Resene Green Building category, taking the newly established title of ‘Best in Category’. It also won excellence awards in the Hawkins Construction Heritage and Adaptive Reuses category and the Hays Commercial Office category. [ + ]

RoeROC (Roe Regional Organisation of Councils) has celebrated the launch of the first mobile glass crusher in Western Australia. The Komplet MT5000 mobile glass crusher will increase glass recycling rates in the region by processing glass bottles and jars collected from households and businesses in Corrigin, Kulin, Kondinin and Narembeen Councils. The recovered glass will then be used locally in civil construction applications, diverting around 800 tonnes of glass from landfill annually. [ + ]

Power and automation technology group ABB has released its annual estimate of the savings achieved by its installed base of drives. About 310 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of electric power was saved by ABB drives in 2011, an increase of 19% compared with the previous year. [ + ]

Darling Square, Powlett Reserve and several tree-lined median strips in East Melbourne will thrive well into the future with the completion of the Darling Street stormwater project. Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said this was a world-first inroad stormwater harvest scheme that would help save more than 20 million litres of water and safeguard Darling Street’s surrounding parks and trees. [ + ]

One of the world’s leading dairy product companies is achieving high-efficiency discharge targets from a $1.5 million wastewater treatment facility for treating effluent from its Southern NSW manufacturing site. The company chose a high-performance high-efficiency DAF system, designed and installed by CST Wastewater Solutions. [ + ]

Clarke Energy Australia has recently commissioned a 1 MW GE Jenbacher gas engine which is an integral component of the Trigeneration plant installed at One One One Eagle Street - a 44-level, premium-grade office development in Brisbane’s ‘Golden Triangle’ precinct. [ + ]

University of Waikato scientists are hoping to create a smart water meter, completely powered by the water running through it. [ + ]

Research at RMIT University has demonstrated the feasibility of capturing some of the vast energy reserves in the upper atmospheric winds, a significant advance for wind power technology. [ + ]

In a boon for the local solar industry, a team of researchers from Swinburne University of Technology and Suntech Power Holdings has developed what is claimed to be the world’s most efficient broadband nanoplasmonic solar cells. [ + ]

Strathfield Council has completed a major sustainability project at Hudson Park Golf Course using turf which could deliver potential savings of up to $40,000 annually. [ + ]

Solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity continues to grow rapidly across the world and is now, after hydro and wind power, the third most important renewable energy source in terms of globally installed capacity. PV represented about 0.5% of global electricity demand and 1% of peak power demand at the end of 2011^. [ + ]

Baptist Community Services NSW & ACT (BCS) is a not-for-profit Christian care organisation that serves some of society’s most vulnerable people. BCS joined the Sustainability Advantage Program to integrate more sustainable practices into the BCS operation, with a focus on four areas: resources, people, buildings and supply chain. [ + ]