Both the Australian Government’s Carbon Farming Initiative and the Opposition’s Direct Action Plan recommend offsetting greenhouse gas emissions by increasing carbon storage in agricultural soils. But experts from the University of Melbourne have claimed that this method is both technically and economically very limited. [ + ]

Australian Olympic champion Dawn Fraser will be attending this year’s Clean Energy Week, to be held from 24-26 July at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre. [ + ]

SITA Australia and Keep Queensland Beautiful are working together to improve awareness of waste issues through educating Queensland school students. This follows a recent study which found Queensland was the most littered mainland state in Australia. [ + ]

SITA Australia was one of nine winners in the Environmental Sustainability category of The Australian Business Awards 2013, acknowledging the company’s role in resource recovery. [ + ]

Bookings for the 2014 Air Conditioning, Refrigeration and Building Services (ARBS 2014) are now open. The exhibition and seminar program will be held from 20-22 May 2014 at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre. [ + ]

In August 2012, BASF, Cargill and Novozymes announced their joint agreement to develop a process for the conversion of renewable raw materials into a 100% bio-based acrylic acid. Yesterday, they reached an important milestone. [ + ]

Thousands of remote Australian communities and South Pacific islands stand to benefit from a clean energy pilot program being undertaken in New Zealand. [ + ]

SITA Australia (SITA) has recently been selected as the preferred tenderer to provide total waste management services to Rio Tinto’s Bowen Basin mining operations. [ + ]

A new set of national good management practice benchmarks, aimed at lifting environmental performance on dairy farms, has been agreed between DairyNZ and dairy companies, with the support and input from a wide range of industry stakeholders including Federated Farmers. [ + ]

Research conducted by the University of NSW and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science has found that an expansion of concrete and asphalt on the fringes of our cities could see urban temperatures rise by as much as 3.7°C by the year 2050. [ + ]

Marrickville Council will join forces with seven other Sydney councils in an initiative which will allow residents to save on power bills while helping the environment. [ + ]

Hurstville Mayor Cr Jack Jacovou last week unveiled the first stage of the Peakhurst Light Industrial Stormwater Harvesting and Reuse Scheme at Hurstville Golf Course. [ + ]

Infrastructure Australia has released its National Infrastructure Plan, the organisation’s latest report to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG). [ + ]

Resources and Energy Minister Gary Gray yesterday announced a network of research facilities to boost Australian development of commercial-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) during a visit to the CO2CRC Otway Project. [ + ]

BASF and Guangzhou Joraform Environmental have announced that compost produced from a joint composting project at Chinaplas has come full circle and will be used to improve soil quality at the Guangzhou Nansha District Dagang Institute of Agricultural Sciences farm in Guangzhou. [ + ]