Kiwis can now see the green credentials of a mobile phone before they buy it, thanks to New Zealand’s first sustainability ranking scheme for mobile phones. The scheme was launched today by Vodafone. [ + ]

Local Government Super (LGS) has been recognised for its leadership on climate change issues and commitment to sustainability in the delivery of green energy across its portfolio, winning both the 2012 Climate Change Leadership Award and the Energy Award in the NSW Government’s 2012 Green Globe Awards. [ + ]

CSIRO has rejected the claim made in a television commercial aired on 2 September that ‘CSIRO [and government studies] have shown that groundwater is safe with coal seam gas’. [ + ]

A student residential development at Monash University is the first multiunit residential project in Australia to achieve a Green Star rating for sustainable construction. [ + ]

Australia’s leading experts in water research and management will gather at the University of Canberra today for the second day of a two-day workshop to address the challenges of sustaining Australia’s vital freshwater ecosystems. [ + ]

Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management, has signed an agreement to acquire SolveIT Software, an Adelaide-headquartered scientific software provider specialising in supply and demand chain optimisation and predictive modelling. [ + ]

NSW Minister for the Environment Robyn Parker yesterday launched a new suite of websites for the NABERS program, including a refreshed public site, a secure members’ site and a new ratings platform, NABERS Rate. [ + ]

Carbon capture and storage has been seen as an uneconomical solution to reducing carbon emissions, with the capture of CO₂ emissions from a power station currently requiring about 30% of the total electricity it produces. But thanks to Dr Matthew Hill, a researcher at CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, the capture of carbon emissions is now cheaper than ever before. [ + ]

This National Recycling week, to be held from 12-18 November, Planet Ark is encouraging all Australians to take recycling action at their home, school or workplace. A variety of events will be held to highlight the importance of recycling. [ + ]

Meridian Energy Australia will soon start construction on Mt Mercer, a 64-turbine wind farm in Victoria. [ + ]

University of Sydney researchers will be looking for ways to slash one of the world’s biggest single sources of energy consumption - the heating and cooling of buildings - at a state-of-the-art new laboratory. [ + ]

Australia’s clean energy goals could be thwarted by recent amendments to the Victorian Planning Framework in 2011 for wind farm developments, a study by the University of Melbourne Law School has found. [ + ]

A Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researcher is developing a solar cooling and heating system for the home that will run independently of the electricity grid and generate domestic hot water as a by-product. [ + ]

Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) have shed some light on why some countries are more reluctant to agree to an international carbon price than others. [ + ]

Schneider Electric has formalised an academic alliance with Queensland’s largest trade and technician training TAFE institute, SkillsTech Australia - its sixth partnership with a tertiary education institution in Australia. [ + ]