Eco-Buy and Net Balance have merged, combining their sustainable supply chain and sustainable procurement advisory services to create Australia’s largest sustainable supply chain consulting group. [ + ]

Minimising Australia’s carbon footprint, while saving Australians millions of dollars a year, is the focus of a new $100 million partnership between the Gillard government, researchers and the construction industry. [ + ]

An invention that uses waste engine heat to cut car fuel consumption has won Deakin University engineer Frank Will a national innovation award. [ + ]

A University of Sydney engineer has ruled ocean iron fertilisation an uneconomical solution to carbon storage, despite its early promise. [ + ]

The Australian Government, through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), has awarded a grant of $3.6 million to build and operate a demonstration facility for an innovative biomass gasification technology that has been developed at the Fuels and Energy Technology Institute (FETI) at Curtin University. [ + ]

CSIRO will lead a new solar research initiative worth a total of over $87 million, the Australian Government announced today. [ + ]

The fifth methodology determination for the Carbon Farming Initiative has been registered. The ‘Avoided Emissions from Diverting Legacy Waste from Landfill for Process Engineered Fuel Manufacture Methodology Determination 2012’ is now available on the Comlaw website. [ + ]

A new study by La Trobe University and the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training has shown that depleted groundwater reserves can be recharged very quickly by extreme floods. [ + ]

An $800,000 grant from Commercialisation Australia will help NSW company Fulcrum3D to commercialise a device for remotely measuring wind speeds at altitudes of up to 300 metres. [ + ]

Geoscience Australia has released new pre-competitive data that will contribute to Australia’s efforts to accelerate the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, which will help reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. [ + ]

A new report co-authored by Professor David Frame, Director of the New Zealand Climate Change Research Institute at Victoria University, has confirmed that climate change predictions made 20 years ago are proving reasonably accurate. [ + ]

Low Carbon Australia is financing an $11 million pilot energy-generation project at Traralgon in Victoria that demonstrates the potential for power security across Australia’s eastern seaboard. NovaPower will use high-efficiency Caterpillar gas-fired engines in an innovative solution that provides lower-emissions power and defers network investments, thus reducing costs to electricity users. [ + ]

The Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water has announced the establishment of the Product Stewardship Advisory Group. [ + ]

At its second meeting in Melbourne last week, the National Sustainability Council discussed its preliminary analysis of data against the Australian Government’s sustainability indicators and agreed on priority areas of focus for its first report. [ + ]

Today’s launch of Alice Solar City’s fifth and final large iconic project at Alice Springs’ Araluen Arts Centre sees the town now meeting up to 10% of its daytime electricity needs from the sun. [ + ]