The Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, has announced the appointment of Professor Veena Sahajwalla to the Climate Commission. Professor Sahajwalla is an award-winning scientist and engineer whose achievements include inventing a process of recycling plastics and rubber tyres in steelmaking. [ + ]

Australia is a world leader in developing clean, more sustainable resources and technologies to prevent pollution, the managing director of CRC CARE, Professor Ravi Naidu, said today. [ + ]

The Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, and the Parliamentary Secretary, Mark Dreyfus, yesterday announced over $20 million in grants to improve energy efficiency at small and medium businesses and community groups. [ + ]

Sustainability in the automotive industry is not just about producing small electrical vehicles, it’s about providing a choice of vehicles in all shapes and sizes that are environmentally sound. [ + ]

Leaders in the Australian water industry were recognised at the National Water Awards, hosted by the Australian Water Association during Ozwater, Australia’s leading water conference and exhibition. [ + ]

The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) speculated last week that the Tax Breaks for Green Buildings program would be scrapped in the 2012-13 Budget and, sure enough, their fears were confirmed. The program was noticeably absent from the Budget announcement, indicating a withdrawal of the funding allocated to the scheme in last year’s Forward Estimates. [ + ]

Accounting firm RSM Bird Cameron is urging businesses to start preparing now for the introduction of the carbon tax on 1 July 2012. [ + ]

Energy management specialist Schneider Electric has made a senior appointment which will further increase its business focus and integrated solution offering to the Australian water and wastewater sector. [ + ]

The Future of Packaging White Paper has been released by the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) to help the food and grocery manufacturing industry in developing sustainable packaging. [ + ]

This year, Ozwater’12 was held in Darling Harbour, Sydney. Russell Dawson, Leader, Koomurri Aboriginal Dance Company, welcomed everyone to country with his fabulous didgeridoo performance and Peter Robinson, Director, Australian Water Association (AWA), chaired the opening ceremony. [ + ]

University of Leicester researchers are set to use new technology they have developed to monitor the impact of increased traffic on pollution levels in London during the Olympics. [ + ]

A green technique for capping and cleansing old urban landfill sites and mine dumps has been successfully trialled in South Australia. [ + ]

‘Cam’ you capture water? The prestigious 2012 international savewater! awards are calling for budding photographers from around the world to share their photographs that illustrate the importance of water and conserving it for the future. [ + ]

The 2012 Sustainable Ocean Innovation Award has been awarded to GhostNets Australia for their work in northern Australia tackling the serious problem of lost fishing nets called ‘ghost nets’. [ + ]

The Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee has released, for public consultation, an offsets methodology that could provide livestock producers with new opportunities to earn carbon credits for reducing methane emissions. [ + ]