Industrial waste emissions innovator MBD Energy has welcomed the Australian Government’s announcement of a $5 million grant to James Cook University (JCU) to help develop a macroalgae to biocrude oil project. [ + ]

The Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute has formed a partnership with multinational services firm Arup to deliver collaborative research in the area of sustainable development. [ + ]

The CEO of the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), Romilly Madew, has been elected onto the Board of Directors of the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC). [ + ]

Adelaide companies Carbon Business and EconSearch have collaborated on EcoScore, a tool to quantify hidden Scope 3 emissions using economic modelling. [ + ]

The New Zealand Clean Energy Centre has been investigating the feasibility of an off grid housing community in Taupo. Homes would be heated either via geothermal or biomass. Electricity would be supplied via solar and wind. Wastewater would be drip irrigated to energy crops which provide future fuel for the community. Water would be supplied via rainwater collection. [ + ]

The University of Wollongong and BlueScope Steel have joined forces with Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute, one of the world’s leading renewable energy and sustainable building research organisations, in a new solar technology research and demonstration project with the support of $477,000 from the Australian Solar Institute. [ + ]

The AWA (Australian Water Association) QLD Water Awards are now open for nomination. The AWA Awards are an annual program to celebrate and promote the outstanding work achieved by individuals and organisations in the water sector. [ + ]

This week, CSIRO will release its latest findings to the government on carbon dioxide capture technology, following a four-year $21 million research program aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from Australian coal-fired power stations. [ + ]

ETSA Utilities has been announced as the first electricity distributor in Australia to become a Signatory in the federal government’s FluoroCycle scheme, which aims to increase recycling of mercury-containing street lamps and reduce the amount of mercury entering the environment. [ + ]

The number of ‘dead’ and obsolete televisions and computers dumped on Australian kerbsides is set to drop from July 2012, thanks to the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme. [ + ]

Australia would greatly benefit from a ‘slow down and learn approach’ to managing possible risks from coal seam gas (CSG) extraction given the near impossible challenge of modelling its impacts, argues Professor Alan Randall from the University of Sydney. [ + ]

Australia’s leading green building organisation, the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), has applauded the launch of the new ‘Make My City Work’ campaign. [ + ]

Water utility service provider Trility has entered into an agreement to acquire water treatment company Hydramet as part of its strategic expansion into the resources, public infrastructure and industrial sectors. [ + ]

Desalination offers drying Australia the best water and food security insurance for the drier, more heavily populated decades ahead, according to one of the country’s leading water experts. [ + ]

The University of Wollongong (UOW) and Ecotech, a company which specialises in environmental monitoring instruments, have announced a partnership to manufacture and distribute a comprehensive greenhouse gas analyser to worldwide markets. [ + ]