Three new material calculators will ensure the Green Star environmental rating tools remain at the leading edge of best practice, says the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA).

Project Catalyst, a pioneering partnership helping to improve the quality of water flowing into Great Barrier Reef catchments has won a national Banksia Environmental Award.

Origin Energy has welcomed the release of the report by the Prime Minister’s Task Group on Energy Efficiency.

Westpac has announced a deal with the Carbon Trade Exchange (CTX), the first carbon trading exchange for companies or individuals looking to get involved in the voluntary carbon market and reduce their environmental footprint.

GE and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have announced a strategic alliance which will include a combined investment of AU$20m over five years in R&D projects in the areas of healthcare and cleaner technology for energy and aviation.

National Australia Bank (NAB) has announced that it has fulfilled its commitment to become carbon neutral by September 2010.

South East Water is putting a new twist on the well-known idiom “one person’s trash is another’s treasure” through an innovative pilot project that will help industrial Port Melbourne customers play a greater role in managing their place in the water cycle.

Over 25,000 tonnes of a new source of nutrient-rich compost have been added to Perth’s agricultural soils over the past year. The source of the new supply of organic soil conditioner is the advanced resource recovery facility (RRF) at Neerabup, which recently completed its first full year of operation.

Ovivo - which stands for ‘Water for Life’ - is a new company formed as a result of the merger earlier this year of Christ Water Technologies (CWT) with EIMCO Water Technologies (EWT) and EWT’s American counterpart, Enviroquip. Launched globally on 13 September, it will be suitable for municipal and industrial water, and the water and wastewater markets.

The future sustainability of Australia’s infrastructure will be the focus at the Australian Green Infrastructure Council’s second annual national conference in Brisbane on 26 October.

Brisbane’s Helen Armstrong has been acknowledged for her outstanding achievements and contribution to the construction industry with the Leighton Contractors Award for Achievement in Sustainable Development Award at the National Association for Women in Construction (NAWIC) Qld 2010 Crystal Vision Awards.

ABB, the power and automation technology group, and General Motors have signed a non-exclusive memorandum of understanding to cooperate on a research and development project that will investigate uses for electric vehicle batteries once their useful life in the vehicle is over.

Australian manufacturer of sustainable packaging products and resins Cardia Bioplastics has struck a major agreement with a Chinese bag manufacturing company - its third China deal in three months.

The Government of Japan has proposed to declare 2011-2020 the ‘UN Decade of Biodiversity’ in an attempt to increase global efforts to stop the current environmental crisis. The proposal came during the UN General Assembly’s first-ever day dedicated to discussing biodiversity.

Papyrus Australia, the developer of a technology that converts the waste trunk of the banana palm into alternatives to forest wood products, has been announced as a finalist in the 2010 Banksia Awards.