A commitment to sustainable packaging
26 August, 2010 by Edward Cordner*
Since 2000, the National Packaging Covenant (Covenant) has been an innovative and unique national approach to dealing with packaging waste. It has engaged the packaging supply and recovery chains, governments and community groups. There was a specific target to divert high-embodied energy materials from landfill and through these activities contribute to a reduction in GHG emissions.
Mining technology looks to a sustainable future
26 August, 2010 by Sylvia Aitken
Sustainability and mining are two words that don’t quite seem to fit together. But with evolving social expectations, and under increasing public and media scrutiny, the past decade has seen the mining industry put in a huge effort into sustainable development in order to maintain its ‘social licence to operate’.
Concept to creation: agricultural waste to energy
26 August, 2010
Engineers Australia has selected the ‘Make it so’ idea, which will be made a reality by the engineering profession. It is to ‘make it so’ developing communities can re-use their agricultural waste to create energy for cooking and heating.
Complying with greenhouse and energy reporting
26 August, 2010 | Supplied by: Ndevr Pty Ltd
As the 2009/10 financial year comes to a close, corporations are busy with their financial reporting requirements. The end of the fiscal year also signifies the approach of greenhouse gas and energy reporting deadlines under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 (NGER Act), where corporations over a certain size are required to report their emissions and energy by 31 October.
Global market for Australian water technology
26 August, 2010
As a country which has continually had to deal with the scarcity of water, Australia is ideally placed to become a leader in the US$400 billion global water market. But a detailed analysis of our water innovation patents has found Australian companies are failing to leverage their valuable intellectual property (IP) into global markets.
Inspiring smarter solutions
26 August, 2010
The Plastiki, a 60-foot (18.2 m) catamaran made from plastic bottles, sailed into Sydney Harbour on Monday 26 July. Designed to raise awareness of the amount of plastic waste in the ocean and plant the seed in everyone’s mind to think about minimising waste and re-using materials intelligently, the Plastiki expedition is the creation of adventurer and environmentalist David de Rothschild and his organisation, Adventure Ecology.
Ecolabelling has appeal
25 August, 2010
Sellers using ecolabels backed with the right information could make as many as 85% of New Zealanders more likely to buy a product.
Progress on energy management standard
23 August, 2010
The future ISO 50001 standard for energy management was recently approved as a Draft International Standard (DIS).
Dimpleflo modular heat exchangers
20 August, 2010 | Supplied by: Teralba Industries Pty Ltd
The Dimpleflo modular heat exchangers can be used to recover energy from any warm or hot product or effluent.
Bringing light to heritage landmark
19 August, 2010 | Supplied by: mySmart Pty Ltd
Today’s emerging sustainability requirements in the building industry are creating new types of considerations, particularly when designing modern solutions for heritage-listed properties.
24/7 support network for wastewater treatment plants
19 August, 2010
A new Australasian headquarters has been established by the Integrated Support Division of the industrial and municipal water and wastewater treatment specialists EIMCO Water Technologies.
Award win for Australia's irrigation farmers
19 August, 2010
The National Water Commission has congratulated the winners of the Peter Cullen Eureka Prize for Water Research and Innovation on their outstanding contribution to water science.
OneSteel receives new sustainability licence
19 August, 2010
The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has presented OneSteel with South Australia's third EPA Sustainability Licence.
YHA NZ gains first backpacker network CEMARS certification
19 August, 2010
YHA New Zealand has become the first backpacker hostel network in the world to achieve CEMARS (Carbon Emissions Measurement And Reduction Scheme) certification.
Toyota to plug in tri-generation plant
12 August, 2010
Work has begun to install energy-saving technology at Toyota Australia’s corporate headquarters in Port Melbourne. The installation of the tri-gen plant is the next stage of Toyota Australia’s plan to reduce energy use at its headquarters by 40% from 2007/08 levels.
