Home Articles posted by Sustainability Editor (Page 12)

Author Archives: Sustainability Editor

Hobart City Council To Phase Out Plastic Takeaway Food Containers

Plastic food containers and utensils used by takeaway stores are set to be phased out by the Hobart City Council in what it is calling a nation-leading move. The council voted 10-12 to amend draft environmental health bylaws, banning single use, petroleum-based plastic containers and utensils by 2020. The architect of the change, Greens Alderman Bill Harvey, said they would be replaced by compostable items. He said the proposal had attracted broad public support. “People are aware now; so many Australians watched War on Waste on the ABC and that’s influenced their understanding of plastic pollution, so this is something …

Read the full article

Liberated Leaders: Leading Through Growth, Change and Disruption

Are you an ‘already’ successful business leader with a strong vision for the future, experiencing challenges in the current business environment, spurred on by growth, change and disruption? If you want to build a future-ready workforce, Liberated Leaders would love to help.  Liberated Leaders is an applied Leadership Program with a special focus on skills, practices and capabilities to navigate change and disruption. We offer leaders greater confidence and skills to lead through change and disruption, to foster an aligned and engaged team, ensure business relevance to secure customers (now and in the future), build capacity to engage in any conversation …

Read the full article

How the Search for Mythical Monsters Can Help Conservation in the Real World

After fears the Loch Ness Monster had “disappeared” last winter, a new sighting in May 2017 was celebrated by its enthusiasts. The search for monsters and mythical creatures (or “cryptids”) such as Nessie, the Yeti or Bigfoot is known as “cryptozoology”. On the face of it, cryptozoology has little in common with mainstream conservation. First, it is widely held to be a “pseudoscience”, because it does not follow the scientific methods so central to conservation biology. Many conservation scientists would find the idea of being identified with monsters and monster-hunters embarrassing. Moreover, in the context of the global collapse in biodiversity, conservationists focus their attentions …

Read the full article

The SME’s Guide To Benefitting From Sustainability

Recognising that sustainability is a key business driver, a growing number of SMEs are keen to get certified sustainable, but are confronted with complex processes and high costs. Sustainability experts advise on what SMEs can do. As big corporations move forward with sustainability initiatives to save energy, improve efficiency and build sustainable supply chains, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are following suit. They no longer dismiss sustainability as merely good intentions, but as a key business driver and strategic differentiator for brands. Increasingly SMEs are trying to establish stronger standards surrounding their sustainability practices with many being keen to work with …

Read the full article

Philanthropy’s Role in Creating Sustainable Cities

Philanthropy has an important role to play in creating “time and space” for cities to become sustainable, according to the program director for the sustainable development grantmaking program at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Michael Northrop is set to give the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation’s annual Inspiring Philanthropy oration discussing the role of philanthropy in creating sustainable cities. Northrop, who also serves on New York City’s Sustainability Advisory Board, told Pro Bono News philanthropy had created soft capital that allowed cities to innovate. “The most important actors in a city are going to be your mayors and your city councils and …

Read the full article

‘Limitless Applications’: The ‘Magic Powder’ That Could Prevent Future Crises

It sounds like a distant dystopian crisis: a world where global food and water supply chains buckle under the strain of overpopulation and climate change, before being contaminated by weapons of mass destruction unleashed in a desperate fight for access to what little is left. While the crisis may not be as unrealistic or far away as it seems, scientists are already coming up with potential solutions. One is the curiously named metal organic frameworks (MOFs), a powder of nano-engineered crystals with an apparently endless variety of uses. One teaspoon of these crystals contain the surface area of an entire football field, and scientists …

Read the full article

New Printed Batteries To Transform Australian Renewables

Solar panels could soon be made with their own embedded battery storage in what is an Australian global first. Batteries would be laminated to the back of the panels and deliver “in-built” storage, making it eventually standard for them to deliver energy day or night as required. It’s one of several plans for ultra-thin, flexible screen-printed batteries that could eventuate within three years and offer new opportunities for manufacturing. Currently companies such as Tesla and South Australia’s Redflow offer solar panel and battery solutions, but the batteries are separate entities. If this idea takes hold, printed-on storage could be part …

Read the full article

Volunteering for the Environment

It’s official! Volunteering makes you happy. Research has shown that just a few hours of volunteering can make a difference to mood and happiness. Better still, sustained volunteering is associated with improved mental health. Volunteers sleep better, are healthier, and have a greater sense of well-being than those who don’t volunteer. In-fact, the altruistic emotions and behaviours associated with volunteering can even help you live longer. Environmental volunteering benefits the whole community and is a great way to get outdoors and experience our unique natural environment. Volunteers are rewarded with the knowledge they are making a meaningful contribution to preserving …

Read the full article

Melbourne’s Trams To Be Solar Powered

Melbourne’s trams network will soon be powered by the first large-scale solar plant to be built in Victoria. The solar plant, which will be completed by the end of 2018, is expected to be located in Victoria’s north-west. The state government announced on Thursday that the solar plant would produce 75 megawatts of power, with about half of that production to be linked to the tram network. Energy, Environment and Climate Change Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said the government would use its purchasing power as a “large energy consumer” to boost investment in renewables. The project is expected to create 300 …

Read the full article

Community Energy Opportunities in Regional Australia

In 2016 the ACT government committed to a target of 100% renewable energy by 2020, moving the target forward and reflecting a growing commitment by sub-national and local governments, and city administrations to changing their energy dependencies and the energy mix, and decentralising the energy production process (reference – Paris Council of the Parties on Climate Change in 2015). Governments are recognising the growing interest in renewable energy in their constituencies, and in fact the public is arguably leading the political agenda. The regional Victorian experience in relation to community energy is instructive. Daylesford began a conversation about two community …

Read the full article