Home Archive by category "Association for Sustainability in Business" (Page 3)

Category Archives: Association for Sustainability in Business

Sustainable Strata Schemes

The issue of sustainability is currently very topical, given the level of commentary around climate change, increasing greenhouse gas emission levels and global warming. The current generation wants to ensure the population’s needs are met without compromising the needs of future generations, and there is general agreement that people need to reduce their carbon footprint. One of the key areas to take action is by having more sustainable living quarters. Not only will this benefit future generations, but it will probably reduce the cost of living with lower energy and water bills. According to City of Sydney Council, over 73 …

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Clean energy – current market trends

Marco Stella is Senior Broker, Environmental Markets, at TFS Green Australia. The TFS Green Australia team provides project and transactional environmental market brokerage and data services across all domestic and international renewable energy, energy efficiency and carbon markets. Here, Mr Stella outlines the current market trends. Large-scale Generation Certificate (LGC) market It has proven a mixed beginning to 2016 for the LGC market. A solid start across the first two months of the year saw the spot market climb into low $80 territory in February, only to soften back to a low of $75 by late March as buyers disappeared …

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Global warming milestone about to be passed and there’s no going back

Within the next couple of weeks, a remote part of north-western Tasmania is likely to grab headlines around the world as a major climate change marker is passed. The aptly named Cape Grim monitoring site jointly run by CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology will witness the first baseline reading of 400 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, researchers predict. “Once it’s over [400 ppm], it won’t go back,” said Paul Fraser, dubbed by CSIRO as the Air Man of Cape Grim, and now a retired CSIRO fellow. “It could be within 10 days.” The most …

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Renewables Could Revitalise Australian Manufacturing says Shorten

Zero – that’s the number of times solar and renewable energy were mentioned in Treasurer Scott Morrison’s Budget speech on May 3. Opposition leader Bill Shorten fared better on that front in his Budget reply speech on Thursday evening. In the speech, Mr. Shorten said Labor views renewables as a means of giving new life to Australia’s manufacturing sector as reported by Energy Matters. “By 2030, there will be $2.5 trillion of investment in renewable energy in the Asia-Pacific. Australian workers should be collaborating with our universities and researchers to design, manufacture and export battery technology, solar panels and turbine …

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Scientists use DNA to investigate cleaner energy sources

The key to unlocking cleaner energy might be in our DNA, according to a new study by Stanford scientists. By combining synthetic DNA with microscopic particles, Yuran Zhang and a team of geothermal energy researchers hope to tap into the widely available but often overlooked cleaner energy source all over the world. Geothermal energy is the heat of our Earth, and geothermal power is generated by extracting that heat and converting it to electricity. Effectively, the heat moves through irregular cracks or fractures deep underground, so geothermal engineers must have a detailed understanding of the underlying geology and the location …

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Solabat: Solar + Battery Hybrid System

The Solabat project gives new meaning to the term solar + storage – it aims to combine the two on a single device. Researchers at the Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) say they are entering largely unknown scientific territory with the project. While small solar + battery devices are already widely available, the Solabat project is thinking much tighter integration and potentially much bigger – up to full size solar panels such as those used in home solar power installations. “Currently single systems of photovoltaic cells which are connected together – mostly lead-based batteries and vast amounts of cable …

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Global Geothermal Power Market is Expected to Grow at 11.6% CAGR

The global geothermal power market was estimated at $3,233.5 million in 2015, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.6% during 2016 – 2022. The factors driving the growth of the global market include increased government support for geothermal power projects and stringent environment regulations, high capacity factor, and increasing need for energy independence and geopolitical energy security. Asia-Pacific dominated the global geothermal power market in 2015, and it is anticipated to retain its dominance during the forecast period. The geothermal power market in Asia-Pacific is expected to grow, due to high energy demands in the region …

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Sustainable office space makes financial sense

NABERS explained – article written by Andrew Brown Sustainability and business are no longer mortal enemies. On the contrary, more and more enterprises are realising that going ‘green’ makes cold hard economic sense. This overarching trend is borne out by increasing demand for environmentally friendly office space. A recent report by the World Green Building Council argues that the debate surrounding ‘green’ buildings has shifted away from a ‘save the environment’ narrative and now focuses on the financial benefits sustainable offices can provide. It’s no secret that environmentally focused building design can slash ongoing costs associated with lighting, temperature control …

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Carbon neutral bricks shaping a sustainable future for Australia’s building industry

Climate change is threatening our world, and our way of life. The building industry is one of the biggest offenders in Australia, accounting for 23 per cent of all carbon emissions in the country. Though sustainable building practices and green building products are finding increasing acceptance, a lot more remains to be done to mitigate the effects of climate change and global warming on the environment. Architects, building designers and specifiers have an important role to play in addressing these issues through sustainable solutions. Reducing carbon emissions is a convincing first step in the journey to long-term sustainability. For the …

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Carbon trading: the opportunities and pitfalls in Australia

It might be early days for carbon trading in Australia but many farmers and graziers are already trading or exploring how they can trade carbon. In April 2015, the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) conducted the first “reverse” auction to buy carbon credits with the second auction being conducted in November 2015. In a recent article by Thynne & Macartney it states while there are benefits, participating in the ERF and entering into a contract with the CER are not without risk. There are a number of methods landholders and producers can implement to earn tradeable Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) …

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