Qld strives to cut waste disposal

Jessica Marszalek – AAP Queensland’s landfill rubbish will be cut by half within 10 years through support for recycling businesses and a new waste levy, the state government hopes. Climate Change and Sustainability Minister Kate Jones on Wednesday launched the Queensland Waste Strategy, which, it’s hoped, will make Queenslanders think twice before throwing things away. Under the plan, a levy will apply to commercial, industrial, construction and demolition waste and some soils from July 2011 to discourage interstate waste disposal and encourage less waste generation. The levy will fund $159 million in incentives for businesses that invest in recycling technologies …

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Market for Sustainable Products Expanding Rapidly

Markets for sustainable products have expanded significantly over the last five years, growing much faster than those for conventional products, according to the State of Sustainability Initiatives (SSI) Review 2010, published last week. The SSI Review 2010 is a collaborative effort by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, the International Institute for Environment and Development, Aidenvironment, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and ENTWINED–Environment and Trade in a World of Interdependence–research consortium. The SSI Review 2010 gives a comprehensive overview of major voluntary sustainability standards and initiatives in the forestry, coffee, cocoa, tea and banana sectors, including detailed …

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International Green Construction Code: Game-Changer in Sustainable Building

For the last decade, green building rating systems have been the top standard for designing sustainable buildings, but at the end of the day, they are non-enforceable guidelines. Because buildings are the largest contributors of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, it’s become clear in recent years that a more rigorous and complete set of rules are needed for green and sustainable building. The work needed to formalize a code to address sustainability has been a major industry challenge – that is, until now. A new proposal – currently being developed by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the International Code …

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Exploring the Role of Business through Vision 2050

The Vision 2050study lays out a pathway leading to a global population of some 9 billion people living well, within the resource limits of the planet by 2050. The report ( 2.6 MB) was released at the 2010 World CEO Forum in New Delhi, India. Twenty-nine companies, led by Alcoa, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Storebrand and Syngenta, have come together to rethink the roles that business must play over the next few decades to enable society to move toward being sustainable. This endeavor has resulted in a call to action that aims to encourage companies to reinvent themselves, their products and services to …

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