Australia’s First Automated Underground Waste Collection System

The National Sustainability in Business Conference will be held in Brisbane from the 23-24 March 2017. Mr Tom Jamieson, Manager, Project Delivery at Sunshine Coast Council joins us to discuss ‘The Sunshine Coast Leads the Waste Revolution with Australia’s First Automated Underground Waste Collection System in the New Maroochydore City Centre’. This project, a first for Australia, is part of Sunshine Coast Council’s $253 million capital works program for 2016/2017. This significant and innovative infrastructure investment demonstrates why the Sunshine Coast is fast becoming one of Australia’s leading city regions for the 21st century and delivering its core strategy of becoming a …

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Mental health and psychosocial impacts of climate change for rural Australians

Climate change is arguably the biggest global health threat of the 21st century (U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2016). The safe limit for temperature increase is 1.5oC, but if we continue with business-as-usual, global temperature will rise between 3.7o and 4.8oC, with catastrophic consequences (IPCC, 2014). Already we see climate disruption around the globe which will certainly increase: unprecedented heatwaves, severe drought, bushfires, flooding of cities and land, major storms. Climate change increases the severity or frequency of health problems already affected by weather factors, as well as creating unprecedented health problems in new places. Groups especially at risk include …

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Why business will make or break the SDGs

Achieving the ambitious global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – which include ending poverty, improving global health, ensuring universal education, and mitigating climate change by 2030 – will cost a lot of money. The total will be far more than governments can make available, and the gap cannot be closed by official development assistance, now at $132 billion per year. The private sector, as well as updated financial markets, will be essential. Until recently, international organizations and governments had relatively well-defined roles in the global development and sustainability agenda, whereas the private sector’s participation in the process was often viewed through …

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A Study of Australian Brands Using Reforestation Projects

The National Sustainability in Business Conference will be held in Brisbane from the 23-24 March 2017. Mr Ray Wilson, CEO of Carbon Neutral joins us to discuss ‘A Study of Australian Brands Using Reforestation Projects to Deliver Carbon Abatement and Sustainable Development Impacts’. Case studies are presented of leading Australian brands that are championing support for biodiverse reforestation as carbon reduction projects with important sustainable development outcomes. Their business cases for carbon neutrality are explored, including offset purchasing decisions and how they use their environmental programme and carbon neutrality to engage stakeholders, including supply chains. Early Bird registration closes this week on …

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Sustainable Building Practices Using the Green Star Certification Tool

The National Sustainability in Business Conference will be held in Brisbane from the 23-24 March 2017. Mr Adriaan Window, Sustainable Consulting Engineer at the University of Queensland and Umow Lai QLD Pty Ltd joins us to discuss ‘A Social and Environmental Cost-Benefit Analysis of Sustainable Building Practices Using the Green Star Certification Tool’. This research aims to create a cost-benefit analysis framework for evaluating the social and environmental factors that result from the implementation of the Australian Green Star certification scheme. Specifically, the framework is used to evaluate economic efficiency as a net present value of the marginal costs and benefits derived …

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A 2017 Case Study from a New Orleans Social Innovation Incubator Lab

The National Sustainability in Business Conference will be held in Brisbane from the 23-24 March 2017. Dr Virginia Munro PhD from Griffith University will join us to discuss ‘Twelve Years On: A 2017 Case Study from a New Orleans Social Innovation Incubator Lab – With Example Startups and Sustainable Enterprises (The Calm That Came from the 2005 Storm)’. This presentation discusses a Social Innovation Incubation Lab Virginia visited in New Orleans, Louisiana (USA) last year. The Social Innovation Incubation Lab has been assisting with social venture set-ups since 2009. When Virginia was invited to present on CSR Social Initiatives at the …

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Dr Jennifer Alden on ‘The Business of Sustaining our Edible Future’.

The National Sustainability in Business Conference will be held in Brisbane from the 23-24 March 2017. Dr Jennifer Alden is a Health Broker, her business Growing Change brings people together to activate ideas to improve community health and wellbeing.  Seeing the link between what we eat and how it affects our health and that of the planet, Growing Change was established to support local community food initiatives and to consult to organisations, government and community to create opportunities to strengthen local health, environmental and social outcomes in addition to supporting local food economies. Dr Jennifer Alden will join us at the conference …

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A $4.5m Annual Power Bill to Energy Self-Sufficiency?

The National Sustainability in Business Conference will be held in Brisbane from the 23-24 March 2017. Mrs Debbie Firestone, Program Leader – Sustainability at Tweed Shire Council will join us to discuss ‘From A $4.5m Annual Power Bill to Energy Self-Sufficiency? Tweed Shire Councils Energy Practices and Plans’. With an annual electricity bill of over $4.5m to power over 52 services, 700 employees working across 390 sites, an elected body representing over 40,000 ratepayer shareholders and a population of over 92,000 residents, the Tweed Shire Council faces the full range of energy opportunities and challenges inherent to any business: – bringing …

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Battery Storage for Business – A New Tool in The Energy Transition

The National Sustainability in Business Conference will be held in Brisbane from the 23-24 March 2017. The Conference theme ‘Renewables – Markets – Innovation – Opportunities – Capital’ will address the need for sustainable business practices, and what this means in today’s ever-changing world. Mr David Malicki, Senior Team Leader at the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage will join us at the conference to discuss ‘Battery Storage for Business – A New Tool in The Energy Transition’. Battery energy storage is still in its infancy in Australia, but technological improvements, falling prices and news buzz from companies such as Tesla, …

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SWOT Analysis of The Global B Corp Movement

The National Sustainability in Business Conference will be held in Brisbane from the 23-24 March 2017. Shanah Trevenn is CEO of Smart Sustainability Consulting and joins us at the conference to discuss  ‘Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of The Global B Corp Movement’. B Corp is rapidly becoming the global gold standard certification for private enterprises using the force of business for good.  B Corp stands for benefit corporation since it assesses how a company bakes sustainability values and practices into the DNA of their organisation ensuring all sectors of the company create environmental and social benefit.  B Corp aims to transform …

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