Mr Simon Berry, Partner at Berry Simons joins us in March

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 Simon Berry, Partner at Berry Simons joins us in March to discuss ‘Geothermal Energy in New Zealand – An Overview’. New Zealand has installed geothermal generating capacity of 750MWe with produces around 13% of New Zealand’s electricity supply. Most growth has occurred since the 1990’s. This paper provides an overview of geothermal energy production in New …

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Mrs Lissa Barnum, CEO/Founder of Peopleness: Social Design Action

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. Mrs Lissa Barnum, CEO/Founder of Peopleness: Social Design Action joins us in March to discuss ‘Converging Design with Business – Energising Business Models for a New Human-Centred Economy’. Motivated by lectures in design, a short introduction to concepts around the Quadruple Bottom Line, i.e.  people, planet, profit, purpose, as well as the concept of ‘disruption’ (also employed …

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Tony Wood from Grattan Institute to Keynote in March

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. Tony Wood from the Grattan Institute joins us in March and will keynote on the topic ‘Zero-emissions energy: dreams and nightmares’. Wind and solar energy have been rapidly adopted by Australians. More than 40 per cent of South Australia’s electricity comes from wind and more Australian homes have solar PV on their roofs than just about anywhere else …

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Join us at the 2017 Sustainability in Business Conference

The 2017 National Sustainability in Business Conference will be held in Brisbane from the 23-24 March and will address the need for sustainable business practices, and what this means in today’s ever-changing world. 2017 Conference Topics Include: Renewable Energy Systems and Sources – Biofuel, Biomass, Hydrogen & Fuel Cells, Hydropower, Solar Energy, Geothermal Energy, Wave Energy, Tidal energy, Energy Storage and Wind Power. This can also include energy transformation from renewable energy system to grid. Think Local First –  development of the local economy and community, urban agriculture, Buy Local. Innovative Business Opportunities – Incubators, Start Ups, Venture Capital / Entrepreneurs. The Energy …

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Lego-like buildings to tackle sustainability in the Australian housing market

Castlemaine architect Simon Disler thinks there is a crucial missing step when designing more sustainable houses for the mass housing market: flexibility. “We wanted to come up with a building concept that was really about having a modular floor planning system that means you can shuffle the parts of the building around to adapt to a site to get good performance,” Mr Disler said. That means thinking about lot size and orientation and then adapting a floor plan to the site so that a house faces the sun. He said this step is a cost-effective way to save energy consumption …

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Introducing Dr Rosanna Garcia from NC State University, USA.

Dr Rosanna Garcia, Faculty Director Business Sustainability Collaborative at NC State University USA will join us at the National Sustainability in Business Conference in March 2017 and will discuss ‘Driving the Benefit Corporations Movement with University Collaborations’. Rosanna’s paper was co-authored by colleague Prof. Jessica Thomas. In this presentation we will introduce the concept of Benefit Corporations and BLab Australia as it is a new movement in Australia. As a case study example we will present how Universities in the United States are partnering with local incubators to assist entrepreneurs as they undertake Benefit Corporation certification through BLabs. This experiential …

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Sponsorship Opportunities – 2017 Sustainability in Business Conference

The 2017 National Sustainability in Business Conference will be held in Brisbane from the 23-24 March and will address the need for sustainable business practices, and what this means in today’s ever-changing world. 2017 Conference Topics Include: Renewable Energy Systems and Sources – Biofuel, Biomass, Hydrogen & Fuel Cells, Hydropower, Solar Energy, Geothermal Energy, Wave Energy, Tidal energy, Energy Storage and Wind Power. This can also include energy transformation from renewable energy system to grid. Think Local First –  development of the local economy and community, urban agriculture, Buy Local. Innovative Business Opportunities – Incubators, Start Ups, Venture Capital / Entrepreneurs. The Energy …

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2017 Program Now Available

The 2017 National Sustainability in Business Conference Program is now available. The National Sustainability in Business Conference will be held in Brisbane from the 23-24 March 2017 and will address the need for sustainable business practices, and what this means in today’s ever-changing world. The exceptional lineup of speakers includes: Ms Anne-Marie Birkill, Partner and Executive Director, One Ventures presenting “What Does it Take to Move Beyond Innovation? It Takes Ruthless Execution and Resilience” Mr Stan Krpan, CEO, Sustainability Victoria presenting “TAKE2: Victoria’s Climate Change Pledge Program and the Role of Collective Business Action to Reach a Net Zero Emissions Future” …

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Queensland worm farmer invents solar powered compost machine

A Queensland worm farmer believes she has invented the world’s first commercially-produced solar powered compost machine. “It certainly is, yes, and we are happy to say it has been designed here in Australia and running entirely on solar,” said Penny Mitchell, from Palmwoods on the Sunshine Coast. Waste material is put into two bins that rotate with the power of the sun, breaking down the matter with time. Ms Mitchell said the market for solar powered compost bins was environmentally conscious businesses that wanted to reduce their carbon footprint. “We are getting quite a bit of interest, we have had …

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Sprout Stack: Shipping containers provide farm-free vegies

Shipping containers could bring farming to the heart of the city as hydroponics and mobile phone apps are harnessed for large-scale urban food production. A Sydney start-up company Sprout Stack has perfected the commercial production of large volumes of leafy greens in shipping containers, producing as much lettuce, herbs or spinach leaves in eight weeks as a hectare of fertile farmland. The containers, filled with towers for growing vegetables, tomatoes and strawberries hydroponically, require only electricity and water. Sprout Stack founder Francisco Caffarena says the farming containers, which can be leased or bought outright, can be stacked on top of …

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