The City of Sydney has just announced that it is trialing a new recycling campaign with the help of two new Envirobank Machines Continue reading Sydney’s new recycling project is a game changer
Category Archives: Environmental Sustainability
What our top CEO’s think about sustainability, energy and women in the workplace.
As a way of kickstarting the year, Tony Boyd and Michael Smith of the Australian Financial Review decided to survey some of Australia’s top CEO’s from banking, resources, media, property, insurance, infrastructure and retail to find out their predictions for 2015. The questions asked are Continue reading What our top CEO’s think about sustainability, energy and women in the workplace.
Newmont’s Indonesian gold mine to become a botanical garden
Mining companies are the scapegoats of many eco-warriors and sustainability supporters, but Newmont Mining is one example of a resources giant that is making a difference environmentally, and in our Asia Pacific region. From 1996, the US company operated a gold asset under the local entity PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (PTNMT) on the Minahassa Peninsula on the northern Sulawesi island of Indonesia. The mineable gold deposit depleted and the asset subsequently closed in 2010, with the remediated land handed over to the Indonesian Government in January 2011. Continue reading Newmont’s Indonesian gold mine to become a botanical garden
TED Talks: Five climate change lessons from the Amazon
A new TED Talk just released (above) brings us the story of Brazil’s fight against deforestation, and shows us how the lessons learned can be applied to global climate change mitigation. Filmed late last year, the talk is presented by Tasso Azevedo, the man responsible for spearheading Brazil’s anti-deforestation operations, who now works internationally on global climate change and reforestation efforts. Continue reading TED Talks: Five climate change lessons from the Amazon
What you need to know about Australia’s clean energy
Earlier this week we talked about Australia’s energy mix in the context of the global renewables market, but it’s important in this conversation to understand our own energy market. Currently our renewable electricity generation stands at 14.76% of total output, and the breakdown of that mix is below:
Australia’s total electricity consumption stands at 213,500 Gigawatt hours (GWh). Renewable energy accounts for 34,750 GWh of this, producing enough power for 4.9 million households for a year (2013 figures). Hydro, wind and solar PV will be the focus of our discussion as they make up 93% of our current renewable output. Continue reading What you need to know about Australia’s clean energy
Global Renewable Energy: How does Australia stack up?
The beginning of a new year is as good a time as any to take stock of where we are as a nation and see how our fledgeling renewable energy industry stacks up against other countries’ markets. This is a difficult comparison to make, given the vast differences in geography, population, development and technological capability that we find across our globe. To paint a more rounded picture, we will look at the general state of renewable energy amongst the top 20 nations, ranked by Nominal GDP
(for this discussion we are using nominal GDP as it doesn’t take into account inflation – something that would have a volatile effect if we were reviewing GDP over a period of time rather than at just its current value).
In this ranking from the World Bank, Australia’s GDP is ranked 12th, making us relatively on par with Canada and Spain, who are, as it turns out, model bedfellows. Renewables (particularly hydro power) contribute 16.9% of Canada’s total energy supply, whilst accounting for a whopping 59% of its electricity generation. Spain paints a similar picture, with around 50% of its electricity coming from renewables, predominantly hydro and wind power (2013 figures).
So how does Australia sit comparative to its global neighbours? Continue reading Global Renewable Energy: How does Australia stack up?
SustainingPeople’s year in review
2014 is almost over, and here at SustainingPeople we’ve been absolutely humbled by a following of over 500 people in 59 countries around the world! Thank you all for your support – we truly appreciate your interest, and your comments throughout the year have enabled us to bring higher quality information for your digestion. And, given that 500 followers is somewhat of a milestone, we’ve decided to give our little corner of the internet a small facelift – more of nice spa treatment really – some touch ups here and there, with the most noticeable being a new logo and feature image. The photo was taken by a local artist, and friend of SustainingPeople, Tom Rodgers. It depicts the Stirling Ranges in Western Australia in all their glory, and you can see more of his fantastic work at the Tom Rodgers Photography website. Continue reading SustainingPeople’s year in review
US franchise’s epic short film casts a cold shadow over fast food
There has been a long running ad campaign in the US focused on sustainable farming, called “Food with Integrity”. It has had many variations and used many mediums – from print ads, to online media and tv spots, and now it’s trying something new. Continue reading US franchise’s epic short film casts a cold shadow over fast food
The hills are alive, with the sound of backflips
SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED THIS WEEK. So lets start at the very beginning – a very good place to start. Earlier this week, the Federal Government’s energy policy took another hit, this time from Nobel Laureate and former US Energy Secretary to Obama, Dr Steven Chu, who was in town to accept an honourary Doctorate from ANU is an advocate of urgent transition from fossil fuels to nuclear and renewable energy to combat climate change. Continue reading The hills are alive, with the sound of backflips
New report shows ASX Top 50 are alarmingly ignorant of sustainability risks
Inclusion of economic, social and governance (ESG) risk in corporate governance planning isn’t just about helping to keep a company in the black, or about reducing it’s carbon or social footprint. It’s also about accounting for risks that result from operating in a global business context – and it’s surprising to find that almost half of Australia’s top ASX50 aren’t actively focusing on preparing their businesses for this. Continue reading New report shows ASX Top 50 are alarmingly ignorant of sustainability risks
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