Geelong Sustainability

Developed by World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in collaboration with businesses worldwide, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol provides the foundation for more sustainable climate strategies and more efficient, resilient and profitable organizations.

"An advanced waste-to-energy plant in Finland converts municipal waste into heat and electricity - efficiently and in an environmentally friendly way."

When I testified before the US Senate in the hot summer of 1988, I warned of the kind of future that climate change would bring to us and our planet. I painted a grim picture of the consequences of steadily increasing temperatures, driven by mankind's use of fossil fuels. But I have a confession to make: I was too optimistic. My projections about increasing global temperature have been proved true. But I failed to fully explore how quickly that average rise would drive an increase in extreme weather.

"For the first time, Facebook has revealed its carbon footprint, with over 900 million users. While the social network has grown rapidly, the good news is that its carbon emissions are still significantly lower than fellow internet giant, and sustainability conscious, Google. In 2011, Facebook's annual emissions were apparently 285,000 metric tonnes of CO2, compared to 1.5 million tonnes created by Google in 2010."

"The City of Sydney is embarking on the construction of Australia's largest rooftop solar installation, following an announcement of a plan to install a 1,250KWp (kilowatt peak) solar photovoltaic system across 30 rooftop sites within the Sydney city boundary."

"Professor Robert Manne, a political philosopher at La Trobe University, is making this declaration in a 7,000-word essay published on Friday in The Monthly magazine - its cover screaming "Victory of the Denialists: How Climate Science Was Vanquished". Manne's essay charts the decades-long effort to spread doubt and confusion about the science of human-caused climate change, focusing on the think tanks and corporations that created and backed a "relentless" campaign in the United States which has infected other parts of the Western world, including Australia."

WHAT ARE THE MAIN SOURCES OF METHANE EMISSIONS?

The FCRN's aim is to increase our understanding of how the food system contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and what we can do to reduce them

A fun interactive looking at using common animals to mow your lawn

Australia: Infigen to build PV integrated energy storage demonstration project. Infigen has begun work on a one MW photovoltaic and energy storage plant in Australia's New South Wales. A first for both the company and the country, the demonstration project aims to pave the way for future utility-scale projects.

I'm a freelance journalist in Melbourne, Australia. I write about environmental, social and community issues. I am often inspired by the people I write about, so I hope you will be too. You can find most of my published articles on this website. I write a weekly column called Greener Homes in the Domain lift-out of the Sunday Age.  

The Monash Sustainability Institute (MSI) is a multi-disciplinary, cross-faculty institute that delivers solutions to key climate change and sustainability challenges through research, education and action.

For over a decade, Banrock Station wines have brought the pleasure of fine Australian wine and the message of conservation to the world. Part proceeds of every sale have already contributed to conservation projects in 60 countries

Despite a severe economic downturn, Ireland has held to its ambitious energy targets to move itself towards a low-carbon economy. But to reach its goals and break its heavy use of imported fossil fuels, Ireland must invest even more in renewable technologies, expand grid integration and improve energy efficiency, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said today in a review of Irish energy policies.

Finding creative solutions to energy issues has become a major priority for Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page in recent years. For the obvious reasons -- a growing population, increasingly scarce resources, and climate change -- he believes that the corporate world needs to operate more sustainably, and he is determined to build the nation's first zero-carbon company. This means a business that ultimately is so energy efficient and uses so much clean power that it emits no greenhouse gas -- a very tall order indeed. Experts aren't sure whether it's even possible for a company to emit no carbon, but Google is trying to come as close to that goal as possible. "As we became a bigger user of energy, we wanted to make sure we were not just part of the problem, but part of the solution," says Urs Hölzle, Google's employee No. 8 and a senior vice president who oversees the company's green initiatives.

Climate change has altered the behaviour and interactions of many plants and animals, including when fish migrate and plants flower. But evidence has been lacking that such shifts have a genetic basis. Organisms often deal with environmental pressures by altering traits through a process known as phenotypic plasticity, which does not require genetic changes. But many organisms will need to evolve genetic adaptations to climate change to survive, and seasonal traits such as the timing of migration are those most likely to evolve as they are genetically heritable.

America's first new nuclear plants in more than a decade are costing billions more to build and sometimes taking longer to deliver than planned, problems that could chill the industry's hopes for a jumpstart to the nation's new nuclear age.

We're not going to stop making plastic any time soon. But to prevent that plastic from spreading everywhere, we need to do a better job managing it. A recent conference brought together experts to think of some easy ways to do just that.