Rouse Hill centre a world sustainability top 5 new development
The Rouse Hill town centre in NSW has been named as one of the five best new developments in the world, after earlier being labelled one of the top five in the Asia-Pacific region. The GPT GROUP and Lend Lease developed the Rouse Hill town centre, with 220 retailers, 104 apartments, 2800 square metres of office space, 10 restaurants and a cinema built around a town square. The target is to use 60% less water and 40% less energy than comparable retail centres and there is a zero waste-to-landfill objective. More than 130,000 tonnes of recycled materials were used in the construction and 130,000 indigenous seedlings planted. There are cycle paths with parking for 300 bicycles.
The centre joined the LA LIVE entertainment district in Los Angeles, the Miasteczko Wilanow neighbourhood in Warsaw, the Southern Ridges corridor in Singapore and the Thin Flats infill development in Philadelphia as winners of the Urban Land Institute's 2010 global awards for excellence.
http://www.environmentalmanagementnews.net/StoryView.asp?StoryID=1564890
It’s not B-S! Human waste used to heat homes
Householders in Didcot, Oxfordshire have become the first in the UK to use gas made from their own human waste and supplied via the national grid to heat their homes.
Up to 200 Oxfordshire homes will be using biomethane made from sewage they had flushed away three weeks earlier. British Gas, Thames Water and Scotia Gas Networks now hope to roll out the process across the UK. According to an EU directive, by 2020 the UK must ensure 15% of the energy it produces comes from renewable sources.
Martin Orrill, head of energy, technology and innovation at British Gas told the BBC News website supplying this type of gas through the national grid was a logical step in the UK's bid to meet these targets.
He added that customers had no need to feel squeamish but should be proud of taking part in the unusual recycling effort.
For the full story go to BBC news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11433162. Story sourced via the Resource Recovery Forum www.resourcesnotwaste.org.
Using Flowcharts to improve
A flowchart is a picture of the separate steps of a process in sequential order.
Elements that may be included are: sequence of actions, materials or services entering or leaving the process (inputs and outputs), decisions that must be made, people who become involved, time involved at each step and/or process measurements.
The process described can be anything: a manufacturing process, an administrative or service process, a project plan. This is a generic tool that can be adapted for a wide variety of purposes.
For more go to:
http://asq.org/learn-about-quality/process-analysis-tools/overview/flowchart.html?WT.dcsvid=MzAzMTAxNzEwS0&WT.mc_id=EM5881
CSIRO powers up with solar mirrors – a breakthrough?
CSIRO has begun installing 450 large mirrors, called heliostats, for Australia’s largest solar-thermal tower system at the CSIRO National Solar Energy Centre in Newcastle. The new solar-thermal tower is designed to demonstrate that, after the cost of carbon is taken into account, electricity can be generated by sun-power at the same or less cost than fossil fuel-generated electricity. Once installed, the heliostats will concentrate the sun’s rays to create temperatures of up to 1000°C. The heliostats have a lightweight steel frame created for mass production for the commercial market. The units are smaller than many heliostats currently being used around the world, but just as efficient, more cost effective and easier to install.
CSIRO’s Energy Transformed flagship director, Dr Alex Wonhas, says “the economical design of the heliostats will also make solar fields more cost effective to build and operate”. The heliostats are part of a new solar technology developed by CSIRO and manufactured by NSW company, Performance Engineering Group. The heliostat field is part of CSIRO’s new solar Brayton Cycle project.
Story sourced from: http://www.environmentalmanagementnews.net/StoryView.asp?StoryID=1564891
First dual wood and biosolids waste gasification plant in UK
Planners have given the thumbs up to the UK's first dual waste gasification power plant after odour issues were cleared up. The 12MW gasification plant is due to be built in the Riverside Industrial Estate, Boston, Lincolnshire. The plant, a joint application from Alternative Use Group and Alchemy Farms, is the first of its kind in the UK to process waste wood and biosolids simultaneously as a feedstock to produce syngas, which will then be used to produce electricity.
The power plant, due to be operational by late 2012, will produce enough electricity to power 10,000 homes and will create 27 new jobs. The site, when built, could be the first in the country to run on a mixed feedstock of wood waste and biosolids from wastewater treatment facilities. For more on this story go to: http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=18750&channel=0&title=Green+light+for+UK's+first+dual+waste+gasification+power+plant+. Story sourced via the Resource Recovery Forum: www.resourcesnotwaste.org
Biofuel to add CO2? Unintended consequences?
European plans to promote biofuels will drive farmers to convert 69,000 square km of untouched land into fields and plantations, accelerating climate change by 2020, a report by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) has warned. As a result, “the extra biofuels that Europe will use over the next decade will generate between 81% and 167% more CO2 than fossil fuels”.
The IEEP reached the conclusion after analysing official data on the EU's goal of getting 10% of transport fuel from renewable sources by 2020. But the European Commission, which originally formulated the goal, countered that “the bulk of the land needed would be found by recultivating abandoned farmland in Europe and Asia”, minimising the impact.
The whole biofuel debate centres on a new concept known as indirect land-use change (ILUC), which means that if you take a field of grain and switch the crop to biofuel, somebody, somewhere, will go hungry unless those missing tonnes of grain are grown elsewhere.
For more on this story go to: http://www.environmentalmanagementnews.net/StoryView.asp?StoryID=2335924
Your Ideas, Innovations or Events?
If you want publicity for an idea, innovation or technically related event, contact the I&I editor, Colin Seaborn on 4254 0200 or 0419 841829 or click here->
We welcome stories and photos. With the YOC electronic magazine going out monthly you will need to send your story by the end of a month to get publicity for an event in the following month in this column or in the Clipboard.
If you want to promote your product or service via video please contact YOC office on (02) 4254 0200 or click here-> |
