Qantas, Virgin Blue and other domestic airlines will voluntarily pay the carbon tax after lobbying to be included in the scheme. In a last-minute change to the carbon tax legislation, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet revealed yesterday the Government had agreed to allow heavy users of fuel to opt in to the scheme. Under the original plan, the aviation, shipping and rail industries were to be excluded and instead pay higher fuel excise. But airlines and some rail operators told... Read More

For all the talk of solar as an important renewable energy source in Florida, there's another in abundance across the state: trash. One of the country's leaders in generating electricity from biowaste is Covanta Energy, which operates a plant in Hillsborough County. It is one of 10 plants across the state. Because biowaste is considered a source of "clean energy," the Hillsborough plant was certified this year to receive so-called carbon credits. The credits mean that as the... Read More

A SUNSHINE Coast energy solutions company headed by a former Coast mayor has won a contract at a prominent Port Douglas resort by promising to reduce its carbon footprint by about 300 tonnes and realise $100,000 a year in energy savings. Read More

As students arrive for classes each day at Anne Arundel Community College (AACC), many head to the back parking lot in hopes of scoring a coveted spot under the solar carport. Earlier this year, the community college completed the 3,136-solar panel project that is expected to save the campus $350,000 in electricity costs over the next 15 years. It is the largest solar-covered carport in Maryland and one of the largest on the East Coast, according to college officials. Read More

Google has always been secretive about the exact numbers of its energy use. Until recently that is. The company disclosed this week that back in 2010, it used 1.9 billion kWh of energy – that’s enough to power 200,000 homes. That’s how much energy is used as more and more people turn to Google’s increasing number of services. Read More

REDUCE, re-use and recycle is the message a group of Bundaberg North State School special education students are learning and sharing, with a range of projects aiming to shrink their carbon footprint. Read More

A new carbon measurement group formed by the World Travel & Tourism Council, the International Tourism Partnership, and backed by 12 major hotel brands such as Hilton Worldwide, Marriott and InterContinental Hotels, is aiming to forge an international standard for hotels to calculate their carbon output. Read More

As technology advances, it is becoming increasingly unnecessary to burn fossil fuels in order to produce usable energy. There are now many alternative and environmentally friendlier forms of energy available to us, and choosing to utilise them not only reduces our carbon footprint but also provides us with a sustainable energy source that will be around for years to come Read More

The construction and operation of buildings accounts for approximately 40 percent of all U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases. The most-used building material in the world, concrete, is used to construct many of the nation’s homes and office buildings — but a new MIT report says a variety of measures could drastically reduce, and ultimately even eliminate, the carbon footprint of most new concrete buildings, as well as some older ones. Read More

The construction and operation of buildings accounts for approximately 40 percent of all U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases. The most-used building material in the world, concrete, is used to construct many of the nation’s homes and office buildings — but a new MIT report says a variety of measures could drastically reduce, and ultimately even eliminate, the carbon footprint of most new concrete buildings, as well as some older ones. Read More