Multiple reports have convincingly demonstrated that agroecology is the most promising pathway to sustainable food systems on all continents. But governments aren’t doing enough to support it.
Truly green plastic requires more than sustainable raw materials.
Farmer-led development projects in places like Tanzania, shown here, can increase access to food and water, and reconnect people to nature.
(Cecilia Schubert/flickr)
Buildings are central to creating more sustainable cities, and green ratings are often used to assess how well a building measures up against this goal. But the current system has serious flaws.
Retrofitting older homes to ‘green’ the nation’s housing stock involves much more than installing rooftop solar panels.
Tracey Nearmy/AAP
While new buildings may be the glamorous eco-home pinups, retrofitting existing homes is the main game when it comes to creating energy-efficient, comfortable housing stock for all Australians.
They don’t all support the same strategies for coping with it, but US mayors increasingly see climate change as a pressing urban challenge.
A man walks through a greenhouse in October 2017 at a learning centre in Uganda where sustainable agriculture techniques, such as drought-resistant crops and tree planting, are taught.
(AP Photo/Adelle Kalakouti)
Solar windows would need to trap enough light to generate power, while letting through enough to keep buildings light. Thankfully, newly developed semitransparent cells offer to do just that.
A man experiences a virtual reality bike ride in a display at the World Urban Forum in Kuala Lumpur.
Ahmad Yusni/EPA
Representatives of nations around the world have come together to discuss how to achieve the New Urban Agenda. Collective political will is needed, but the Australian government didn’t show up.
Water treatment plants can’t afford not to think about electricity too.
CSIRO/Wikimedia Commons
Cities all over the world are facing growing challenges to provide clean, reliable water. And many of the fixes, such as desalination plants, have a huge carbon footprint.
Rising global temperatures may make many cities too warm to host the Winter Games in the future.
(AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
The Olympic Games are an ideal venue to showcase new ideas to world. In a world where reducing carbon emissions is a priority, could the Olympics be doing more?
Sustainable fisheries tick all the boxes. They can fill your belly and your wallet, and generate less CO2 than conventional agriculture. So why is some integral funding for marine fisheries falling?
It pays to think very carefully about your new fridge.
DedMityay/Shutterstock.com
We use our fridges, washing machines and air conditioners every day. That means that we should consider much more than the up-front retail price when choosing to invest in a new one.
The science is clear but to improve plastic literacy, we need the arts. Here’s why.
Aerial view of the Sydney Football Stadium, which is to be rebuilt, and Sydney Cricket Ground. Questions of stadium design to deal with extreme heat are becoming more urgent.
AAP
The Australian Open tennis and the recent Ashes Test cricket series show why our sporting stadiums need to be “climate-proofed” to deal with extreme heat.
The home biogas system offers a zero-emissions alternative to paying for fossil gas.
Samuel Alexander
Australians love cooking with gas, but what if you could make your own supply, using leftover food waste? It may be time for more households to embrace home biogas – and stop paying gas bills.
Reporting on the sustainable development goals should not simply be a tick box exercise for business.
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It seems there is a gap between what companies publicly assume or state they are doing with the sustainable development goals and what they are actually doing.