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19 December

Levande secures sustainability linked loan

Australian retirement village operator Levande has secured a $1.5 billion sustainability-linked loan – supposedly the largest loan of its kind in the nation’s retirement living sector.

The financing will go towards the company’s growth strategy, which includes developing a new retirement village tailored for the Australian aging population. The loan will also go towards implementing three new annual key performance indicators (KPIs) targeting sustainability outcomes. These are greenhouse gas emission reduction aligning with SBTi (science-based targets initiative), integration of sustainable design practices, and resident wellbeing.

The loan was arranged with the support of ANZ and Westpac as its book runners, while the two, along with Commonwealth Bank, will also be its mandated lead arrangers and joint sustainability coordinators.

Japanese giant buys Aussie battery startup

Idemitsu, a Japanese petroleum giant – known in Australia for having stakes in the Boggabri thermal coal mines as well as the now-closed mine in Muswellbrook, is standing by its promise to pivot away from the Australian coal mine and towards critical mineral and energy storage.

According to the Australian Financial Review the company has taken majority ownership of Queensland-based battery start up Vecco Group, raising its shareholding from 14.6 per cent to 51 per cent. While the purchase amount is undisclosed, the company said that it has spent more than $75 million in total on the startup over the past 26 months.

Vecco produces vanadium electrolyte, a material that stores energy inside a vanadium flow battery, in its new factory in Townsville. The company hopes that it will begin mining and extracting its own vanadium within the next two or three years.

The Japanese giant also made moves last year in taking a substantial share of West Australian battery minerals explorer Delta Lithium.

The Australian Ethical Foundation breaks its own record on climate grants

The Australian Ethical Foundation has given its largest annual donation yet, this time distributing $1.7 million in grants towards climate change and community solution causes.

The organisation says it allocates 10 per cent of its annual profits after tax and before bonuses to high-impact projects that create scalable solutions for urgent climate change challenges.

This year’s grant recipients have shown to address climate change, address vulnerable populations and protect ecosystems. Recipients this year include Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation, Accounting for Nature, ACOSS (Renew Australia for All), Beyond Zero Emissions, Boundless Earth, Climateworks, Environmental Justice Australia, Fletcher St Cottage, Food Frontier, Groundswell Major Giving Circle, Investor Group on Climate Change, Karrkad Kandiji Trust, Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council and Original Power.

The organisation said less than 2 per cent of global philanthropy is directed towards addressing climate change, and it hopes to engage with companies to achieve systemic change at an economy-wide scale to focus on climate change, the biodiversity crisis, human rights abuse, and industrialised animal cruelty.

12 December

Bupa funds mental health and resilience programs

Insurance provider Bupa has flagged 54 community groups that will become recipients of its $520,000 2024 Bupa Foundation Community Grants program. Receiving programs are expected to build mentally healthy and resilient communities that address the link between the planet and human health.

The insurer’s chief sustainability and corporate affairs officer, Roger Sharp, says that community groups may be small, but their impact on health and the environment is immense. Some organisations awarded the grant include Batyr Australia, Collingwood Children’s Farm, Bucaan Community House and Electrify Boroondara.

Examples of successful partnerships include the Kids Helpline, The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and the NZ Landcare Trust.

Splend secures loan to expand zero emissions fleet

Splend, one of Australia’s largest rideshare fleet operators, has secured a senior debt more than $300 million from Macquarie Specialised and Asset Finance (SAF), a division of Macquarie Group.

The operator will use this loan to rapidly expand its electric vehicle offerings across Australia and the UK. The new facility from the expansion is expected to double the company’s rideshare fleet to over 10,000 vehicles by 2025 across Australia and the UK.

The company offers financing options for those looking to own a new passenger vehicle on a weekly payment basis. It would include any costs associated with insurance and car repair. Through a partnership with Uber, the company allows customers to receive accelerated registration as rideshare drivers, allowing customers to both earn personal income as well as repayments towards the car.

The company had already received an additional $20 million investment from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) earlier this year.

Women Sparkies on the rise

New research reveals that female sparkies are now on the rise after struggles from the government, organisations and industries to encourage more women to join the trade after a decade of historically low participation.

The research released by the Powering Skills Organisation, a jobs and skills council set up by the federal government to investigate workforce development in the energy sector, originally intended to make data about renewable energy trades accessible to everyone.

Further examination of data revealed that 4900 women had signed up for electrical apprenticeships between 2018 and 2023 across Australia.

PSO chief executive Anthea Middleton said that women only make up approximately 17 per cent of the energy sector, and female tradies made up even less at below 4 per cent.

But Jobs and Skills Australia is predicting a 42,500 electrician shortfall by 2030, with 79 per cent of all electricians already employed in the energy sector; Middleton said that it was obvious to try to appeal to more women to join electrical trades, and this was a step in the right direction.

The Sun King returns to Australia

Solar PV technology pioneer Dr Zhengrong Shi will be returning to Australia with plans to build a big manufacturing centre for his company Sunman’s flexible solar panels.

Shi was once dubbed “the sun king” after he and University of New South Wales professor Martin Green’s group developed technology now found in over 90 percent of the world’s solar voltaic. Shi’s rise to fame came after he left Australia disappointed that “it was too early” for the nation to be able to produce solar products at cost.

Shi then returned to China with his research, which led to the country becoming the world’s biggest solar PV manufacturing industry due to its ability to build at scale and lower cost.

The manufacturing plant will be in Newcastle, the world’s largest coal port, hoping to tap into the various levels of government support to popularise the flexible panels, designed to be installed in areas where traditional solar modules cannot be due to weight. The flexible panels are 70 per cent lighter and can be installed on large commercial and industrial rooftops—more on Renew Economy.

5 December

Battery recycling needs a government mandate

With batteries increasingly hailed as the answer to our net zero transition, what to do with them at end of life is an increasingly big and important challenge. The Battery Stewardship Council’s final design for B-cycle 2.0, to manage fire and environmentally risky battery products, promises some answers.

With batteries expected to be a key focus of the December meeting of Australia’s environment ministers chief executive officer of B-cycle Libby Chaplin said mandatory participation in recycling batteries through government regulation was important.

It would be the trigger the “fast-track our expanded scheme, giving consumers safe and accessible ways to dispose of loose and embedded batteries through Australia’s largest eWaste collection network—B-cycle,” Chaplin said. “It will also secure industry funding for urgently needed education campaigns to keep batteries and battery products out of household waste bins.”

RMIT University

RMIT University has launched its Centre for Atomaterials and Nanomanufacturing, which will support research into using nanomaterials to solve practical problems relating to the nation’s net-zero transition.

Professor Baohua Jia, who will lead the new centre, expects the research will directly translate to commercial application in some of Australia’s critical sectors through developing a range of prototypes. Prototypes already on the table include:

• radiative cooling film, which prevents absorption of heat and can cool an environment by up to 15 degrees Celsius without consuming electricity
• graphene supercapacitors, which will act as long lasting energy storage that can charge devices in seconds and EVs in minutes and are more stable than lithium-ion batteries
• solar to hydrogen generator, which allows floatable solar devices to generate scalable and cost effect green hydrogen and purify wastewater

CEFC charging forward

Green energy retailer Energy Locals is the latest to secure a loan from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), this time to fast track renewable energy adoption in multi-tenant buildings.

The $25 million investment will help Aussies living in apartments, aged care centres and commercial sites to access renewable energy after the CEFC made a commitment alongside infrastructure fund Palisade Impact to fund the deployment of clean tech in these buildings.

Technology supported includes solar panels, battery systems, heat pumps and EV chargers in challenging to-install apartment blocks and sites. The community energy networks can now access upfront finance for the infrastructure as well as management needed for billing and maintenance.

New green bond investment into Australia

International Finance Corporation (IFC) on Monday issued a green bond in the so called Kangaroo market for $700 million to bridge the biodiversity gap and advance green economic growth in emerging markets.

Kangaroo bond refers to bonds issued to non-resident entities over Australian dollar-denominated assets.

The transaction attracted interest from many high quality investors, including bank treasuries, central banks and official institutions, garnering orders of nearly 800 million Australian dollars, including 70 million from joint lead managers.

 The trade was arranged by the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ), Daiwa Capital Markets Europe, and Nomura International.

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