Welcome to MECLA’s second newsletter of the year. It’s been a strong and energising few weeks across Sydney Climate Action Week and TRANSFORM. Also, congratulations to Manasa Marasani for being named Future Green Leader of the Year, a well-deserved recognition!
As MECLA’s working groups continue collaborating across industry, we are also adding more Spotlight events and MECLA attendance at other industry events. Also check out an update on ournew working group on Designing out Carbon, which has just picked up its work and is still looking for enthusiastic participants for to progress their work.
MECLA Spotlight on Decarbonising Data Centre Delivery
Thursday, 23 April, 2.00-3.30pm AEST - online
Join us for the presentation of the MECLA white paper on Reducing Embodied Carbon in Data Centre Delivery exploring embodied carbon in data centre construction as a distinct, material and manageable component of the sector’s climate footprint.
The resource focuses on the current state-of-play in data centre development in Australia and globally when it comes to embodied carbon. This includes focusing on challenges to reduce the embodied carbon in various components of the assets, contemporary strategies being implemented to minimise embodied carbon, the relationship between energy efficiency, water efficiency, and embodied carbon, and Scope 3 accountability across the data centre supply chain.
In the MECLA Spotlight MECLA's Alexi Barnstone will be joined by experts in the data centre industry to present the findings and key recommendations from the white paper and explore Australian case study examples of embodied carbon savings in data centre construction.
MECLA will again be in-person at Sydney Build, this year bringing our network into the conversation on low carbon materials and circular outcomes in the built environment. A big shoutout to our working group members who will be speaking across the program, and to those joining the MECLA panel on fitouts! We’re excited to see these conversations continue to build momentum across our ecosystem.
Shoutout to come and approach us at Sydney Build's Sustainability Stage for a 1-minute contribution to our 5-year anniversary. We are planning a little video for our celebrations.
Following our successful February Spotlight event, you can now find the relevant resources on this guide on our website.
Completed in December 2025 by MECLA's working group on Concrete & Cement, the updated version of their Guide to Low Carbon Concrete includes an integration with the Low Carbon Materials Hub and a breakdown of different concrete classifications by state/territory.
Presentations covered in the event included:
The new local rating classification system that was adopted for the Australian context and launched late last year,
an introduction to the updated Guide to Low Carbon Concrete, as well as
a presentation on the adoption of low carbon concrete and
a look into the Low Carbon Material Hub, which MECLA collaborated with for this version.
There was also be an introduction in how to read an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD).
MECLA has launched its new “Designing Out Carbon” Working Group, bring together developers, government, builders, designers, and material suppliers to co‑create practical, industry‑ready solutions to reduce carbon through smarter design. The group intends to develop an actionable, early‑stage framework that maps out the key levers that each stakeholder has to influence, enabling them to unlock meaningful emissions reductions across the building supply chain.
Working Group chairs CJ Wilson from Robert Bird Group and Kieran Leong from DesignInc Melbourne kicked off the first session this week and are welcoming additional contributors as the group refines both their goals and how they’ll deliver them.
If you’re a doer who wants to help shape a tool that can drive real change across the industry, we’d love your involvement. To express interest in joining MECLA and this working group and/or take part in our current survey, please reach out to the MECLA secretariat—your insights will help shape the direction of this important work.
Our transition to Microsoft Teams is now complete. If you don’t currently have access, you may not yet be set up as a member, please reach out to the MECLA team and we’ll help get you connected. We are aware of some hiccups in this space, so please bear with us while we are getting these smoothed out.
You can find out more about MECLA by going to our website, by signing up to our newsletter or following us on LinkedIn to stay updated on future events and developments.
As always, email us with any questions and enquiries at info@mecla.org.au.
MECLA is funded through a mixture of industry and government commitments. We would like to thank all industry, research and government organisations that have already made a contribution to support MECLA going national.
MECLA c/o Climate-KIC Australia, University of Technology Sydney, Building 10, Level 10, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
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