Urban greening projects in Melbourne’s west are contributing to making the region cooler, more pleasant and healthier to live in and travel through. The key to this success is the Greening the West initiative. Since 2011 this has brought together 23 organisations that, by the end of 2018, will have collectively planted more than 1 million trees in Melbourne’s west.

The program’s efforts not only offer clear health and economic benefits for the region’s residents, but are also welcome news in the face of reports that tree canopy cover in Australian cities is generally declining.

St. Patrick's day is next weekend, and with it comes an onslaught of unnecessarily green consumables. I've honestly never been a fan of aggressively-dyed beer, not because I'm afraid of food colouring, but because the beer used is usually crap. If you want to celebrate St. Patrick's day with an on-theme adult beverage that isn't an emerald-hued beer, consider making (or ordering) one (or all) of the following.

We all know that we need to do more to help the environment. But while it is very easy to want to do more, knowing exactly what to do is much trickier. Is what you’re doing really going to make much of a difference? Well good news, as at least you’re conscientious enough to read this far. So here’s 10 ways you can reduce your carbon footprint.

Mornings just aren't the same. Late sleepers, once troubled only by the quiet gurgle of the boiling kettle, are now shaken from their slumber by the guttural sounds of steaming water being forced through aluminium or plastic coffee pods.

Hey Lifehacker, I have hundreds if not thousands of old CDs and DVDs. Some of them have important data on them and some are just random and miscellaneous. I would like to dispose of them in as green a fashion as possible. Is there anyone that recycles discs or does something with them? Or is my only choice to chuck them in the bin?

Most council recycling programs in Australia don't cover batteries in their regular collection, so this is a welcome development: ALDI is introducing battery recycling bins to all of its stores.

The national MobileMuster scheme is one of the best ways to recycle your mobile phone, and has been hugely successful; so far, it has stopped nearly 7 million unwanted phones from being sent to landfill. The scheme is funded by a levy on manufacturers, and almost all the major players in Australia take part, with one really glaring exception: Apple. What gives?

Google's Sydney office has a pair of electric cars which staff can borrow and use -- but only after they have earned points through travelling to work in the greenest way possible. Lifehacker chatted to Google software engineer Sam Thorogood about how the points-tracking system was built, and whether there are any unexpected risks in driving a car covered in Google branding.

Parents hate it when you buy kids battery-powered toys: you're committing them to endless battery spending, the toys are noisy, they end up discarded in favour of the next Happy Meal inclusion anyway, and then landfill grows. If your house is filled with no-longer-loved battery-powered toys, Energizer is running a campaign to collect, revamp and recycle them.

Continuing concerns over conditions for workers in China's Foxconn factories and massive profits at Apple have combined to create a growing chorus suggesting Apple needs to alter its manufacturing processes. Is it reasonable to suggest that Apple should radically change its behaviour, and what should other gadget companies be doing? Gizmodo's Alex Kidman and Lifehacker's Angus Kidman thrash out the problem.

Qantas has today announced plans to increase prices to cover both rising fuel prices and the impact of the Australian carbon tax which comes into effect from July. How will that affect your ticket cost?

While many of Australia's most iconic car brands are unknown elsewhere, vehicle manufacturing is becoming an increasingly globalised concern. But just how far can that process go?

We feel virtuous when we send our electronics to be recycled rather than just dumping them, but what guarantees do we have that they're actually disposed off responsibly? A report on SBS' Dateline suggests that some Australian TVs and other unwanted goods are being illegally dumped in Ghana rather than carefully recycled.

Thinking about dumping your old iPod and getting a newer model? If you hit an official Apple store for the purchase, you'll get 10 per cent off the price by trading it in.

One of the main points of contention about the proposed carbon tax is the amount of money it will cost individuals once those big-business expenses are passed on to consumers. Few people are enthusiastic about paying even a cent more in tax, but the reactions to this week's announcement do sometimes seem out of proportion to the amounts involved.

Curious about how the much-discussed and finally announced carbon tax for major polluters will impact on your household? The government's official Household Assistance Estimator will give you a rough idea.

Sourcemap is a free, open source, community-driven project that aims to show users where all the bits and pieces of the products they buy come from. Sourcemaps aren't just for gadgets, either. Users can collaborate to pin down sourcing for products ranging from iPhones to their favourite cereal. The downside is that since the project is still relatively new, there aren't very many sourcemaps available yet.

We told you last month about ReGadget, a site which expanded the familiar we'll-pay-for-your-old-mobile-phone concept to MP3 players, consoles and cameras. It has now added another option: cash for your old laptop.

We've seen plenty of sites that give cash for old gadgets, especially in the mobile phone space. iTradeIt follows a similar model, but with a twist: rather than getting cash, you get an Officeworks gift card.