SEFA commits $500 million to support underfunded social services
Impact investor Social Enterprise Finance Australia (SEFA) has announced a $500 million commitment by 2030 and estimates it could support up to 1000 underfunded local charities, social enterprises, and community organisations. The funding will help address a structural funding gap as cost-of-living pressures, construction costs, and demand for social services continue to rise.
Around half of the money will go towards female-led organisations, 18 per cent towards First Nations-led groups and 39 per cent to regional organisations – all cohorts facing systemic barriers in accessing capital.
Of the $500 million, 37 per cent will flow into homelessness and affordable housing initiatives. The remainder will support adjacent areas such as women’s safety and mental health.
SEFA’s funding strategy is to practice “impact stacking,” layering different forms of capital, including grants, private capital, and philanthropy, to match the realities of funding community-led projects.
One of its most successful projects includes Nightingale Housing, which was initially considered too unconventional for mainstream finance. Its model deliberately strips out speculative profit and non-essential costs, prioritising affordability, environmental performance and long-term liveability.
Victoria moves logging operations across borders after a statewide ban
An ABC Four Corners report this week revealed that, when Victoria banned native forest logging in 2024, government owned forestry businesses received double the subsidies of over $10 million for native forest products shipped from Tasmania. The ban was informed by a Victorian Parliamentary Budget Office estimate that the state would be $205 million better off without the native forest logging industry.
In response, Australian National University’s David Lindenmayer, distinguished professor of ecology and conservation biology, is calling for an immediate end to native forest logging
across Australia, and for a Royal Commission into public spending on the industry and proposed the establishment of the Great National Park for Victoria.
New ARC Training Centre to improve the sustainability and lifecycle of alloy materials
Deakin University recently launched its ARC Training Centre for Resource Efficient Alloys in a Circular Economy (circAlloy), which aims to improve the life cycle emissions of alloy materials by reducing waste and environmental impact. The five year research and training initiative focuses on developing sustainable, low emission metal alloys and processing methods with long term goals of supporting clean manufacturing, reducing waste and emissions, and improving product efficiency and reusability.
The Australian Research Council is funding the operations with $4.9 million to help industries reduce energy consumption, lower carbon emissions, and enhance metal recycling.
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Battery swap stations to power European electric vehicle transport
New joint venture, “Swaptopus”, is set to build a large-scale network of battery swapping hubs for heavy duty electric trucks across the UK and Europe. The initiative is the result of collaboration between Chinese battery giant CATL and the UK’s Octopus Energy, aiming to allow freight trucks to swap depleted cells for fully charged ones within minutes.
The first mega-hubs are scheduled to launch in the UK in 2027 and expand to over 30 stations along major European transport routes by 2035.
Each mega-hub will serve thousands of trucks per day, streamlining the traditional diesel refuelling process, with full scale operations aiming to support more than 300,000 electric heavy goods vehicles.
Greg Jackson, chief executive and founder of Octopus Energy Group, said electric trucks already have lower running costs than diesel; however, the time it takes to recharge batteries has posed a challenge to electrification. With the completion of this project, “instead of waiting for hours, trucks can be back on the road in minutes.”
Read on at The Driven.
