About Sustainability Matters

Sustainability Matters

Overview

Sustainability Matters is an Australian business-to-business magazine and digital media channel covering environmental and sustainability practice in industry, government and utilities. It is published by Westwick-Farrow Media (WF Media) from North Ryde in Sydney, New South Wales, and describes its website as offering "news, insight and product innovations for environmental professionals". The title operates across several formats: a print and digital magazine, a continuously updated website, an industry directory and a weekly eNewsletter. Its coverage centres on the practical side of sustainability — energy, water, waste, wastewater and emissions — for the managers and engineers responsible for environmental performance inside organisations. The title is currently operating: the magazine's recent editions include a December 2024 issue and a combined 2025 Insights issue, and the website was publishing new articles and news daily in October 2026, with items dated through 14 October 2026.

History

Sustainability Matters is one of the sector titles built by Westwick-Farrow Media, the Sydney B2B publisher founded in 1981 by Adrian Farrow and Edwin Westwick with the magazine What's New in Electronics. The company expanded from its electronics base into a stable of vertical industry titles, and the sustainability title was established as environmental management became a standing function in Australian industry: the website's own news archive reaches back to December 2007, with items from that month covering green building ratings, solar finance and the London 2012 sustainability program, and continues unbroken through January 2008 and the years that followed. That archive now amounts to a running record of the sector's development in Australia: its earliest pages report the January 2008 findings that the number of carbon offset providers had doubled in six months and early calls for funded computer recycling, and its coverage follows the waste and resource recovery industry through events such as SITA Environmental Solutions' 2011 acquisition of the former state-owned WSN Environmental Solutions in New South Wales. The business changed hands when Universal Magazines acquired Westwick-Farrow Media from founders Adrian and Yvonne Farrow in a deal reported by AdNews after six months of negotiations; the mastheads, staff and North Ryde operation were retained, and associate publisher Geoff Hird stayed on as publisher of the business. Sustainability Matters has continued under that ownership as part of the WF Media industrial group alongside ECD, Process Technology and Electronics titles, and its print edition remains part of the group's publishing program: a December 2024 issue of the magazine was produced, and in 2025 the title contributed to the publisher's combined Insights issue alongside Process Technology and ECD, whose masthead lists Carolyn Jackson as editor of Sustainability Matters.

Programming and Content

The channel is organised into subject sections covering sustainability policy and ESG, energy, energy technology, energy efficiency, waste, wastewater and water. Its news feed reports the developments its readers track professionally: in October 2026 those included a UNSW and Sydney Water project testing whether wastewater algae can be reused in manufacturing, next-generation wind technology for South Australia's Goyder North Wind Farm, a study of recycled content in home building, and a trial of a zero-exhaust-emission truck for commercial waste collection in Australia. Longer articles and case studies examine practice in depth — a September 2026 feature described how the Selfs Point sewage treatment plant project engineered sustainability into difficult ground conditions using lower-carbon materials and digital assurance, while other recent features have addressed electrifying food manufacturing, circularity in the building industry and the treatment of data centres in sustainability planning. Product coverage is a substantial stream in its own right, spanning instruments and equipment such as oil-in-water sensors for leak detection, energy-efficient compressors, flow meters and driver control stations for waste logistics. The magazine editions draw this material together in curated print and digital issues, and the title has historically carried commentary from sector leaders, including recycling industry and green building figures.

Audience and Reach

Sustainability Matters targets the people accountable for environmental outcomes in Australian and New Zealand organisations. The publisher's advertising information defines the audience as chief executives, plant management, senior engineers, senior management, environmental and sustainability managers, laboratory managers, process engineers, consultants and analysts across industry, government, utilities and business. In that same material the publisher put the channel's total audience — unique opt-in subscribers across print and digital platforms — at 8,711, a figure the publisher dates to January 2015, and states that the magazine's distribution was audited by the AMAA; both the figure and the audit reference are the publisher's own, and no newer title-specific audited number is published. At group level, WF Media says it delivers business information to over 44,000 qualified technology and industry professionals, and its corporate site reports annual group figures of around 28 million ad impressions and just under two million website visits. Those group numbers indicate the scale of the stable rather than this title's individual readership.

Digital Presence

The title's website, sustainabilitymatters.net.au, is a full digital edition of the channel rather than a brochure for the print magazine: it publishes news daily, maintains section fronts for each subject area, hosts an industry directory and a searchable content archive that runs to hundreds of pages of news items extending back to 2007, and carries the featured product coverage in a dedicated stream. A weekly eNewsletter is offered to members, and the site provides video updates alongside its text content, according to the publisher's channel description. The magazine is published in print and digital formats six times a year, per the publisher's advertising information, and recent digital editions — the December 2024 issue and the 2025 combined Insights issue — have been produced in page-turning digital form. The site shares WF Media's common publishing platform and design system with sister titles such as processonline.com.au and ecdonline.com.au, and each page carries the group's North Ryde contact block.

Ownership and Organisation

Sustainability Matters is published by Westwick-Farrow Media (WF Media), founded in Sydney in 1981 by Adrian Farrow and Edwin Westwick. AdNews reported the acquisition of the business by Universal Magazines from Adrian and Yvonne Farrow after six months of negotiations; the publisher today sits within the Universal Media Co group while continuing to operate under the Westwick-Farrow Media name, with its titles produced from the group's North Ryde head office at Unit 5, 6–8 Byfield Street. Editorial work is organised by title within a shared production structure: the masthead published in the 2025 Insights issue lists Carolyn Jackson as editor of Sustainability Matters and as the group's managing editor, Janice Williams as Publishing Director and Managing Director, and shared art direction, production, circulation and advertising sales staff across the industrial titles. The company's ABN is 22 152 305 336. Beyond publishing, the group runs industry events through its WFevents team, including the Comms Connect conference series and SAFETYconnect.

Contact and Availability

Sustainability Matters is published from WF Media's head office at Unit 5, 6–8 Byfield Street, North Ryde, New South Wales, with mail to Locked Bag 2226, North Ryde BC NSW 1670. The group's published phone number is +61 2 9168 2500 and its fax number is +61 2 9489 1265. The editor's published contact address is sm@wfmedia.com.au, and circulation enquiries are handled through the group's circulation desk. The magazine is published in print and digital editions and has been offered on a controlled-circulation basis to qualified industry professionals; the website at sustainabilitymatters.net.au is free to read, and the weekly eNewsletter is available to registered members.