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What is in this Issue?
- Mandatory Carbon reporting and the flow-on impacts on all business
- ACCC fining “greenwash” as fraudulent. Find out about certified green and download a audio file of “An Interview with a certification auditor”
- What differentiates Enviro Action
- Clean coal
- Links to 8 other articles
Mandatory Carbon Reporting 300 Australian Businesses must be accredited for their Carbon usage by July 1 this year. This will come for all of us by 2010. Are you going to be ready? And it has to be real! Some of the blog articles below discuss this. I spent 3 days last week at the Carbon Trading Expo and there is a lot of work needed here by all businesses and by government. There are a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon and not all of them are offering fully credible solutions.
If you think that the introduction of GST was time consuming and costly for your business, there is a whole lot worse comming with the carbon reporting.
Greenwash and “Green” Certification
Along the same lines, consumers want to buy “green” products and services but what does this mean? The ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) is fining businesses for “greenwash” because this is fraudulent marketing. There is an ever increasing plethora of “green’ certifications and frogspopping up on marketing but what do they mean? Most of these are PRODUCT certification and take no account of the business practices of the supplier or the supply chain. The ISO 14001 certification is about the business practices and includes the products, the supply chain, training and management of the personnel and it is internationally recognised. There is a link to an article about this below. You can find out about green certification and download an audio file of “An Interview with a certification auditor”. To listen click here, or to download the MP3 file, One note, I have been using a frog for a long time now and it is on and inside two of my books because frogs are endangered by poor environmental conditions and is an indicator species - like the canary that used to be taken down mine shafts as gas and air quality indicator.
The ideal way for small to medium businesses to get a credible green certification that is time and cost effective is my online training. I limit the numbers in each course and the next one is starting in a week’s time so don’t miss out. There is a very real urgency for business to get started on this before they are forced into frameworks that may not suit them as well as one they design themselves with my help. www.enviroaction.com.au/online will give you more information about this and give you access to a free report on “how to go green to save the environment and business costs”.
I also offer seminar training options tailored for the corporate sector - for more information about this Contact me, or phone 1300 88 3646.
What differentiates Enviro Action
There are three major things that differentiate Enviro Action
1. Keep things simple. We start with a mind-mapping process to identify every activity in your business. Then we look at these activities to identify where you have environmental or any other risks and plan to manage them. This allows you to build a system like an iceberg with a broad hidden base, personnel “buy-in” and a simple slimline system on top. This differs significantly from many management systems where there is a much smaller base and a top heavy pile of documentation and procedures, like a wobbly upside down pyramid that needs to be frantically “propped up” and controlled prior to each audit.
2. A firm belief that to get the true benefits of environmental management systems, skills and capabilities must be transferred into the businesses themselves and their people and not stay with consultants.
3. Last but certainly not least is my own very real credibility. I am originally an internationally recognised environmental scientist; I am a qualified auditor, a speaker and an author who has published both scientific and business books and articles. I have been involved with quality assurance since the late 1980s when I put ISO 9002 (then it was called AS3902) into a business my family owned. I have also been on numerous Government advisory committees so I have experience of the public sector. Hey, I’m talking about myself here and this is not something I find easy but I do have both a depth and breadth of background that is both highly unusual and very helpful to my clients. How many have this understanding of business, management systems, the public regulatory framework and the scientific background? I have also won several awards including one for training excellence last year from the Seafood Industry.
For more information go to www.enviroaction.com.au/online.
Clean Coal and Other Energy Sources
There has been a mixed bag of reactions to Kevin Rudd’ discussions about coal sales to China, clean coal and what some people are calling the hypocrisy of our mining and selling coal to China.
I agree that the entire world needs to move completely away from fossil fuels but I am also a pragmatist and I realise the size of the industry here and the huge damage it would do to our economy if we suddenly stopped so I believe that the coal industry’s research efforts into developing clean ways to use coal make sense. And selling these technologies to China along with the coal also makes sense.
I know this makes some people very angry and someone recently said to me “clean coal – I’d like to see that!” The problem with being angry about something is that the people who are angry stop communicating and only tell. Unless the dialogue is two way, there is no communication and the differing viewpoints never meet to find the best outcome. It is a bit like swimming in a rip – fight it and you drown.
I believe we need a mix of energy sources …… read more
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Together Australian beer fridges emit 100 tons of CO2 per year and they are even more inefficient if they are built into cupboards. The average Australian household emits 14 million tons of CO2 per year. We are the world’s worst polluters per head!
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Here are the links to the latest articles on the Enviro Jean Blog
There is a growing consumer concern about climate change and increasing demand for “green” products. Consumers are waking up to the need to look after the environment and marketers are jumping madly on the bandwagon. Marketers sell on emotion so they often stretch the truth to build that very emotion that connects with the buyers. It is their job.
Up to 50% of Australians will now investigate the origins of a product or service, and will pay more for a product that they believe is from a sustainable source. This is the crux of the problem. THEY BELIEVE it is sustainable.
All this confusion about what “green” really means is spawning a wide range of environmental certifications; generally product certifications. There is confusion about what....read more
I was watching an interesting program today on TV. Apparently by 2016 all houses (or was it new houses? - happy to be corrected) will be required to have zero carbon emissions. They are exploring all kinds of initiatives including solar tiles for roofs.
There is a lot of action and thought going into green roofs where, subject to structural checks, people are putting soil and plants on their roofs. Some were very interesting and beautiful The ideas including much improved thermal insulation and also CO2 absorption. This was especially suggested in cities.
So perhaps we will go forward to “caves” but high tech ones with plants on the roofs rather than back to caves as we reduce our energy use. readmore
Last week a bunch of drunks decided to steal a work-boat and go for a joyride on the harbour after midnight. Six of them died when they hit a fishing boat on its way to sea to do a days (or night’s) work. I have deep sympathy for the bereaved families BUT my major sympathy goes to the fishermen who were terribly traumatized by this accident and to both boat owners who have lost a vital part of their business, possibly for months while the Coroner investigates the two, now impounded, boats. Poor business owners is my take on this. I do and have done a lot of work on occupational safety in the fishing industry and I know how seriously fishers take this. read more
Companies and managers face increasing liability from a range of environmental laws. The new National Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reporting Act 2007 is the latest. The fact is that we need to comply with legislation in our business as well as in the rest of our live. If you drive over the speed limit with a hight alcohol level you do not expect sysmpathy when you get caught. Similarly with environmental law.
The worry for business is whether they are at risk from their employees and their contractors inadvertently breaking the law and leaving the owners and managers liable. read how Enviro Action can help here
Last week Enviro Action had a stand at the Carbon Trading Expo in Melbourne. it was combined with a major safety expo and was a huge event. The number of people coming through was almost overwhelming. Thankfully I had two wonderful guys helping me.
Enviro Action is about reducing carbon and other environmental impacts which is the major step we need to take. We were very busy and I also spoke at the conference.
It was most interesting seeing what is on offer. The entire carbon trading area is still in a premature muddle with...read more
The first 300 Australian companies start mandatory carbon reporting on July1. Interesting times. The figures will eventually be put on public view. It is estimated that businesses will have to spend $7bn on rebuilding corporate computer systems and overhauling workplaces to meet the federal government’s new greenhouse gas emission reporting requirements. read more
These two key greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere rose sharply in 2007, and carbon dioxide levels this year are literally off the chart, the US government reported today.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide, the primary driver of global climate change, rose by 0.6 per cent, or 19 billion tonnes last year read more..
The Melbourne Qantas Club lounge has lifted glass recycling rates from 10% to 80%, using a new bottle crushing machine. read more
The ideal way for small to medium businesses to get a credible green certification that is time and cost effective is my online training. I limit the numbers in each course and the next one is starting in a week’s time so don’t miss out. There is a very real urgency for business to get started on this before they are forced into frameworks that may not suit them as well as one they design themselves with my help. www.enviroaction.com.au/online will give you more information about this and give you access to a free report on “how to go green to save the environment and business costs”. This will be bigger than the introduction of the GST and the longer we leave it, the bigger the impact will be.
I also offer seminar training options tailored for the corporate sector - for more information about this Contact me, or phone 1300 88 3646.
Kindest regards
Jean Cannon
Helping business build effective management systems to save money and grow
It is easy to be green
Winner 2007 South Australian Seafood Industry Training Award in recognition of training excellence
For more information or suggestions about how I can serve you better,
please contact me on jean@enviroaction.com.au.
Customer information is never supplied to any other list or provider. We retain your information only so we can serve you better and supply you with bonuses and additional information as it becomes available in the future. Your information is kept using our strict in-house confidentiality procedures.
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