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In this Issue
- Note from Jean
- Featured Article
- Enviro Action Activities
- Links to Articles
Note from Jean
I was doing squats with my eyes closed this morning in the gym (my trainer’s idea not mine) and I was thinking about how much harder it is to do things when we can’t see where we are going. I think this explains a lot about why it is hard to really see where we need to go with all the information about carbon emissions and global warming. For most of us, it is working blind. My approach is that I have seen so many changes happening so fast that I am concerned about the future of my grandchildren.
This week I went to Brisbane to speak on “What is Green? What is Greenwash” at a conference of women in the seafood industry. I really enjoyed being with an inspiring and interesting group of people. A summary of the talk is in one of the articles at the bottom of the newsletter or click on the link.
It was also nice to be warm!
I fairly comprehensively confused the delivery of last week’s newsletter and it only went to about ¼ of you and as I am unsure which quarter, I am giving you a link so those of you who want to can look it up. Then I sent an OOPs to everyone. Please accept my apologies. The featured article was about living within our environmental means. www.enviroaction.com.au/news/living_within_our_environmental_means.html
Featured Article
Is your business too small to worry about emission trading? Probably NOT!
It is quite likely your customers will have a strong interest in your carbon footprint.
We know that the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) has been designed for the big end of town and the major carbon polluters and that their costs will be passed on to smaller companies and the community at large through higher prices. However don’t expect those big companies to absorb all the costs themselves. They will be requiring all the small businesses in their supply chain to give them carbon input information.
This means that many small companies will be paying indirectly for their carbon in higher costs but they will also being required to report carbon to, satisfy the demands of their customers. Carbon accounting will be demanding and how this is going to be done needs to be sorted out so that small business is not left reporting in different formats to different supply chains. This is a huge extra overhead!
Carbon and global warming has become a significant issue of concern for the wider community, and that is why we have a relatively rapid political reaction. However the community wants more than just action by government. They will expect their suppliers to demonstrate what they are doing to address climate change – no matter how big or small those suppliers might be.
And secondly, many businesses form part of long and complex value-supply chains that end with major manufacturers, distributors and retailers. Increasingly these large players at the top of the supply chains will be demanding to know the full carbon footprint of the products that they receive from their suppliers and deliver to their customers.
Either way – many small and medium sized businesses that might escape direct participation in the EST will be obliged to implement internal carbon accounting measures to satisfy their customers.
I have not heard any acknowledgement of this from Government. They seem to be talking to the big end of town and to Chambers of Commerce and employer groups and these organisations are not representing the millions of small businesses that will also be affected.
My message to small business is to keep aware of what is happening and to start identifying all your environmental and carbon inputs and waste. I can help you here with both the coached online training courses but also with the low cost “off-the-shelf” study courses that come to you either in emails or on CDs.
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Nearly all plastic is made from Petroleum and surprisingly little is recycled. Can you reduce and recycle your plastics?
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Enviro Action
Enviro Action offers effective and affordable help for you to cope with the demands for environment, carbon emissions, “green” marketing .....................
All these including being able to develop straightforward international certification to ISO 14001 can be easily and time effectively included in one simple system with the underwriting philosophy that if you can’t keep it simple it won’t work.
My philosophy is that by going green you can make more money. The next coached course starts in the middle off next week - there is still time to join this! Don't miss out
Here are the links to the latest articles on the Enviro Jean Blog
So what is “green”? It is about being aware of what we are using and even more importantly what we are wasting. It is about how big our environmental and carbon footprint is and not using more than our fair share.
“Green” is the new black – it is now a fashion in marketing. This should not surprise us because we know that people buy based on emotion and all the recent surveys show that over 90% of Australians... read more..
The Government scientists at CSIRO have reported a first for Australia! Carbon dioxide (CO2) has been captured from power station flue gases in a post-combustion-capture (PCC) pilot plant at Loy Yang Power Station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley. Read more...
A water management expert is warning that Australia may become the first country to delist a site from an international wetlands protection treaty. Read more.....
Australia’s top water scientists have split over whether the Murray River’s stricken lower lakes should be flooded with seawater in an act of desperation to save them. For many years now we have had barrages separating the freshwater coming down the river from the salt water. Historically any estuary would have had both salt and freshwater dominated regimes over the milenia but the isue is much more complex now. Read more...
Carbon labelling has been suggested in many countries to help consumers make informed choices on their environmental impact. Like the plethora of “green” labels, we are now getting others starting pilot programs to allow business to audit their emissions and obtain a label to display their footprint that will allow consumers to make compare their footprint between different offerings, as one would with energy or water star ratings. Read more.
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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