When businesses build efficiency and reduce waste they increase profits!
The other thing they do, if they look at their waste systematically and at their other environmental risks, is that they also improve their environmental management.

Building environmental management systems that are based on a thorough preliminary audit do increase profit - it is a fact. It is also overlaps with Kaizen or Lean Thinking which aims to reduce waste/

Some green groups see increasing profits as bad but the reality is that unless a business is profitable it cannot afford to take any new initiatives and won’t be able to make the changes needed to reduce their environmental impacts. (more…)

I have spoken before about the uses of reed beds and wetlands for improving water quality. A well constructed wetland, like the one in this photo, removes over 90% of the nutrients and 90% of the bacteria from the water as well as allowing for the natural removal of over 90% of sediments from the water before it is discharged in the rivers and sea.

However when I was reading Peter Andrews wonderful book “Back from the Brink” I learned of yet another important natural role for reeds in our river systems. This one should have been obvious. Peter points out that reeds in a river slow the water and spread it out over the flood plain so that the flood plain water table is recharged naturally and very importantly, the river bed does not erode down.

In our greed to have more flood free land we have build on these valuable floodplains and removed to reeds to prevent flooding and our rivers have deepened as they rush the water fast to the sea preventing the aquifer recharge that we so desperately need.

In the cities we have taken this a step further and concreted the creek and river systems so that they get rid of the storm water faster and leave us moaning about why we are facing water shortages and severe restrictions. (more…)

Green Business and environmentally friendly business – so called are sprouting up all over the place. Ted Mininni wrote an interesting article called Marketing a Green Business” that I read today. I loved his description of companies scrambling to find ways to help the environment and also to position their businesses to connect with like minded companies. My concern is with some of the latter.

I had an abusive message from someone recently complaining that I needed to do “real environmental things” and the way to “save the world” was to put his additive into petrol (gas) for cars and I should be pushing this on my website instead of what I was doing.

I was also sent a sample of recycled paper that was impregnated with seeds of native trees so you could put the letter in water and watch the trees grow after you had read it. This might be a great gimmick for children’s birthday cards but I thought was actually off the mark.

These are just two examples that came quickly to mind about green business and I think that both miss the point.

If increasing numbers of people and businesses sat down and systematically thought through all their activities, then worked out which ones cause most environmental damage and how they can minimise their impacts, we would make steady and legitimate improvements to the environment. Picking on just one issue out of context is not the way to make real and sustainable improvements.

In the article “New Companies Sprout Up to Help Marketers Reach Green Businesses”, Kyle Cahill counsels companies to perform a comprehensive internal audit of their environmental efforts before they launch any green marketing programs.

The Enviro Action approach starts by helping you build a comprehensive foundation starting with an internal audit of your environmental practices. We provide the tools to allow you to do that audit in-house and do it effectively. The Green Jumpstart Kit provides a free resource to help get started on this process.

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99% of scientists agree that global warming is a fact! If you doubt this and want to believe the well funded 1% stop and think about whether you can stand there 10-20 years down the track and explain to your children and grandchildren why you thought that a 1% opinion that has that much impact on their lives was worth it or justified.

Looking my grand children in the eye and justifying my actions is my real test of credibility!

If you knew there was a 99% chance of them being in any other form of harm, would you really choose the 1% and say “well bugger you kids – I choose to be selfish & I don’t care about the consequences to you”.

It is easy to be green. Visit my other websites - www.itiseasytobegreen.com and grab a free chapter of my book or better still just bite the bullet & buy it. And also visit www.enviro-action.com to find out how the business you work in, or own can take small steady steps to improve the environment but also to save money, increase profits and grow.

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At the recent wine conference I attended I met a very interesting man called Peter Andrews. He is an exceptional farmer who has been featured in a documentary on the ABC’s “Australian Story”.

He farms very differently from the majority of farmers and has remarkably good results but many people think he is crazy because he retains weeds and values them for the diversity and increased fertility they bring to his property. He also finds that live stock and particularly racehorses, perform better and are healthier in an environment which a wide variety of plants. He also handles water courses differently so that more water enters the flood plain of his property and less runs away down deep river channels. Very interesting stuff especially in a country like Australia with its ancient soils and landscape. He is deeply concerned about the changes to Australia’s soils caused by man – both European settlement and by Aboriginal burning. Climate change will only exacerbate these concerns

The two points he made were:

• It can be a good idea to try doing things differently and
• It is a form of insanity to keep repeating the same thing and to expect a different result.

This is exactly the same double message as Michael Port (Book Yourself Solid fame) has been giving in his Think Big Revolution.

Peter Andrews is a farmer and Michael Port is a marketing expert but they both give us a very important message.

Perhaps we had better listen.

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Australia has very large deposits of coal and especially very high quality black coal. 80% of this is exported and it is by far the largest Australian export worth $24 billion. In NSW and Queensland, most of the electricity generation uses black coal and Victoria uses brown coal.

The Coal Industry Association fully accepts the science about global warming and its responsibility to do something to manage their impact. They are voluntarily putting $1Billion over the next 10 years into research into clean coal technology and within 5-6 years they say there will be a near zero emission power station.

The issue remains about the old technology power stations, especially in the countries we export to, like China. The Coal Association justifies this by saying that the coal importing countries will continue to buy coal and there is less environmental damage from the carefully controlled Australian mines than from some of the low quality brown coal deposits if they were mined in some developing countries.

I guess I agree and acknowledge that this is a very difficult area. Western economies have a much higher standard of living and use far more energy per head than our neighbours and we cannot expect that they do not also have energy needs.

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Some of you may have seen me interviewed on Sky News Eco Report over the weekend. They were talking about my book, “It is easy being green, simple steps to help your business help the world” (available from www.itiseasytobegreen.com). We discussed the benefits to business of having an environmental management system and also about the importance of knowing what regulations you need to comply with and having a simple paper trail to prove you take all the reasonable steps you can to comply with these laws and regulations.

I will confess that when the cameras started rolling I had the oddest feeling in my middle – scary stuff.

Waiting for the plane on the way home I saw my book on display in the airport bookshop shelves – very exciting so I took a photo with my phone for all to share my excitement. The emotion is a bit like seeing your child play his first sporting match. Writing a book is almost like giving birth.

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I had a display stand at the Wine and Grape Industry Environment Conference last week and met lots of interesting people. Trade shows are expensive and very tiring and from my point of view it is unfortunate that most of the people who attend an environment conference are the ones who already have systems in place. The people who need my services are not there. The interesting question is how to reach those small growers and producers who do not have the time, money or the interest to go to the conferences, to let them know that being green does not have to be as difficult as they think it is.

They way to green your business is to first work out everything you do, then assess the risks involved, develop an plan to manage the risks than take small steady but regular steps to make the plan work. If you want to go green with small steady steps, go to my websites, www.enviro-action.com and www.enviroaction.com.au. To download a free chapter of my book “It is easy being green, simple steps to help your business help the world” go the www.itiseasytobegreen.com.

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On Friday night I was honoured to be the winner of the South Australian Seafood Industry Training Award for training excellence. I was also a finalist in the Environment Award.

I was told that what the industry really appreciates is the balance I show between the needs of the environment and the needs of the industry. I am deeply touched by this because my aim has always been to strike this balance because when industry benefits from the systems they are building, they continue and this produces the best environmental and other outcomes.

This is the same comment the Federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, The Hon Peter McGauran MP made about my book – “I cannot recall reading a book by an environmentalist which genuinely balances the needs of the environment with those of business, as yours does. Congratulations. ……. Your work and your book show how small businesses especially can achieve commercial goals while nurturing their operating environments – a true win-win.”

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