I try to catch public transport – buses using LPG as fuel, to save carbon when I go into the city centre. This seems a sensible approach. However the public transport authorities have a responsibility for the safety of their passengers.

Recently I was coming home in a bus that had to stop very abruptly to prevent a serious traffic incident. I was thrown forward several metres and hit my head on a pole at the front, my collar bone on a seat and finally landed on my back on the floor. By the time I had been taken to hospital in an ambulance and used lots of xrays etc, any carbon savings I made by busing not driving had long gone and I had concussion, sore neck, purple face (best shiner you ever saw) and a broken finger – thankfully that was all I broke.

If the community are to reduce fuel use in our cities by using public transport, the authorities need to provide a regular service that is safe to use. If seat belts in cars are compulsory, how come they are missing in buses? How come wheel chair bays on buses do not have anchor points to secure wheel chairs in case of sudden braking. I am not crying sorry for myself – I am really grateful to my local gym for helping me to have a strong body but this is something that must be addressed urgently.

Technorati Tags: safety, public transport, save carbon

I run a marketing business and my product is environmental management. Because my product is useful to a great many small business people I have a duty to let people know how I can help them and help the environment. Interesting way to look at it.

Last week I went to Perth, Western Australia for a marketing conference and this was my major take home message. I think they are right. It is no use being good at doing something that few people have heard of. If I am going to help my grandchildren and their friends have a better world to live in, I had better get out there and tell people how I can help them green their business and save money by increasing their efficiency.

So if I am more actively trying to inform people of how I can help, that is the reason. If a few people don’t want to be marketed to and just want information, perhaps those few are never going to be my clients or pass on information about my services and products to people who do want it. It is their choice.

I believe I have a duty to help people understand that it is easy to be green and it also makes businesses more profitable.

Technorati Tags: marketing, business efficiency, environmental management training, easy to be green, businesses more profitable

Here are some very quick snippets of great things that are happening. Clients often blow me away with their wonderful innovation and ideas.

A group of dryland farmers in central Queensland have managed to reduce their fuel use by 80% using the same tractors just by changing their work practices and the way they use their equipment. I hope you are all as impresses as I was when they told me this!

There is a great move by people to plant trees to help counter carbon emissions. Great idea BUT it needs to be done right because some plantations are actually causing environmental harm by not considering the ecology of the planting.

I am a sponsor of an organisation called Trees For Life and they only plant trees grown from seed that has been sustainably collected from the area where the trees will grow and in proportions that fit in with the local ecology.

Another client is trying to do the right thing in an aquaculture business on a very windy coastline. He wants to power his farm with wind turbines and connect to the grid so that excess power can go to general use but he can still draw power from the grid when the winds are not adequate. Great idea and permitted for domestic sized generation but his size means he is too big to fit the domestic regulations and too small to be commercial. Hopefully the bureaucrats will untie their red tape in the foreseeable future.

I love it when I work with clients that are actually carbon neutral in their operations, and some of them are. And they use recycled paper and recycle as much as possible.

I will point out that my book “It is easy being green; simple steps to help your business help the world” is printed on recycled paper.

Technorati Tags: dryland farmers, reduced fuel use, planting trees, environmental damage, wind power, recycled paper, carbon neutral

I am catching an early plane tomorrow to meet up with the other authors involved in the “Secrets Exposed…” series of books by Dale Beaumont. I was a contributing author to “Secrets of Top Business Builders Exposed”.

I am looking forward to meeting a group of very interesting people during the day and evening in Sydney. Then I am scurrying back in time to hand out ‘How to Vote Cards’ then scrutineer as the ballot boxes are opened and sorted to see the count is done fairly which I do every election.

Technorati Tags: top business builders

It tells the story of a company in Brazil that does things very differently. Although they are actually quite a large business they have cut red tape, removed rigid business organisation and fully involved their workforce so that their workforce take a pride it their work and in their company. This book is well worth a read.

I started reading it in the plane on the way back from a conference in Hobart where I attended a session on certification. I was horrified by the talk one woman give on an ISO 14001 system they had implemented. It was a highly bureaucratic, paper heavy system and she said it had been very painful to implement with a 600 page manual.

Ye Gods what a contrast! I have been working with ISO 14001 for 12 years and I got an attack of the collywobbles listening to her. I would imagine that in spite of discussing the benefits at the end of the session, she would have convinced most of the audience that this was not the way to go.

I agree. This is not the way Enviro Action helps business to implement an ISO 14001 system. I believe in keeping the system as simple as possible. If you don’t need a piece of paper why have it? The Standard does not specify lots of forms. It only tells you to control your paperwork which is practical commonsense.

It was so refreshing to read Semler’s book and to reflect that in many ways he mirrors my philosophy of keeping things simple.

I believe that some written procedures and reminders are very helpful both as training tools and as time savers. Job descriptions are best kept simple and brief. They should define the scope and the limits to people’s authority but detailed descriptions can lead some people to refuse to do what is not listed. I am a huge believer in having a system with feedback and also contingency planning because it helps the business run more efficiently but it must be kept simple so that the system works for you not the other way round.

Technorati Tags: ISO 14001, Ricardo Semler, Maverick, Brazil, Enviro Action, Marine Stewardship Certification, MSC, business efficiency, environmental management

The Kyoto Protocol is an important symbol to express concern about climate change. But it has failed to achieve emissions reductions or even anticipated emission reductions. And it pays no more than token attention to the needs of societies to adapt to existing climate change. The UN Climate Change Conference in Bali in December — to decide international policy after 2012 — needs to radically rethink climate policy.

Kyoto’s supporters often blame the United States and Australia, for not signing but it was always the wrong tool for the job. Climate change is far more complex than previous treaties dealing with ozone depletion, acid rain from sulphur emissions and nuclear weapons.

One problem is that it has stifled discussion of alternative policy approaches that could both combat climate change and adapt to its unavoidable consequences. As Kyoto became a litmus test of political correctness, those who were concerned about climate change, but sceptical of the top-down approach adopted by the protocol were sternly admonished that “Kyoto is the only game in town”. We are anxious that the same mistake is not repeated in the current round of negotiations. Economic theory recognizes the futility of throwing good money after bad. In politics this is seldom the case and egos are seriously invested into political positions. But the rational thing to do in the face of a bad investment is to cut your losses and try something different.

A global carbon market is not going to be the sole solution. We need to encourage innovation and completely new ways to do things. We also need to encourage much greater participation by the small to medium business sector because although each of them has a relatively small impact, this is the major sector of our business community and collectively their impact is very important.

Technorati Tags: ISO 14001, Kyoto, International Carbon Action Partnership, ICAP, Jose Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, United States, Australia

On Monday, the states of California, New Jersey and New York joined eight European Union countries — Portugal, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands — and New Zealand, Norway, and the Canadian region of British Columbia to create an International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP).

This new forum was created to enable countries to work together against climate change and exchange their experiences on the matter.

Carbon markets exist around the world, as industry pays for the right to pollute and the European Union presidency, currently Portugal, stated that “this cooperation agreement will also assure that the programmes in different countries are compatible with setting up a global carbon market.”

The various USA states involved said that they were disappointed their and that they will try to bring the rest of the country on board.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said he expected the United States to change its position on climate change and called on Washington to set targets for cuts in US greenhouse gas emissions. He said it was “a question of time.” He went on to say that “We need the United States to adopt a position similar to Europe’s. We cannot convince the emerging powers like China and India to reduce their emissions without the United States setting itself targets.”

The United States is the world’s largest greenhouse gas polluter.

I do not know where Australia was?!?

Technorati Tags: ISO 14001, Kyoto, International Carbon Action Partnership, ICAP, Jose Manuel Barroso,  European Commission president, United States