There is a Bill before Government at present allowing an upfront 100% tax deduction on the costs of establishing a plantation. The Greens Senators put forward amendments to the Bill that would require plantations to remain in the ground for at least 100 years. The Bill as it stands allows investors an upfront 100% tax deduction on the costs of establishing a plantation. They also want g mixed native mixed species. Do these also qualify for carbon credits of is this double dipping?

They do echo some of my concern where I wonder what happens if they are burnt to the ground 15 years later and all that greenhouse gas goes into the atmosphere.

I get concerned when mono cultures of trees are planted without planning the ecology properly. This is why I donate to Trees for Life because they give local people trees grown from local seed. I don’t and never have counted this as carbon credits. I know that in an informal way, it offsets some of my carbon emissions but I also buy green power and minimise what I use without being too Spartan

My other concern is also echoed by the Greens when people buy up good food-producing land. What was interesting is that they Greens were supported by some of the Nationals who asked “Why on earth are we going to give a tax deduction to coal companies, who are receiving record prices and record returns, to go out there, buy agricultural land that is currently supplying the Australian supermarkets with cheap product, so that they can get a tax deduction and the Australian consumer can pay more for food?”

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Many big companies are now pushing triple bottom line and corporate social responsibility requirements deep down into their supply chains. This means that the small suppliers at the bottom of the chain need to start taking notice.

In fact what the leading big companies around the world are talking about is sustainable procurement which is more than just “green” procurement. This means their suppliers must tick all the boxes on environmental issues – reduced packaging, less pollutants, energy efficiency, water conservation and the like and also they need to treat their workers fairly, offer a safe workplace and purchase their own inputs in a sustainable fashion.

One example of a corporate doing this is Hewlett-Packard, who adopted the Electronics Industry Code of Conduct in 2004, and has now signed up 557 of its biggest suppliers. This code covers a wide range of issues, including the environment, ethics, how workers are treated and safe working conditions.

There’s been a lot of green hype in the media, but it’s not necessarily translated into behavioural change yet. There are both product certifications and also ISO 14001 which is about management practices or behaviour and I believe this is the way to go. ISO 14001 not only greens your business but it increases your efficiency and your profits.

Technorati Tags: green procurement, corporate social responsibility requirements, social responsibility, environmental issues, ISO 14001, Electronics Industry Code of Conduct

Goodyear Tyres is the latest company caught out making exaggerated green claims.. They have apologised and launched a refund scheme for customers taken in by misleading claims the company admits it made about the green credentials of its Eagle LS2000 range of tyres, including that they were “a revolutionary environmentally-friendly tyre,” that they were “designed for minimal environmental impact” and would result in reduced emissions.

Goodyear have now admitted they cannot prove the claims are true and haave promised to withdraw the promotional, advertising and website materials making them and place corrective notices in the national media.

Technorati Tags: Goodyear tires, goodyear, goodyear tyres, green claims, Eagle LS2000, a revolutionary environmentally-friendly tyre, a revolutionary environmentally-friendly tire, designed for minimal environmental impact, minimal environmental impact

I chose to move to an apartment about two and a half years ago. It has a smaller footprint, is very well insulated both for temperature and sound, is close to the centre of the city and on a regularly serviced bus route. After I added a verandah over my north-facing windows I get the winter sun in and not the summer sun and seldom need to use air-conditioning at any time of the year and I hear less from my neighbours than I did in a house in the suburbs.

I was fortunate enough to find an apartment with a large 50 square metre terrace out the front. This is wonderful and I don’t have to live without a garden (unthinkable!). The reality is that in summer the terrace is very hot and the organic home grown vegetables simply do not survive. Nor unfortunately do the worms in the worm-farm.

I worry about the addition of anything with carbon to landfill and carefully recycle and we have great recycling facilities in the basement of the building. We have an insinkerator which I dislike but I use it in summer because I think that the increased biological oxygen demand at the sewage works from my food scraps has less impact than the methane generated from landfill. Note I am happy to be corrected on this if people know more than me here!

I much prefer to use a worm-farm and finally the cooler weather has returned and I set up my worm-farm again yesterday and planted vegetables! The worms do survive in the very large pots with my fruit trees and native bushes but those in the black plastic worm-farm got cooked. This year they will all be popped into the pots before the hot weather comes unless I can find an insulated farm for them. I will confess that I find pottering with plants, soil, worms etc deeply satisfying. What a contrast to my mostly web based working life!

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ISO 14001 is about business management and behavioural change in a business. Product certification is about just the product. It ignores the behaviour and business practices of the company selling the product and the certification process is not as transparent as ISO 14001. Many of the product certifications are little more than a self assessment checklist.

In my opinion, ISO 14001 is the most credible environmental certification because it audits behaviour, it checks you are doing what you say do you, and looks for a cycle of continual improvement. You can make the odd mistake, but you must investigate the real cause for the problem and remove that cause. I personally believe that the fact a business has to be continually improving, but not necessarily perfect is a real strength of the system.

I am getting Enviro Action certified to ISO 14001. Enviro Action has had ISO 9001 certification for customer satisfaction, for four years now and this year we are adding the ISO 14001 fully integrated with 9001. We had our environmental pre-audit jointly with the quality audit on Monday. It was interesting being in the same shoes my clients are in when they go for audit.

Technorati Tags: ISO 14001, ISO 9001, ISO 9001 certification, Enviro Action, ISO 14001 fully integrated with 9001, Product certification

This has been an issue for years with people wanting sunlight to grow vegetables and having ‘discussions” between neighbours and planners for the right to sunlight. This has taken on a new twist with the right to collect sunlight on solar panels.

One recent example from Hunter’s Hill in Sydney has left the home owners both out of pocket because of loss of the $8,000 solar rebate and also because the local planners has just approved a development next door that will shade the panels they have just spent $40,00 0 to install.

The home owner said “The whole idea was to reduce our carbon footprint - we knew it would never pay for itself - but that will now be pretty much worthless. We weren’t going to make any money out of doing this. We were basically just trying to do the right thing.”

The 20 panels cover half their roof, and generate about 4.2 kilowatts of electricity when in full sun - enough to meet the energy needs of an average house. The property next door is being renovated, with an extra storey and a parapet to be added.

Should the right to sunlight be a planning consideration? I would have thought so!

Technorati Tags: our right to sunlight, sunlight, growing vegetables, growing veggies, Hunters Hill, Sydney, global warming

Associate Professor Richard Denniss of the Crawford School at The Australian National University has been studying the likely effectiveness of the New Zealand Government’s Emissions Trading Scheme for his paper The NZ Emissions Trading Scheme – why is it so bad and can Australia’s be any better?

“Given the recent consternation in Australia over very small reductions in the price of petrol, it is difficult to see how we are going to have a sensible debate about an effective Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in Australia,” he said.

“The worst thing Australia could do would be to follow New Zealand down the path of incurring all the costs of an ETS, while missing out on all the economic and environmental benefits. He stated that New Zealand has gone for the worst of both worlds, but hopefully Australia can do better.”

He says that Australian policy makers need to look across the Tasman to learn a number of valuable lessons before the introduction of any national Emissions Trading Scheme, to ensure the New Zealand experience is not repeated here. It is to be hoped that powerful industry groups are not allowed to insulated themselves from the emissions trading.

Technorati Tags: emissions trading, lobby groups, emissions trading scheme, ETS, Australia, New Zealand

$2.8 Million has been allocated by the Federal Government for this planning. This included mapping coastal urban areas for inundation risks from climate change in as Perth, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

The project will be implemented in collaboration with key national organisations such as the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information, the Australia and New Zealand Land Information Council, Geosciences Australia, CSIRO, and relevant state government agencies and commercial terrestrial mapping and monitoring companies.

They are also looking at how climate change affects variations in offshore wave characteristics will be developed by combining climate modeling and spectral wave modeling.

Technorati Tags:   Projects to help Australia’s vulnerable coastal communities plan for the effects of climate change, Australia’s vulnerable coastal communities plan, Australia, climate change, Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information, Australia and New Zealand Land Information Council, CSIRO

The South Australian Government and the Property Council of Australia (SA Division) have teamed up to undertake a $2 million project to improve the energy efficiency of commercial buildings in Adelaide’s CBD.

The State Government is to provide $2 million over four years to extend the operation of an existing program to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions produced by existing commercial buildings in Adelaide.

The Building Tune Ups-2012 project aims to improve the energy performance of all eligible commercial office buildings in the Adelaide CBD and has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions produced by Adelaide’s existing commercial building stock by about 70,000 tonnes annually.

Technorati Tags: energy efficiency, commercial buildings, Adelaide, South Australian Government, Property Council of Australia

Environment Minister Peter Garrett has initiated a review of the potential impacts of hybrid Savannah cats, which could see the cats banned in Australia. Mr Garrett said a draft assessment report had been released to assist considerations about the potential impacts of the cats on the Australian environment and whether they should be prohibited from import, under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).

When you consider the appalling impact of domestic cats both in the suburbs and those that have gone feral I would think this does not even need consideration!

Energy efficiency of commercial buildings in Adelaide’s CBD.

The South Australian Government and the Property Council of Australia (SA Division) have teamed up to undertake a $2 million project to improve the energy efficiency of commercial buildings in Adelaide’s CBD.

The State Government is to provide $2 million over four years to extend the operation of an existing program to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions produced by existing commercial buildings in Adelaide.

The Building Tune Ups-2012 project aims to improve the energy performance of all eligible commercial office buildings in the Adelaide CBD and has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions produced by Adelaide’s existing commercial building stock by about 70,000 tonnes annually.

Projects to help Australia’s vulnerable coastal communities plan for the effects of climate change.

$2.8 Million has been allocated by the Federal Government for this planning. This included mapping coastal urban areas for inundation risks from climate change in as Perth, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

The project will be implemented in collaboration with key national organisations such as the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information, the Australia and New Zealand Land Information Council, Geosciences Australia, CSIRO, and relevant state government agencies and commercial terrestrial mapping and monitoring companies.

They are also looking at how climate change affects variations in offshore wave characteristics will be developed by combining climate modeling and spectral wave modeling

Emissions trading and lobby groups

Associate Professor Richard Denniss of the Crawford School at The Australian National University has been studying the likely effectiveness of the New Zealand Government’s Emissions Trading Scheme for his paper The NZ Emissions Trading Scheme – why is it so bad and can Australia’s be any better?

“Given the recent consternation in Australia over very small reductions in the price of petrol, it is difficult to see how we are going to have a sensible debate about an effective Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in Australia,” he said.

“The worst thing Australia could do would be to follow New Zealand down the path of incurring all the costs of an ETS, while missing out on all the economic and environmental benefits. He stated that New Zealand has gone for the worst of both worlds, but hopefully Australia can do better.”

He says that Australian policy makers need to look across the Tasman to learn a number of valuable lessons before the introduction of any national Emissions Trading Scheme, to ensure the New Zealand experience is not repeated here. It is to be hoped that powerful industry groups are not allowed to insulated themselves from the emissions trading.

Our Right to Sunlight

This has been an issue for years with people wanting sunlight to grow vegetables and having ‘discussions” between neighbours and planners for the right to sunlight. This has taken on a new twist with the right to collect sunlight on solar panels.

One recent example from Hunter’s Hill in Sydney has left the home owners both out of pocket because of loss of the $8,000 solar rebate and also because the local planners has just approved a development next door that will shade the panels they have just spent $40,00 0 to install.

The home owner said “The whole idea was to reduce our carbon footprint - we knew it would never pay for itself - but that will now be pretty much worthless. We weren’t going to make any money out of doing this. We were basically just trying to do the right thing.”

The 20 panels cover half their roof, and generate about 4.2 kilowatts of electricity when in full sun - enough to meet the energy needs of an average house. The property next door is being renovated, with an extra storey and a parapet to be added.

Should the right to sunlight be a planning consideration? I would have thought so!

Technorati Tags: Savannah cats to be banned in Australia, Australia, Savannah cats, South Australian Government, Property Council of Australia