About half of all the wind turbines in the world, and a third of all solar PV cells are manufactured in Germany. Since 2000 solar technology has gone from a 450 million euro-per-year business to a 4.9 billion euro money machine in Germany.

The Germans still have their energy politics however. The automotive industry (DaimlerBenz and BMW) in Germany and the energy-intensive coal sector are both vocal in their opposition to thie German Government’s increased renewable energy and carbon limit legislation.

The law passed in the Bundesrat (Germany’s upper house of parliament) on July 4th puts the renewable energy target for total generation up to 30% by 2020. That is up from their current 14%, and far beyond the “20% by 2020″ plans we hear about.s.

Germany’s carbon cuts are also ahead of the pack, with a 40% reduction from 1990 levels targeted by 2020. The broader European Union target is 20% reduction.
Source: www.greenchipstocks.com

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The electricity industry has called on households to start cutting their power use now to get ready for emissions trading which is forecast to add just over $3 a week to household power bills when it starts in two years’ time.

It was sensible to start preparing for higher prices in advance, Brad Page, chief executive of industry body the Energy Supply Association of Australia, said.
There was a “huge amount” people could do now to slash their power bills”, he said.
Mr Page recommended switching to energy efficient lights, installing insulation, and sealing around doors as well as choosing energy efficient appliances when these need to be replaced.

The average household power bill is presently $1,020 a year. The federal government forecasts emissions trading will push up the cost of electricity by about 16 per cent, or an increase of $163 a year, in 2010.

The industry is calling for a fundamental change in the way power prices are set, to allow the full cost of emissions trading to flow through to households. At present State governments set power prices, which tends to keep them low. State governments have agreed to stop setting prices when there is effective competition in the market, but there are concerns deregulation is progressing too slowly.

“I think we have to change the system, we’ve got to go and rely on competition and stop trying to regulate a price,” Mr Page said. Without a true flow on effect there is less incentive to reduce household use. He went on to state that by world standards Australia has very low electricity prices, which meant people take electricity for granted, and are less conscious of the need to use it wisely.

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ROOFTOP gardens, soil footpaths and mandatory parklands are among radical plans to prepare Melbourne for climate change. A key lobby group the Committee For Melbourne has drafted recommendations to retrofit city buildings and make the public transport system green, to prepare Melbourne for the threat of global warming. And the city’s stormwater drains, health system and public transport infrastructure will struggle to cope in a hotter climate, the report says.

The Futuremap report handed to the Government today reveals Melburnians are already living with the effects of climate change including increased sea levels at Williamstown, hotter days, drier weather and more frequent storms. The report calls for immediate action from government, business and the wider community.

Tony Wood, Climate Change Taskforce co-chair and report author said that “All major planning activity should incorporate a climate change impact assessment.” The report goes on to suggest:
The immediate introduction of more green space to help cool streets.

• Replace concrete footpaths with plastic lattice filled with soil, gravel and grass to filter water into the ground.
• Collect stormwater and run-off in underground tanks.
• Increase support for low-income renters to install solar water heating.
• Compulsory parks and gardens in all planning processes.

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This news truly grabbed my attention!

In an interview with CNN, John Mason, executive director and founder of the Ghana-based Nature Conservation Research Council (NCRC) says, “I think that in 20 years chocolate will become so rare and so expensive that the average Joe just won’t be able to afford it,”

This is due to the increasing costs from the production of the cacao bean. According to NCRC, crop yields are declining in West Africa, where most of the beans are sourced. This seems in large part due to the unsustainable manner in which the beans are grown-the soil is being degraded and can no longer support the crops.

Like coffee, cocoa is traditionally grown in tropical environments under shade, similar to coffee plantations. However, hybrid varieties have been developed to grow in full sun that will result in a higher crop yield but more rapidly degrades the quality of the soil, and greatly reduces the life span of the individual plant.

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Some manufacturers and retailers are going one step further by designing a cyclical or “closed loop” process for their products. “Closed loop” recycling means that recycled content is used in products and then the goods are collected after use by the companies, recycled and then re-manufactured into new products. With the increasing price of plastic, a petroleum derivative, recycling plastic has the potential to be cost effective.

Ribena plastic bottles now come in 100% recycled polyethylene teraphthalate (R-PET) plastic, and Marks & Spencer uses 50% recycled content in 63% of all its PET plastic packaging. Bottle weights have been reduced.
To promote recycling, better recycling is needed and business, especially in UK and the EU the companies are working with local authorities on initiatives to improve PET recovery and recycling. To ensure more availability of recycled plastic available for reprocessing.

At present most plastic is still going to landfill As a result there are greater economic incentives to set up plastic recycling plants in the UK to secure local supply. This month, a plastic recycling plant opens in Dagenham in London. This will take 35,000 tonnes of recycled plastic bottles, including milk and soft drink bottles, and turn them back into raw recycled material for new food and drink packaging.

Technorati Tags: closed loop recycling, recycling, cyclical process, cyclical recycling, cost effective

The biggest impact on sustainability comes from the actual design. The supply chain is important but the design, even more so. The German Environment Agency estimates that 80% of a product’s environmental impacts are determined during the design phase. Lighter products reduce the transportation burden and products with fewer materials in a simple design are easier to take apart for recycling. Designers can also cut out toxic substances, include features that cut energy use, and improve the durability of components to enhance a product’s lifespan.

Eco-designed goods are now appearing on the market. But they are still a minority. Two main things cause this
• The sheer number of product lines that need to be re-engineered
• And lack of regulation requiring producers to re-design.

The Aeron Chair from US furniture manufacturer Herman Miller is a good example of eco-design. Sixty-two per cent of the chair is made from recycled material and 94% of it can be recycled. Parts are easy to disassemble and components are clearly marked to help in the recycling stream.

Product packaging is another area of waste at present and this can be reduced with better design. Unilever has doubled the concentration of some liquid detergents to cut the bottle size in half, bringing a 40% reduction in packaging and a 60% reduction in water usage and Unilever can also now deliver 156% more products on every truck, which means 30% to 40% fewer trucks on the road every year and significant financial savings.

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The Australian Institute of Management issued the warning that small and medium businesses will be “seriously disadvantaged” if they expect to avoid the impact of the Federal Government’s emissions trading scheme. after the release of the Government’s green paper on its carbon pollution reduction scheme.

The institute said many small and medium enterprises (SME’s) had been misled by the green paper, which says the scheme will cover only 1000 of Australia’s 7.6 million registered businesses.

All SMEs will soon feel the flow-on impact of the new scheme and their managers need to be ready for it,” she said. Already, some of Australia’s major companies have placed strict environmental requirements on their supplier organisations under the banner of ’sustainable supply chain management’. The SMEs that have verifiable sustainability measures, supported by the right organisational structure and culture, will be best placed to meet the marketplace realities of the new scheme.”

In May Westpac announced it had set up a sustainable supply chain code of management to bring the businesses it dealt with into line with its thinking on responsible business practice.

Gemma White, program manager of VECCI’s (Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce and Industry)“Grow me the money” has just returned from a conference in London on greening supply chains. “The large companies that attended like Nestle and Coca-Cola want to green their supply chain. They are looking at their own environmental performance and now they are looking outside their own companies to that of their suppliers, and putting pressure on them. Most multinationals are moving in this direction.”

She says they are looking at their agricultural suppliers then they will move onto other suppliers. “Companies headquartered in Europe for example are moving very quickly on this because there are more regulations there.” The big problem is that every organisation wants the reports in a different format and there is a need for tools to be developed that can standardise measurements.

White says that they have not had any SMEs report that they are being pressured by suppliers to measure their carbon footprint. “It is a perceived pressure. They expect it to happen and want to be proactive,” she says.

Jonathan Jutsen, executive director of consultancy Energetics, says some financial institutions are asking for Life Cycle Analysis reports from their suppliers.
Retailers increasingly interested in the environmental footprints of their suppliers. “For example retailers in Britain are looking at carbon labelling and “carbon miles” are talked about a lot in the UK. This is a real problem for long distance exporters. Woolworths is looking at the feasibility and benefits of carbon labelling and Tesco is a long way down the track.”
Ikea has done some work on its total emission footprint, which also includes the impact of customers coming to their stores. For example it has done a lot of work on ensuring people can catch public transport for its new stores. “Ikea is also looking at delivery options to reduce carbon emissions.

There could be many benefits from being an early adapter, including the satisfaction of doing your bit for the environment. But I have previously discussed “greenwash” and the need to be careful you cannot make claims you cannot substantiate.

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Quite apart from lack of water there are human usage and waste management issues along the river.

• There is the ongoing problem of “feral” boats and moorings where people have made very homemade houseboats which breach almost every regulation and squat in them in billabongs and quiet corners often with only long drop toilets.
• The boating industry has been trying to get authorities to address this problem for a very long time and members have put weeks of work into mapping and reporting them to authorities. There are also problems with abandoned boats – many being the feral ones and no one takes responsibility unless they are sunk in a navigation channel. This is a major litter problem which is becoming more apparent as the water level drops and the issue needs to be address.
• Another issue is Shack (holiday home) owners along the river who think it would be nice t have their own private beach in front of their house so they landscape it with tons of sand on the riverbank. This washes away next winter (if it ever rains again) and the sand needs to be dredged from where it lands, to clear the channels. There are increasing fines for both shack owners and fro truck drivers involved in this practice.
• Cattle along the river bank need to be fenced from the river with access to safe water to prevent them damaging river banks, becoming bogged and resulting in dead cows rotting in the river.

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One innovative South Australian man has put his heart and soul into developing an effective grey-water treatment system for boats on inland water over several years and it is finally coming together. The Environment Protection agency is currently monitoring the operation of the treatment plant on 9 vessels on the River Murray and it is doing very well.

The limitation is that it is a treatment plant and the operators need to accept this and be trained to maintain it. It must be flushed at 25psi every 7 days. The trails are due to be completed in October with a report out in November.

The system has been under test for 8 years and has cost millions of dollars so hopefully all his work and dedication will pay off now. This is a wonderful SA home grown invention.

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This is a major environmental problem. Acid sulphate soils are being exposed and salt is coming in from the Goolwa channel and increasing in the salt water lenses below the surface. There are currently just enough flows past Wellington to negate evaporation. It may be necessary to pump salt in to the river apparently to manage the acid sulphate soils but this will destroy the wonderful Ramsar wetlands and ecosystems which are very special and this will be in breach of our international agreements and internationally embarrassing.

Meanwhile the irrigation trusts in NSW and Victoria are actively lobbying against selling water to South Australia. Is this one country?

I find the lack of inaction by the SA government to be appalling also. Adelaide’s water is pumped from the Murray and Mannum and piped across the hills. The same quantity of water runs out to sea from the Adelaide plains as stormwater every year. The Government has known about the shortage of upstream water for several years and done NOTHING to harvest and use our stormwater. DUH!

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