There is a report in ScienceDaily on the most comprehensive modeling which shows that unless we have rapid and massive action, climate change will be about twice as severe as previously estimated six years ago – and could be even worse.

It really is time for us all to wake up and start reducing our consumption.  As individuals and as business owners and managers we need to all be reducing our waste energy by 20% immediately with simple behavioural change plus supporting governments and others to also bring in structural and energy generation changes to bring this up to 50% overall.  And no- I am not crazy- this is possible.  It is relatively easy for us to make the 20% reductions.

I do think that the legislation needs to be thought though more than it has been so far instead of being forced though without scrutiny.  But we should not sit around waiting for someone else to do it for us.

New projections, published this month in the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Climate, indicate a median probability of surface warming of 5.2 degrees Celsius by 2100, with a 90% probability range of 3.5 to 7.4 degrees.  This is seriously scary!

All the planning and policies (and lack of action) have been based on 2% changes predicted in 2003 studies.  The big difference has a number of causes including improved economic modelling and more recent economic data showing less chance of people actually reducing their emissions than earlier projections plus a number of others including soot in their air and what is happening in the deep oceans.

And this new modeling does not take account of the potential for large scale melting of permafrost in arctic regions which would release of large quantities of methane.

Because our transport systems, buildings and power plants last for decades, changes need to start happening urgently to low or zero greenhouse gas-emitting technologies.”

Technorati Tags: arctic, behavioural change, climate change, deep oceans, emissions, greenhouse gas,   methane, modeling, permafrost

Jean Cannon

Jean is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want greater efficiency and reduced stress!

If you sometimes need to deal with staff errors and what is even worse, covered up errors that come back to bite, you are riding a time bomb and Jean will help you defuse it. Plus get you real recognition from markets and regulators.

The good news is that this is now available as online training so you only need to commit to one hour per week and no travel. You can even Do-It-Yourself! .

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There is technology slowly becoming available to help people to reduce their power bills and thus their carbon emissions.  The type I like the sound of best is either a coloured light ball or a “traffic light” style metre in the kitchen/family room or homes or on the office manager’s desk changing colour from green, through orange to red with increasing power consumption.  When the colour changes from green, it is a trigger to go and find out what just turned on to cause this.

There is also software being used by energy companies in six US states, Canada and India at called Google PowerMeter ” to allow people to monitor how much electricity they use at home. At present this is only available to a limited number of customers but they are planning to roll it out to many more.

The PowerMeter lets people know which devices or appliances in their homes use the most and also the least electricity and the home computer gets a detailed report on how the power is being divvied up.

There are approximately 40 million smart meters in use worldwide. Smart meters have computer chips and can use the Internet to relay information about electricity use to utility companies or consumers as desired.

My feeling is that a visual trigger in a central location will be more effective in more places but anything that helps make the behavioural change to turn things off is worth doing.

Technorati Tags: Carbon emissions, electricity, emissions, energy, Google, Google “PowerMeter”

Jean Cannon

Jean is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want greater efficiency and reduced stress!

If you sometimes need to deal with staff errors and what is even worse, covered up errors that come back to bite, you are riding a time bomb and Jean will help you defuse it. Plus get you real recognition from markets and regulators.

The good news is that this is now available as online training so you only need to commit to one hour per week and no travel. You can even Do-It-Yourself! .

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The number of confirmed cases of swine flu in Australia has risen to 17, schools where a student is affected are closed and employers are being warned to think about their risk management plans.

I do not think that it should only be swine flu that triggers this.  Risk is a mix of likelihood and consequence.  If someone comes to work at the height of an infection and coughs and sneezes over every other person and over door handles, phones and keyboards, the likelihood of this spreading is high and if the consequence is more staff members being absent or working below par, the risk to the business of financial loss and lack of customer satisfaction because of absences is high.

Also, the risk to other workers is high and the employer has a legal obligation to provide a safe workplace.  The employer has a right to send the sick person home.  This is what sick leave is provided for – not to cater for hangovers or “mental health days”.

It is assumed than anyone sent home will be done so on full pay, regardless of whether they have sick leave owing or not.  You also need to let others know why the person has gone home and demand that they get medical clearance before they return to work.He also says employers have a right to demand a staff member obtains medical clearance before they are allowed to return to work.

Infectious illness is something that should be added to your Safety Hazard list.

There is also an expectation that infectious people will have the good manners and consideration to call in sick when they are ill to prevent viral generosity regardless of any newsworthy epidemic concerns.

Technorati Tags: risk, safety hazards, safe workplace, swine flu

Jean Cannon

Jean is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want greater efficiency and reduced stress!

If you sometimes need to deal with staff errors and what is even worse, covered up errors that come back to bite, you are riding a time bomb and Jean will help you defuse it. Plus get you real recognition from markets and regulators.

The good news is that this is now available as online training so you only need to commit to one hour per week and no travel. You can even Do-It-Yourself! .

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The Federal Government has announced a voluntary scheme for recycling scheme mercury-containing lamps.  The voluntary scheme aims to develop a ‘fluoro-cycle’ scheme to target key generators of waste lamps through an outreach program to recruit them to the scheme and establish suitable recycling arrangements. It is anticipated that this scheme will be extended to compact fluorescent lamps from households, subject to the outcomes of this commercial trial.

They are also claiming a breakthrough on computer, tv waste and finalising product stewardship arrangements for used tyres.  They have renewed their support for the development of a national waste policy by the end of 2009 and welcomed a decision by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to close a significant gap in environmental protection by giving the Environment Protection and Heritage Council (EPHC) a single decision making role on the environmental management of chemicals.

Earlier this year four ships containing computers and electronic materials were stopped on their way to Asia, and forced to turn back to Australia.

The $100 billion IT industry is likely to be upset about any changes, with many groups pushing for voluntary codes of practice rather than established taxes.

Computer manufacturers such as Apple, IBM, Dell and Hewlett-Packard have voluntarily joined a recycling program, organised by Sustainability Victoria known as Byte-Back, but they are only some of less than a dozen companies to do so.

Many companies are concerned that any new charges would force them to raise prices on electronic hardware products.  However the Byte-Back program has demonstrated that price increases were a lot less than thought,  averaging about $5 per item.”

They welcomed other decisions to look further at a container deposit legislation scheme to do the choice modeling, to see if there is a willingness in the community to pay for a container deposit legislation scheme and to come back and have a further look at that issue into the future.

Why they need to do choice modeling, to get a better understanding of the community’s willingness to pay and how much they are willing to pay if there was to be a container deposit legislation scheme, when there has been a container deposit scheme in South Australia for over 20 years that has already successfully done this modeling for them is a complete mystery.  What is obvious when you travel is the great difference in litter and broken glass in most states while South Australia is significantly cleaner.

Technorati Tags: compact fluorescent lamps, computer waste, container deposit legislation, mercury-containing lamps, recycling, used tires, used tyres, waste

Jean Cannon

Jean is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want greater efficiency and reduced stress!

If you sometimes need to deal with staff errors and what is even worse, covered up errors that come back to bite, you are riding a time bomb and Jean will help you defuse it. Plus get you real recognition from markets and regulators.

The good news is that this is now available as online training so you only need to commit to one hour per week and no travel. You can even Do-It-Yourself! .

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The majority of Australian’s want the government to go ahead with making emission control work.  The majority of businesses also say they want this although few individuals or businesses understand what is involved.

The legislation is massive and complex.  I understand that it is the most complex since the Goods and Services Tax was introduced and this massive and complex tax will flow throughout the entire Australian economy.

The Government postures that it must be passed but in fact it is totally irresponsible of politicians if they simply pass it.  It must be really carefully scrutinized in both houses and especially in the senate.  This is not something to be rushed or bullied through.  I needs to be examined in detail and modified if this is needed.
[tags] Australia’s Emission Trading, business, emission control, legislation [tags]

Jean Cannon

Jean is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want greater efficiency and reduced stress!

If you sometimes need to deal with staff errors and what is even worse, covered up errors that come back to bite, you are riding a time bomb and Jean will help you defuse it. Plus get you real recognition from markets and regulators.

The good news is that this is now available as online training so you only need to commit to one hour per week and no travel. You can even Do-It-Yourself! .

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I wrote about the Adelaide V8 Supercar race called Clipsal 500  at the end of March when I talked about a building by stealth.  I also questioned the Clipsal organisers calling the race “green” and one reader told me charmingly to stick my newsletter up my tailpipe.

However there is an issue in my opinion.  The approval for the demountable stands for the race was to take a maximum of five months to construct and demount.  It is now the end of May and the previously lovely park is still a building site and has been since November which adds up to seven months by my calculations.  In November it starts all over again for a so called “green” car race that gobbles carbon, emits huge noise

I have always been very supportive of events being held and have never minded the traffic disruptions and short term disturbance.  And that is the crux of the problem I think.  Short term is not almost two thirds of every year.

This is a really good example of how not to do community consultation.  We had a huge standoff between the Council and the Government and the Government tried to “bully” boy through a permanent four storey building in the middle of the park.

The public was asked to comment in a token effort and were totally ignored and no submissions were acknowledged.  My submission was to support in principle but with some important modifications, ignored like the others.  The result of not getting their building is to disrupt for as long as possible.  If this were private enterprise the matter would go to court but we should try to learn something from this very public and very bad example.

If your business is having any community or government agency issues the correct approach is to make sure that everyone feels heard, even if they are patently wrong, listen politely and make sure that they feel heard before you say anything other than that you understand their point of view.  Understanding and hearing them does not mean you give in to them unless you are in breach of the law.  Often an alternative can be found that is better than either suggestion and is not just a compromise.

Technorati Tags: building, carbon emissions, Clipsal 500,   community consultation,   green, V8 supercar race

Jean Cannon

Jean is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want greater efficiency and reduced stress!

If you sometimes need to deal with staff errors and what is even worse, covered up errors that come back to bite, you are riding a time bomb and Jean will help you defuse it. Plus get you real recognition from markets and regulators.

The good news is that this is now available as online training so you only need to commit to one hour per week and no travel. You can even Do-It-Yourself! .

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In the early 1970s, Denmark imported 99% of its energy so they decided to become self reliant by means of massive investments in wind farms.

Now Denmark has only 3% unemployment and thousands of jobs in the clean energy sector , 30% of their electricity is from renewable sources and the Danish clean energy sector provided 10% of the countries exports and these exports are growing at 13% – more than double the rate of their other exports.  They also have a carbon capture program operating, not just talked about and that reduces the emissions from power plants so that they need three power plants not four.

They are also doing substantial research into storing energy from wind in batteries.

Technorati Tags: carbon capture program, Denmark, clean energy, energy, electricity, emissions, power plants,   renewable energy, wind farms

Jean Cannon

Jean is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want greater efficiency and reduced stress!

If you sometimes need to deal with staff errors and what is even worse, covered up errors that come back to bite, you are riding a time bomb and Jean will help you defuse it. Plus get you real recognition from markets and regulators.

The good news is that this is now available as online training so you only need to commit to one hour per week and no travel. You can even Do-It-Yourself! .

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It is very exciting that Indonesia is the first country to set up a legal regime to save their forests in a formal carbon trading scheme.  This is REDD or Reduced Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation.

Indonesia has had such huge problems with deforestation and also just burning the forests causing major carbon emissions.   I think many Australians remember the huge smoke plumes that even affected our air quality in Adelaide on the south coast of Australia.

It covers forest on land that is covered by some form of land right and there are areas that are not covered.  It is reasonably confusing and lacks detail but it is certainly a huge step in the right direction.  Congratulations Indonesia  Source: www.bakernet.com

Technorati Tags: air quality, carbon emissions, deforestation, forest, Indonesia, Reduced Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation

Jean Cannon

Jean is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want greater efficiency and reduced stress!

If you sometimes need to deal with staff errors and what is even worse, covered up errors that come back to bite, you are riding a time bomb and Jean will help you defuse it. Plus get you real recognition from markets and regulators.

The good news is that this is now available as online training so you only need to commit to one hour per week and no travel. You can even Do-It-Yourself! .

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On Friday morning I did something highly unusual for me.  I left home at 5.45am to play corporate sixes golf.  I’m a never previously golfer but they did say no experience needed and I could have been much worse.  It was wonderful and ended with a well deserved cooked breakfast and back in the office by 9am

I was looking at the lights and I estimated that around 75% of the office lights in the large office blocks in the city were OUT!  This is progress.  Not so long ago they would all have been on.

What was worrying me however is the street lights.

The Premier is always talking about Adelaide being the Solar City so why haven’t we got solar street lights?  They have been available for many years and work very well.  I think that Solar City may be a bigger greenwash that the carbon reduction and trading scheme and signing Kyoto seems to be.

Technorati Tags: Adelaide, Carbon, Carbon reduction, Greenwash, Kyoto, lights, Solar City, Solar Lights, Street lights

Jean Cannon

Jean is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want greater efficiency and reduced stress!

If you sometimes need to deal with staff errors and what is even worse, covered up errors that come back to bite, you are riding a time bomb and Jean will help you defuse it. Plus get you real recognition from markets and regulators.

The good news is that this is now available as online training so you only need to commit to one hour per week and no travel. You can even Do-It-Yourself! .

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The Murray River is in crisis.  There are so many people whose livelihoods depend on the river and this is as big a disaster as some of the more short term spectacular ones but it does seems to the forgotten disaster.  I am going to talk about one story of a business coping with a very difficult situation.

A few days ago I was working with a client at a marina near Murray Bridge.  This is a really well managed Marina with an effluent pump out for every berth in the marina and they have had ISO 14001 since 1999.  They have shower blocks and laundry facilities to minimise the grey-water issues and once the new grey-water standards come in they will be enforcing this on all vessels.

There is still water in the river for low draught houseboats and the hire houseboats are still operating, thankfully because so many people depend on this tourism income.  The wharf where the fuelling and hire boat effluent outfall are located is almost high and dry but they have anchored a barge supporting extension hoses for this so the important facilities still function.

When we set up the management system we set up emergency procedures for floods but no one ever envisioned lack of water!  It is interesting to see how they are coping.  The boats have been removed from inside the marina except for a few where they owners refused to allow their boats to be moved.  These are now sitting on the bottom, some at very odd angles.  They moved moored vessels to the other side of the river for storage with appropriate permission.

A really big issue is the number of pensioners with no other home, who live permanently on small houseboats.  When they are in a well managed marina with good waste and effluent management the people living on the boats is not an issue.

Most of the people who refused to let their boats be moved are permanent pensioners and as the shallow water flow continues to dry up, they will be homeless until the water returns because of grey-water issues.  The water in the marina is monitored regularly to check on bacterial and nutrient levels.

Many of the boats chose to leave rather than be tied up against the bank in the main river where they still had access to the facilities and as all the marinas are in the same state, they have become itinerant without access to the proper effluent pump out.   And the marina is way down on income

This is just one of the many stories of people who have ploughed their money their love and their energy into creating viable and previously vibrant businesses who are just watching them dry and die.

While it is a concern that some of Queensland flood water was held back from the Darling River, the major problem is drought and only 20% of the problem is irrigation.

Technorati Tags: Darling River, Drought,   Irrigation, ISO 14001, Marina Murray River

Jean Cannon

Jean is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want greater efficiency and reduced stress!

If you sometimes need to deal with staff errors and what is even worse, covered up errors that come back to bite, you are riding a time bomb and Jean will help you defuse it. Plus get you real recognition from markets and regulators.

The good news is that this is now available as online training so you only need to commit to one hour per week and no travel. You can even Do-It-Yourself! .

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