Does Carbon Trading Help Energy Management?
Unfortunately at present there is a lot of confusion and misinformation about our energy management both as a society and as individuals. The accounting frameworks are not yet fully established and many of the so called carbon neutral auditing schemes are less than robust. Some in fact are almost meaningless. The embodied energy in buildings and equipment in particular are often totally omitted as inexperienced auditors focus on a limited list of easily measurable emissions.
There are many examples of businesses that think that they are now a green business in this new ideology. A typical scenario is that someone, often the Office Manager, has organised a carbon audit and the business has paid the first of many bills for offsets without changing anything in their business. They are paying to pollute although hopefully this practice will decrease as it becomes increasingly expensive; because the aim of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is to raise the price of this pollution as a means of providing an incentive to greenhouse gas emission reduction. Had they set out to systematically reduce their carbon footprint or even implemented an environmental management system like ISO 14001, they would have a much better outcome.
The broad public perception of what can be traded as offsets is usually tree planting but in fact it can be much more measurable than this activity and carbon offsets are traded for a wide variety of activities and while some are very effective in reducing greenhouse emissions, others are harder to verify and measure and can be considered as more questionable.
Insulating houses is being subsidised using carbon offsets which does provide for a reduction in carbon emissions associated with heating and cooling those houses. Replacing incandescent globes with compact fluorescent (CFL) ones is another activity funded by offsets although a concern here is that the facilities for correct disposal of those CFL globes is not being provided because mercury going to landfill is not included in the trading scheme. It is a pity about that significant environmental impact. Householders having the globes changed are not being advised of the need for correct disposal now where to dispose of them. Methane capture from some landfill sites and some composting activities are also being traded for offsets.
There are some serious issues that should be considered with tree schemes and these include the most appropriate use of fertile farmland, the difficulties in accurate accounting of the carbon in seedling trees, the ongoing maintenance of the plantations, the increasing risk involved with fire management and last but no means least, biodiversity issues associated with the choice of plantings. Payment to landholders to retain existing vegetation makes more sense. There are certainly some more significant environmental impacts that are being ignored in the area of tree planting.
At present carbon is certainly competing with the environment for publicity and for government support but the best way for an individual business to implement a sensible carbon management plan and prepare for carbon accounting is to include careful energy management into a comprehensive environmental management system so that they are able to get real business benefits and rewards rather than merely paying to continue polluting.
At present we keep hearing about projects like a one year deal, the Forest Product Commission in Western Australia has to plant to plant 10 million eucalypt trees across 36 south-west farms in Western Australia for carbon sequestration as part of Synergy’s bid to secure carbon permits under the Federal Government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. WE need to know that these seedlings are being maintained and protected from fire. The FPC claims that the project also has a number of benefits for farmers such as reducing soil salinity and natural resource management
I would much prefer to hear more about investment into renewable energy and support for small to medium business to either reduce their carbon footprint systematically or to implement an ISO 14001 environmental management system because this is what brings the greatest benefits to the businesses involved.
Save Money with Simple and Effective Management SystemsJean Cannon is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want to save money by implementing simple and effective management systems. Sign up to discover how YOU can save money with sensible energy management and ISO 14001.
