First up what can we learn from “Mr Shuffles” the newborn baby elephant that after 4 days of his mother’s labour was thought to be stillborn – until he popped his persistent head up and with a little help like a sling under his belly held up by four zoo staff so he was able to drink milk from his mother until his legs get the hang of standing by himself.  He is still getting into trouble and Tuesday morning’s news showed all the other elephants and the zoo staff rescuing him from a pond adventure.  Baby elephants weigh around 100 kg but like all of us from time to time, they may need some help.

And so the lessons we learn from Mr Shuffles are that we all, including our businesses, need both a helping hand and a good dose of persistence.

So why is this relevant?

Let me explain……….

One of the best helping hands for most businesses is a simple and effective management system that identifies, then reduces risks, trains your staff to reduce errors, rework and missed opportunities and builds in feedback.

It gives you peace of mind and extra time.

It does not really matter which system you choose, environment, safety or quality because they all help your business.  The best system is one that covers all these risks and is low paper but fully integrated.

The second elephant is the one we pretend is not in the room when we talk about systems.  In the case of ISO systems, the elephant is what to do about auditing.

I am the first to acknowledge that external auditing can be expensive, especially if you have an integrated system with several standards but there are things you can do.
•    You may decide to only internally audit your system and this may be a sensible choice although is not as easy to get the real system benefits and improvement that an external audit helps with.
•    You may decide to only audit one system but run all of them and if they are fully integrated, your external audit will help you keep them all up to speed so that you get the benefits at a lower cost.
•    You can think carefully about which auditing body you want to use.  I recommend smaller auditing bodies for small business because their costs are often lower – like $1,200 per day instead of $1,800 from some of the larger companies and some of them specialise in working with small business and understand you have simpler systems.
•    If you need the highly recognised big company logos for your marketing, then your auditing fees are well worth it and much cheaper than many other forms of advert.  Every business is different.
•    If you are a small business doing environmental management you may be interested in a standard called EnviroCert that is almost ISO 14001 but scaled slightly for small business or as a stepping stone to ISO 14001.

One very real benefit of an external audit is that tomorrow walks in the door and you have a deadline to keep your system up to scratch.  You will get greater efficiency and reduced stress!

Just imagine not needing to deal with staff errors and what is even worse, covered up errors that come back to bite much worse than if they had admitted it up front.

Other benefits are access to tenders and large contracts and logos that help with your marketing.

I have been running audited systems since the late 1980s and it is simply the way I do business.  It allows me to run effectively with minimal staff and I fully recommend you have an audited managed system.

So why am I talking about this today?

That is so easy to explain-

You can now get Version 7 of my online group training and I have managed to set it up so that you can join a group regardless of which system you are doing.

I have set the server up so that it caters for all the combinations!  It took me forever to do all the uploads for you but it is ready now and the next group is starting at the end of March.

I have even added video as a third option for you.  You will have PowerPoint Slides, MP3 audio files to listen to while you are commuting or sitting peacefully at the end of the day and now video as well so that most learning styles are catered for.  Research shows that when you are too tired to read anything new at the end of a day, watching a video or listening to audio still works.  You can still fit in your training and none of my sessions will take anymore than between 30-50 minutes.

Reserve your place in the next group and don’t miss out because I do limit the numbers so that you can have personal attention.

OR you might decide you want to take advantage of the limited opportunity to buy one of the few remaining previous version ISO 14001 Do-It-Yourself off the shelf training programs.  And YES you can get all the latest templates for only $60 +gst extra.  Reserve your copy quickly.

Wouldn’t you love to discover peace of mind and extra time plus have recognition from markets and regulators and the ability to access tenders and contracts out of your reach without those standards

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There is huge confusion in the marketplace.

There is no way currently of separating the energy generated into green and black. It all goes from the generators into a pool (you can visualise it like water), then flows out of that pool to where it is needed. In the future smart grid technology could separate the sources, but that’s not commercially available today.

There are all sorts of limitations to this system, including:

• The age and size of the lines providing power – many lines are too small and archaic to cope with very much power feeding back into the system.

• More demand for clean energy than supply available – so Renewable Energy Certificates or REC’s come into play as green energy costs more to produce than black.

The ‘pool price’ for black energy is about $40/MWh, while the cheapest clean energy (probably wind generation given the capacity factor, or how many hours during a day that wind turbines can make energy) is about $60. Solar power, even at commercial scale is still considerably higher than this.

You can see the ‘therefore’ coming here cant you?  THEREFORE, it’s cheaper for Energy Australia who provide the “green Power” to buy RECs for about $30 or $35 from the market, which is predominantly mums and dads putting solar hot water on their roof.

It becomes rather complicated here as rather than keeping the RECs thereby retiring them and stopping big energy providers from using them, they sell them back into the market, effectively making things worse by doing this.  Big Energy simply make an economic decision: Why bother to create ANY unlegislated green power if it costs twice as much as RECs?

If you are confused, so am I and I am wondering why I am paying more for my power than I need to.

I think that some changes have recently been made to this system but really the only way to make real green energy happen is to legislate a minimum and remove the power of lobby groups from big energy to maintain the status quo.

Here is a link to the discussion that prompted this post

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Until it is easy to recharge them or battery swop as in Israel, they will take off slowly.  But once they do take off, it will not be long before people will be rushing to get rid of their old petrol cars so that they are not left with a near worthless vehicle as the price collapses.

Apart from the greenhouse emission reductions, which at this stage only excite a section of the market, electric cars are so quiet and long lasting.  There is a huge reduction in maintenance costs.

I guess there will be a section of society who will still like noisy cars with oversize exhaust pipes but I guess young guys will find some other way of displaying their plumage than exhaust pipes.

Here is a link to an article on the potential advantages of electric cars:

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The Magistrate noted while there were extensive safety systems in place company management had not considered the machinery being accessed in the way the employee accessed it.   As it was the defendant’s second conviction since 2006, enabling a higher maximum penalty of $200,000, but an early plea, cooperation, contrition and prompt remedial action reduced the fine.
•    The third matter involved a printer fined $9000 ofor a crush injury to a fingertip of her left hand while manually operating a book-stapling machine.

You may not know that I am a qualified safety auditor as well as being a marine biologist originally and you can implement a safety management system and even get certified to AS/NZS 4801 when you join my group training programs?

You can choose between safety, quality or environment as the basic risk that you manage in your simple and effective management system or you can do an integrated system and include safety. And you can register to join an online group course or get the Do-It-Yourself Safety for only $770 inc gst.

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Beach MD, Reg Nelson says: “It does seem plausible that the effluent mitigation requirements of hydrocarbon fields within the Cooper Basin may match up well with the feed requirements of an algae farm. Taken together, one achieves a cost effective and environmentally sound system for producing bio oils and bio fuels.

“Success will ensure that for possibly the first time in Australia’s petroleum sector, commercial production of oil and gas from a field can be matched on-site with environmentally-based by-product options able to deliver a saleable green fuel.”

I have been muttering for a long time about the potential for growing algae on sewage effluent, absorbing CO2 and using the algae as a source for bio-fuels instead of wasting food crops for this.
Algae, algae farm, bio oils, carbon dioxide, CO2, Cooper Basin, green fuel, petroleum sector, oil and gas, sewage effluent

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Plus people keep dreaming up more “green” standards.  I believe that it makes sense to stick with the only internationally recognised and robust environmental certification – ISO 14001.  And this also ties in easily with other systems like occupational safety and quality which is really customer satisfaction so that the business itself becomes more sustainable and more profitable.

This certification is recognised worldwide, by regulators and customers. It is audited consistently around the world by well qualified auditors.

I cannot see any reason for dreaming up a plethora of new certification schemes

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I became increasingly involved so that we did not lose money and I ended up managing the business when he worried himself into a breakdown.

Like so many small business people we worked almost around the clock as we grew to a $5million turnover and 17 staff.  So close to round the clock that I ended up with a mattress in my office so I got some sleep.

It could not go on like that so I studied quality assurance and implemented an ISO 9001 quality management system or AS3902 as it was called then.

Wow! This revolutionized our lives.  A lot of that growth to $5 million turnover came after I put in the system.

We stopped having errors from people who were doing their best but were run off their feet, we had a really good feedback system to sort out why things had gone wrong and we saved a heap of money by having really clear documented contracts and contract amendments

And better than all, we had well trained staff who followed procedures and this gave us TIME.

The system also reduced the risks so that we were not worrying about whether staff could make mistakes that landed us with legal issues that could put our house at risk.

Those of you who are small biz owners know only too well that raising the money you need to grow your business generally means you have ended up borrowing from yourself and it has certainly got harder over the last eighteen months.

Some of you are like we were and like clients who tell me they have sold or mortgage their houses to fund their business growth and you fully understand the fear of being only one lawsuit away from losing everything.

And you know, as we did, that a well meaning employee or contractor could easily make an error and trigger a lawsuit.

If this is you, you probably put it into the “much too hard to think about” basket and go on working your butt off.

BUT……

Wouldn’t you love to discover the peace of mind and extra time that I did back in the computer shop days?

We built a wonderful beach house with a stunning view on top of a cliff and went there every weekend and even took holidays.  We managed three weeks in New Zealand and yes, the business was still there and making money with no dramas while we were away.  What a change!

Even if you are more established and not on this treadmill, you’ve still got the time pressure and that overwhelm.

You’ve got targets to meet, meetings to go to – and they run over time making you short on time to get out that report or proposal so you end up late home and sacrifice time with your kids.

Imagine how you will feel when you have the recognition of an international standard for you business!  Imaging being congratulated by your clients and your suppliers and the envy of competitors who still think that it is too hard for them.

I remember when Hagen Stehr of Clean Seas Aquaculture now a listed company was congratulated by his Japanese clients with full page colour adverts in the paper.  How proud to you think he felt and look at how his business has grown since I helped him implement his systems!

You will have recognition from markets and regulators and the ability to access tenders and contracts out of your reach without those standards

And the big one is greater efficiency and reduced stress!  Just imagine not needing to deal with staff errors and what is even worse, covered up errors that come back to bite much worse than if they had admitted it up front.

You know you can have this and you will be surprised at how easy and time effective it is using my training and coaching programs.  You can even Do-It-Yourself!

When we left the computer shop and I decided what to do next I started helping businesses to implement the systems that had helped me so much.

In 2003 I made the change from traditional consultancy to using training courses and then online training courses that I have written and steadily improved as I get more feedback from clients and audits, both theirs and my own.

Jean Kennedy of Turf Producers told me that “We found that now we have ISO 14001 in place everything is much easier.  It sounded like a big thing at the start but it is so easy to do because of the way you have simplified it and we loved the online training because we only need to take around 50 minutes each week away from taking sales calls”

In 2010 you can have Version 7 which has been make even easier to use with straightforward one point at a time PowerPoint slides and audio files you can listen to while you commute plus I have also added videos because I want you to be able to choose the learning style that suits you best.

You have a weekly teleconference where you get your questions answered and personal help.  Version 7 has split some weeks where I know a few clients had asked for more time so it is now three five-week modules and you get an extra week of my coaching on the phone in each module.  And I am available for email questions when you need me.

Why waste any more time?  You can register for my next group starting towards the end of March

OR…..
With the version 7 launch, I have 16 only copies of my previous version ISO 14001 Do-It-Yourself training packs which normally sell for $770 inc GST including 30 minutes phone coaching.

You will get my “Green Your Business: The Do-It-Yourself Manual” book as well as all the audio files and templates.

You can have this training package for only $330 inc gst and if you want the coaching this is available for $110 extra – sorry I can’t discount my time because I am busy with my full price clients and I like spending time with my family as well..

There are a few extras here for you.  You can choose to have the latest version of the forms and manual templates for $66 and the draft version DVD of the videos to play in your computer for another $88 – they will be more after these 16 pack have sold.

This amazing bargain is only available for ISO 14001 and only for this very limited number of 16.

When they are gone, they are gone so don’t miss out.  If you choose to add the two upgrades, you are getting the full new version for only $440 +gst of $484 total

I only do past version sales when I upgrade and this has averaged once a year so don’t miss out.

Fax me on 618 8311 5233 or phone 618 8311 5232 to grab these packs before they run out

Here is a summary of the pricing:

• ISO 14001 Do-It-Yourself training pack $300
• Latest Version forms and manual templates on an extra CD $60
• Draft version DVD of the entire training program videos to play on your computer $80
• Plus 10% GST  tax if you live in Australia.
• And you can choose to buy extra one-on-one coaching any time you want when you want it.

This is the way to make your business truly sustainable

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I caught a really interesting interview on ABC 2 with Dr James Hansen of Columbia University, an atmospheric physicist who has been studying global warming for many years.

I thought this was important to share because it is different to both extremes of political opinion in this country.

His firm opinion is that we need a price on carbon, or carbon tax and that this needs to rise over time with all the proceeds going to the public and to encourage alternative power generation.

He stated that emission trading is a tax that is merely pretending there is a solution and it will achieve nothing and would be very difficult to wind back.

If we have a carbon tax instead of an ETS, we still need the ability to count the carbon involved so the work some businesses are putting in at present will not be wasted.

The guy made so much sense.

One thing he said is that coal export is like “drug dealing’ to coal addicted countries.

He also discussed nuclear power and that was interesting.  Apparently the reactors that we all worry about are type 1 and 2 but the current nuclear reactors being built are type 3 which automatically detect problems and close down with no room for human error.  Type 4 reactors are under development and will run on the waste from earlier reactors so that there will be no waste to manage.

Would you feel more comfortable if the waste issue was fully resolved for nuclear power?  I know I would.

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Apparently the Federal government has also commissioned independent modeling of production prices for different generation sources for electricity.  The data has not been released but apparently the lowest cost is geothermal, “with nuclear, gas, and coal with carbon capture and storage beating all forms of solar”.   And all prices are higher than we are currently paying.

The Australian Solar Energy Society has rejected these findings, because they say the models ignore an expected 50% or more reduction in solar costs over the next 20 years.  This does seem as though it should be considered.

One of the problems with geothermal power in particular is transmission distances between geothermal sources and our current cities.  Electric transmission has huge inefficiencies.

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Vast amounts of methane – which is 25 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide – are stored in the permafrost and scientists have long warned that, if it escapes as temperatures rise, it could greatly accelerate global warming.  But so far they have largely looked for this happening on land.

A new study, at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks has found what it describes as “a large but overlooked source of methane gas escaping from permafrost underwater”.

The researchers surveyed the waters above the 772,000 square mile East Siberian Arctic Shelf, north of Russia from 2003 to 2008 and found that some eight million tons of methane was escaping from it every year.  This is about the same as had previously been estimated to be released from all the world’s oceans.  And, the researchers also found that levels of methane in the air over the Arctic are higher than they have been for 400,000 years

Scientists had hoped the permafrost under the shelf would act as an impermeable barrier, sealing in the methane, but it is degrading because the water running down rivers flowing into the Arctic Ocean is warmer than in the past.  The sea over the shelf is no more than 50 metres deep, so that the gas reaches the surface as methane, whereas in deeper water it oxidises on the way up turning into the less harmful CO2.

More study needs to be done to see how significant this is but it could turn out to be one more piece of evidence that the effects of climate change are becoming evident faster than anyone predicted.

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