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There is such a lot of rubbish talked about sustainability. It is not only about carbon, or even about the environment.
The dictionary says sustainability is to keep going continuously.
This means preventing things that will put this thing trying to be sustainable out of balance.
So a sustainable business needs to avoid risks like cash flow issues, breaching legislation, injuring workers, failing to satisfy customers and many more. And I barely scratched the surface.
At a national level we rely on our governments to legislate to protect us from a wide range of issues including preventing pollution. And this is where the climate change debate comes in.
I completely fail to understand how some people can’t see that pouring excessive carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide into our relatively thin atmosphere is not going to be a problem.
I simply shake my head in disbelief when I read statements like the one in a email I received from Senator Cory Bernadi this week. “The idea that this government proposes to tax a colourless, odourless gas that comprises a tiny percentage of our atmosphere and is vital for life on Earth beggars belief. Of course it is been done in the name of stopping global warming - even though the Earth appears to have stopped warming over a decade ago!”
What beggars belief is that an intelligent man can believe this nonsense. I have spoken to him and yes, he actually believes it! – Blimey!!! And he is in a very influential position. Scary.
While I truly believe that we do need greenhouse emiossion control I am concerned about how the politics of this will impact on delivering a workable outcome.
I am concerned about the emphasis on carbon dioxide when methane and nitrous oxide are much more potent and long lasting greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide was focussed on in the EU because it was the easiest to fix. They closed the old Soviet era factories and put in nuclear power and made big changes relatively easily.
Australia has a much more complex problem because we are the world’s largest exporter of coal and gas and our economy is very much geared to this plus we have a huge agricultural and meat industry and ruminant animals belch tons of methane.
We have the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions of any country on the planet and with ever more coal mines and coal seam gas being developed it is rapidly getting bigger.
On February 9 the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency released new projections for Australian emissions in 2020 which showed that without further policy action emissions, 2020 would be 24% above 2000 levels. But they’re supposed to be 5% below and should really be at least 20% below.
The Department said that “Fugitive emissions from coal mines and oil and gas projects, as well as direct fuel combustion emissions from LNG projects, account for almost half of the growth in Australia's total emissions from 2010 to 2020.
There are a number of issues that I can see:
- Compensation of trade exposed industries – ok I see this and they really are under pressure with the dollar at parity. We do need to retain manufacturing in this country and not simply be a quarry for the world.
- I agree there needs to be some compensation for low income people who simply can’t afford the increase but it should not over compensate them or there is no impetus to reduce consumption. Insulation was a great idea to reduce energy costs but that was so mismanaged it won’t come in again.
- I cannot understand how they can bring in a carbon tax on one hand while on the other they are planning to DOUBLE the size of Queensland coal mining! I do not get this! I would stop all further coal expansion.
- Very importantly I have heard nothing about the impact on small business which is our major employment group in this country.
My suggestion to small business is to proactively start reducing your emissions and work on changing your staff culture. The obvious way that you can reduce your power bill is to turn things off out of working hours and reduce waste during the day and this does need staff cooperation.
I wonder if you have done the maths? 40 hour weeks, 5 days a week less public holidays means that over three quarters of the time no one is on your workplace. So what is left on, wasted because it is unused 24/7. Many people never turn their computers off at all, they just rely on then going into sleep mode – which still uses your expensive electricity. Or if they do turn off the computer, they leave on the monitor which keeps “chewing” through your power all night.
Then there are lights, and printers and even appliances in the staff kitchenette.
I do have a solution that has worked well for all those clients who have tried it.
This is a small book called “Reduce Your Carbon Footprint” that I wrote. It is just under 40 pages and you can buy the REPRINT RIGHTS so that you personalise the cover, write your own forward and put your own messages or marketing in the back pages and back cover and print unlimited copies.
This becomes YOUR book. You give it to all your workers and encourage them to take it home and reduce their own power bills plus they bring that culture change and awareness into your workplace.
You can also give them out as part of your marketing material to let your clients know that you are proactively reducing your emissions. Many markets now are looking to buy from “greener” providers.
Of course you need to address your bigger energy issues BUT unless you address the energy culture in your business you can’t reduce your expenses andt his is where my book comes in as a tool to help you do this
Here is the link again
My kindest regards,
Jean
P.S. If you want to discover more about how I could help your business and get started on reducing your risks and hassle, why not book in for Quickstart Blueprint Consultation. You send me a completed questionaire so that I am up to speed with your business and am able to give you very real value in your consultation.
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