Here we update you with the latest news from Carbon Neutral including press releases, events, product and service updates and announcements.

We also aim to keep you informed of key environmental issues, legislation, policies and research as we become aware.

ABN Group is one of Australia's leading construction companies with a strong commitment to a sustainable future.  All fourteen companies within the ABN Group were recently audited by Carbon Neutral as the first step to towards offsetting carbon emissions. The ABN Group are now proud to be offsetting 100% of emissions through trees and verified emissions reduction certificates (VERs).

14 June 2010

On April 27 the Government announced it was delaying the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), also known as the emissions trading scheme (ETS). The scheme has been dogged by hurdles since it was released and the Government hasn’t been able to get it passed through the senate. The Opposition withdrew their support of an amended version when it installed Tony Abbot as leader in place of Malcolm Turnbull. The Greens never supported it, believing its targets were too weak and assistance to big emitters too high.  Despite it being rejected twice; thereby providing the trigger for a double dissolution; the Government elected not to go to the polls on the issue.

The Government has promised we haven’t seen the last of an Australian ETS and, depending on what other large polluting countries commit to in the meantime, we could see it back in favour at the end of the first Kyoto commitment period post 2012.

Unfortunately this may not be enough to satisfy voters. With the Opposition’s scare campaign labelling the ETS as a “great big tax” getting plenty of traction, and many commentators asking why we should do anything when other countries are yet to commit, the Government probably thought the legislation was doomed in the eyes of the public.

Kevin Rudd and Penny Wong may have grossly misread the public sentiment and at the least, have shown they are capable of back-flipping on policy (and their moral convictions). Opinion polls have shown a significant drop in support for Labour since the announcement and a shift to The Greens as many voters are also not supportive of the Opposition’s climate policy.

Uncertainty over whether we will have a carbon price or not, and when that might be, is hurting the clean energy and carbon offset industry. Shortly after the CPRS delay Santos announced it would not build a proposed $800 million gas power plant in Victoria. Victoria has the largest emissions factor per kilowatt hour of electricity in Australia due to its reliance on brown coal for energy. Cleaner alternatives such as gas, which is estimated to emit 70% less greenhouse gas emissions, are available however a carbon price is needed to level the playing field.

Despite shelving the ETS the Government’s emissions targets remain unchanged. Australia is committed to reducing its emissions by at least 5% below year 2000 levels by 2020. This target could increase up to 25% if the world reaches a global agreement and other big polluters commit to similar strong targets but currently it is 5%.

It’s important to remember that the ETS is just a policy tool to achieve the reduction targets Australia commits to internationally. It’s part of a suite of initiatives to reduce the country’s emissions which includes the 20% by 2020 renewable energy target. Without an ETS we still have a commitment to reach our targets, whatever they end up being, just as we are in the process of meeting our current targets agreed to under the Kyoto Protocol (first commitment period 2008 – 2012).

Perhaps the more pertinent point here is: are our reduction targets satisfactory?

However it’s equally important to remember that all the research points to two crucial facts that underpin why we need an ETS now:

  1. The sooner we begin reducing emissions, the lower the cost to society

  2. A well designed ETS is recognised as a cost effective and flexible instrument to achieve widespread reductions

If we can get the legislation right and design a fair and equitable scheme that helps the country meet meaningful and responsible reduction targets, an ETS will benefit Australia in the low carbon global economy.

Research from Climate Works released this year shows that along with other direct measures. Meanwhile the Grattan Institute’s recent report indicates that a Australia is capable of meeting strong reduction targets at a minimal cost to society however a price on carbon is requiredcarbon price would “have only minor impacts on costs and competitiveness” for the bulk of the economy and that “much of the protection proposed for the major emissions-intensive industries [in the CPRS] is unnecessary or poorly targeted.”

In further studies by the National Institute of Economic and Industry Research it was found that if Australia adopts the 25% target, implements an ETS and invests in green technology, it can create 3.7 million jobs by 2030.

The longer Australia is without an ETS, the greater the uncertainty for industry and the higher the costs to society in the long run – a point all political parties should remember.

Research

Creating Jobs - Cutting Pollution: the roadmap for a cleaner, stronger economy, National Institute of Economic and Industry Research for the ACF and ACTU
http://www.acfonline.org.au/uploads/res/ACF_Jobs_report_190510.pdf 
 
The Low Carbon Growth Plan for Australia, ClimateWorks
http://www.climateworksaustralia.com/low_carbon_growth_plan.html 
 
Restructuring the Australian Economy to Emit Less Carbon, Grattan Institute
http://www.grattan.edu.au/programs/energy.php

28 May, 2010

The following three articles appeared in the Daily Review, the publication of the APPEA Conference & Exhibition held recently in Brisbane. Provided below is an introduction - click on the link below to read the full articles in PDF courtesy of Resolutions Group Publishing.

The Rise and Fall of the ETS

The government has abandoned its ETS policy, citing lack of domestic and international cohesion on climate change mitigation, stating implementation will be extended until after the conclusion of the current Kyoto commitment period, post-2012. Despite this, the political will to implement an ETS still exists, as evidenced by the decision of Turnbull to recontest at the next election and the subsequent fall in approval ratings for the government following its decision to put the ETS on the back-burner...

Climate Change Risk and Opportunities

Climate change presents serious risks to how we do business from a physical and operational impacts point of view, reputation, public and shareholder concerns, and legislative impacts. All of these facets combine to form the low carbon economy we find ourselves in now which, despite uncertainty at a political level around an emissions trading scheme (ETS), will only increase...

Businesses Should be Looking Ahead

Globally, economies including China, Japan, many European countries and the US are making multi-billion dollar investments in clean energy. In the US, President Obama has argued that national leadership in the clean energy sector is vital, as countries leading the clean and green energy revolution will lead the future global economy.
What Should Australian Businesses be Doing?...

Find out by clicking the link below.

13 May, 2010

Carbon Neutral first surveyed our organisation clients in early 2009. The aim is to better understand what motivates our clients, what’s important to them, and where they see value in working with Carbon Neutral to support environmental action. We gather important information about attitudes towards human induced climate change and also what we are doing well and where we can improve as an organisation.

This survey, 12 months later, allows us to compare the results of some identical questions and identify any areas where attitudes, behaviours or motivators have changed. Some questions are new or have been rephrased but where question are the same as 2009, results for both surveys are shown. The results demonstrate that there is little change in the past 12 months in our clients’ attitudes.

The survey was sent in April 2010 to 372 organisations that had donated funds to Carbon Neutral in the previous 12 months.

It attracted 120 participants of which 101 completed every question. This represents a response rate of over 30%.

The results show us that concerns around climate change and greenhouse gas emissions continue to be strong motivators for action, as does corporate social responsibility (CSR). The reputation of Carbon Neutral ranked highest overall amongst factors organisations considered were important when choosing to work with us, while carbon offset accreditation was a close second. This could indicate that many of the participants offset with accredited verified emissions reductions (VERs).

Overall our clients are very satisfied with the level of service they receive and all respondents indicated they would recommend us to others which is a sound endorsement for Carbon Neutral.

Improved company image by working with Carbon Neutral is proving important for organisations with 82% of respondents indicating they received high value in that area.

Encouragingly the results show overwhelmingly that climate scepticism is not prevalent amongst clients with almost 60% of participating organisations’ saying senior management strongly believe in human induced climate change. In many respects, this is to be expected given that these organisations are already taking environmental action so the results have some bias.

Another encouraging sign is that many organisations indicated they are doing further work on environmental and carbon management within their organisation with 76% indicating they had completed or were in progress of actively planning to reduce emissions.

On the whole the results of the survey were encouraging for Carbon Neutral as a company but also for the carbon industry. Despite uncertainty at a government level, concerns over climate change and greenhouse gas emissions continue to be a strong motivating theme for companies to work with us and organisations see value in demonstrating they are taking action in these areas. 

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO DOWNLOAD THE SURVEY REPORT

25 April, 2010

On 22 April 2010 Carbon Neutral Business Development Manager, Chris Doherty, was guest speaker at the Subsea Energy Australia breakfast meeting in Perth. Chris presented an insightful talk that covered the current state of Australian and international regulations, carbon management strategies, means to offset or reduce carbon emissions and the opportunities and risks that exist for companies operating in a low carbon business environment. The presentation was well received and off particular interest was the difference between the current Labour Government's carbon tax and the Liberal opposition's Direct Action plan as well The Greens’ interim carbon tax proposal.

The presentation also covered business implications of a cost on carbon and outlined strategies companies need to implement to prepare themselves. Another key feature was research from ClimateWorks on how Australia can reach its top level target of reducing emissions by 25% below 2000 levels by 2020. The research shows this can be achieved at an average cost of around $185 per household per year and with current technologies while not altering our economic mix or lifestyle. However a price on carbon is required to achieve this target.

The underlying theme was that despite uncertainty around an emissions trading scheme at a national level, or the difference between carbon legislation by various political parties, we are already operating in a carbon constrained world. Australia’s Kyoto reduction targets, our targets under the Copenhagen Accord and legislation such as the Energy Efficiency Opportunities (EEO) programme and the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Act are testament to this, and businesses need to be prepared for ever increasing carbon constraints in business.

Energy is set to cost us all significantly more over time and it is clear that conducting an energy audit will not only identify ways to reduce energy wasted, it will save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Let's have a look at an example, the Alexander Library in Perth Western Australia.

Alexander Library is a seven storey that consumes large amounts of energy (primarily electricity) due to the complex operation of the building, extended operating hours and the complexity of installed plant.  The library has a treated floor area of 25,700m² with various activities occurring within its boundaries.  An energy audit conducted at Alexander Library identified energy efficiency activities that were expected to save the organisation just over $73,400 annually with a return on investment of three years.  The audit looked at key energy consuming activities on site including heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC), chiller plant, lighting systems and humidification levels within the archive room.

HVAC and Chiller Plant

The HVAC system and chiller plant was upgraded from pneumatic controls to digital controls.  These digital controllers resulted in greater integration into the building management system thereby allowing improved adjustment of set point temperatures monitoring of energy consumption.

Control and Supply of Air Volume

Fresh air is supplied to a building for health reasons and to control humidity and other environmental conditions.  The air handling system controls this air supply via an inlet guide vane which regulates the pressure of the compressor.  This method has been utilised for many years, however more efficient variable speed drives were installed to reduce the energy consumption.  Variable speed drives consume less energy than the standard inefficient control technologies and although they have a large capital cost, the savings provide rapid payback on investments.

Lighting Controls

The Alexander Library Atrium has large amounts of glazing allowing natural lighting to enter the building.  The artificial lighting system however, remained fully powered and operational even when sufficient natural lighting was available.  Photo-electric cells were installed to dim the artificial lights when sufficient natural lighting became available saving significant energy.

Humidification

Archiving of books and documents requires exact humidification and temperature control, different to that required within standard space conditioning.  Originally, the archive area of the Alexander Library was not segregated from other office areas.  As such a lot of energy was being wasted trying to maintain the desired archive conditions via the HVAC system.  Additional thermal loads coming from the office area meant that the specific conditions within the archive area were maintained at a higher energy consumption and cost.  By segregating the archive rooms from the office spaces, significant energy savings was be made.

As shown above, it is essential to conduct an energy audit to identify opportunities for savings.  If your business is interested in saving money and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, contact Carbon Neutral today!

1 April, 2010

Embedding carbon management into the organisational culture and processes of a business can reap financial rewards, reduce risk, open up new opportunities and engage staff and stakeholders. Much of this can be achieved a low or no cost to businesses and indeed should result in a healthy payback measurable against multiple indicators.

Cost Savings and Strategic Advantage

A survey of SMEs in Victoria conducted by the National Centre for Sustainability at Swinburne University of Technology from May to December 2009 found that 71% of businesses that developed an emissions inventory identified opportunities for cost savings. An emissions inventory will help businesses understand not only what their carbon footprint and energy use is, but where it’s coming from. This data is crucial when developing a strategy to reduce energy use - and subsequently emissions – that is practical and achievable.

Having an updated emissions inventory is important for other reasons. We are beginning to see the regulatory stick being waved at companies to manage their carbon footprint.

Mid 2009 marked the end of the first reporting period for the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Act which requires certain corporations to report on their energy use or greenhouse gas emissions. Those corporations which meet certain thresholds for energy use or emissions from a facility or a corporate group they control are legally required to report on these emissions to the Department of Climate Change annually. Thresholds are coming down each year so more and more companies are required to report.

A ‘controlling corporation’s’ group may include subsidiaries, joint ventures and partnerships and include certain contractor and sub contractor emissions from those groups or facilities. While your company may be relatively small and not likely to be captured under the NGER Act anytime soon, you may be undertaking work for a controlling group or facility that is required to report and you may find yourself being asked probing questions about your emissions and energy use for that work. Reporting requirements may even be stipulated in contracts. Ensuring you have systems in place to capture and report this information will be important. As always, those that move first and prepare themselves will be best positioned to comply with these requirements and subsequently, win more contracts.

Risk Management

With electricity prices rising and the likelihood of a carbon constrained economy through a CPRS or carbon tax of some sort within the next 3 years, a carbon inventory can help businesses to assess their exposure to these impacts.

Furthermore, businesses that are supplying goods and services to companies that are undertaking the same process you may be requested to provide this information. These potential impacts represent a risk to businesses that investors and other stakeholders will want to know are being addressed.

Key Part of a Sustainability Strategy

Good carbon management ought to be a key aspect of an overarching sustainability strategy which should ensure a company operates in a way that is environmentally, economically and socially responsible. Further opportunities to reduce costs and achieve gains financially and strategically can be realised when a company embraces a thorough sustainability strategy.

A study by the National Environmental Education Foundation in the USA this year found that sustainability practices within large companies can contribute to a profit increase of 38%. Additionally, losing and replacing a good employee costs companies between 70% and 200%of an employee’s annual salary. Retaining and attracting good staff is essential to the success of any business and research shows that companies with strong sustainability and environmental profiles have more success in these areas and therefore save costs and increase efficiency.

Knowledge Gaps

Market research in Victoria by Carbon Down - a partnership between the Victorian Employers' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI) and the Victorian Government – on ‘businesses’ climate change knowledge, attitudes and behaviours’ last year indicated that businesses are implementing the easy, low cost and obvious actions that reduce carbon emissions but the majority stop there either believing no further action is needed, is costly or they don’t know what else to do.

This is understandable because for many companies, deciphering all this information, getting their head around regulations and best practice, and understanding the myriad of programmes that area available can be complicated, time consuming and take away from core business. The Carbon Down research reveals that the motivators for businesses to take action were fairly evenly split between ‘environmental or ethical’ - i.e. doing the right thing - and ‘cost savings or improving profitability’. The research also clearly indicates that businesses are concerned about their environmental impact and believe they should take action to address this. This seems to demonstrate that they want to do the right thing and they know the straightforward steps to take, but the majority are unaware of the opportunities that a more detailed carbon management plan can provide and how to go about it.

Get the Right Help

Doing the simple practical things – or picking the low hanging fruit as it’s known - such as switching off computers at the end of the day, changing light bulbs and recycling are all good things to do. These efforts should save money and reduce environmental impacts but there are more opportunities available to organisations if they dig a bit deeper - however finding the right partner and getting the right advice is crucial to ensuring your efforts are not wasted and you maximise your bang for your buck.

Furthermore, simply doing one-off projects can be detrimental to a business. Businesses invest time and effort (if not costs) to implement these actions and should aim to embed them into already existing processes and procedures to streamline the process. Increasing operational efficiency and reducing costs through energy reduction can only be achieved consistently when this approach is taken.

But it’s worth the effort to approach it properly because the gains are there to be had. The Climate Institute’s National Strategy for Energy Efficiency states that energy efficiency could reduce energy use by up to 70% in the commercial sector and up to 46% in manufacturing industries.

 

Businesses should also consider who they want to partner with to develop these programmes. Third party endorsement can be important for consumers with regards to the claims businesses make. Switching on Citizen Power, a project by Net Balance Foundation and Account Ability with LRQA in 2008, found that 78% of consumers [in Australia] want green claims backed up by proof from independent third parties such as environmental groups.

Get Started

In order to effectively capitalise on opportunities, businesses must adopt a systematic approach to carbon management and sustainability. They need to partner with a trusted organisation that can take them through a step by step process that fits the culture of the organisation and is aligned to international and Australian standards.
A programme which measures the carbon footprint, identifies site-specific opportunities for reductions, measures the cost and payback of each action (known as the marginal cost of abatement), establishes a systems for monitoring progress and also provides offsetting options for businesses will result in a robust carbon management strategy that will achieve multiple outcomes.

18 March, 2010

In 2009, a group of eight leading scientists – led by Professor Will Steffen of the ANU Climate Change Institute – warned in a report to the Australian Government that climate change presents a threat to our biodiversity ‘equivalent to those of the abrupt geological events that triggered the great waves of extinction in the past’. This special Focus highlights extracts from the report, now published as a book.

At the beginning of the 21st century, Australia’s biodiversity is under considerable pressure. Our continent’s rate of species extinctions is high in comparison with most other parts of the world, and many more species are on trajectories towards extinction.

Although many are familiar with the historic record of change in Australia’s biodiversity (due to clearing and farming, grazing rangelands, introducing exotic animals and plants, redirecting water resources, using fertilisers and other chemicals, changing fire regimes, urbanisation, mining, and harvesting resources such as fish and wood), the fact that these changes continue to unfold is fundamental to this assessment. The additional effects of climate change will exacerbate these current threats and cause unprecedented, additional stresses in their own right.

The Earth is warming rapidly – with human-driven increases in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations the primary cause – and climate change is likely to accelerate in the future.

Plants, animals and micro-organisms are already responding to climate change and will continue to do so. In the longer term, biodiversity is much less able to adapt to these and other climate changes than human systems. Rising temperatures and greater extremes of temperature will significantly affect many species. Some are likely to become extinct.

There is a limit above which biodiversity will become increasingly vulnerable to climate change even with the most effective adaptation measures possible. Global average temperature increases of 1.5 or 2.0°C above preindustrial levels – and we are already committed to an increase of around 1.2 or 1.3°C – will likely lead to a massive loss of biodiversity worldwide.

Thus, the mitigation issue is central to biodiversity conservation under climate change. To avoid an inevitable wave of extinctions in the second half of the century, deep cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions are required by 2020 at the latest.

15 February, 2010

The Federal Government continues to negotiate with anyone they can to get their key climate change policy tool, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), passed through the Senate. The legislation has twice been voted down and with the Government needing support from seven non-government senators to win a vote, the future of the scheme is in doubt and increases uncertainty for Australian businesses.

The emissions trading scheme (ETS), which is built around a cap and trade framework, relies on making the country’s biggest polluters pay for their greenhouse gas emissions. The scheme has not been popular amongst voters who have struggled to understand the details of the scheme and are concerned about the impact on the cost of living.

It’s fair to say the Opposition have succeeded in raising the concerns of the general public claiming the scheme is one big tax which won’t help the environment. The government, meanwhile, have promised to reimburse low and middle income families for the expected rise in consumer costs such as electricity from the billions that will be raised as polluting companies pay for their emissions.

Following negotiations at Copenhagen which failed to result in a legally binding international treaty committing individual countries to reduce emissions by significant levels, the government is sticking to its original reduction targets of 5 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has reaffirmed the government’s position that they will not commit to stronger targets (up to 25%) unless the US and major developing country polluters such as India and China do the same.

The Opposition collation led by Tony Abbott released their climate change strategy in early February claiming it can meet the same 5 per cent target by targeting agricultural carbon projects. Abbott is proposing to use public funds to buy cheap carbon offsets from forestry and soil carbon and voluntary emissions reductions from business. The plan seems weak on detail and has been roundly criticised by the government and the Greens alike with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd claiming it will transfer the financial burden of meeting the targets from big business to taxpayers.

The Opposition plan does not put a cap on emissions and has led to concerns that it encourages a business as usual approach to carbon pollution within business and may in fact result in an increase in Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. Analysts have panned the Opposition’s proposed scheme and labelled it deeply flawed.

If the legislation is again voted down in the Upper House of the Senate the Government may call a double-dissolution election allowing it to, if it wins, pass the bill into law when it resumes the new term. Polls show the public’s support of the CPRS is dwindling but the Government appears committed to getting it through.

The Australian Conservation Foundation, meanwhile, has urged political leaders to get serious in tackling climate change: “It’s time our leaders delivered serious action on climate change and  put a limit on the amount of greenhouse pollution we create by enacting strong laws with financial incentives”.

Energy efficiency technologies in buildings are fairly well understood these days however several prevailing market failures have limited the widespread implementation within many commercial offices.  Recently the Warren Centre at the University of Sydney set up the Low Energy High Rise (LEHR) project to identify ways to increase the uptake of energy and water efficiency initiatives.  The project surveyed high performing organisations to see how they overcame these market failures to achieve substantial energy efficiency improvements.  Three (3) surveys were conducted to establish a correlation between technology, management and performance of buildings and which factors were most important.

Essentially the findings indicated that  buildings perform better when managers undertake regular incremental upgrades and focus on eliminating older technologies, supporting a strong potential for retrofit upgrades.  Additionally, buildings tend to perform better when energy efficiency performance is strongly supported by management and are measured and reported  indicating that a level of positive engagement is correlated with improved efficiency.

An overview of the impacts in terms in NABERS stars is shown below:

Based on Dr Paul Bannister's (MD of Exergy Australia) assessment of the LEHR project data as reported in WME Environment Business Magazine (Vol 20, Number 11 Dec 2009), an organisation that measures, reports, engages staff and management can achieve substantial energy efficiency improvements.  In most cases, 4 stars are feasible without changing heating, ventilation and cooling technologies, which "...illustrates the strong potential for retrofit upgrades in the building stock rather than knock-down and rebuild".

The upshot of all this is if your organisation wants to improve its energy efficiency thus reducing its carbon footprint, it will need to incorporate measurement and comprehensive staff and management engagement.  For a comprehensive approach you can review Carbon Neutral's Four Step Carbon Reduction Programme which covers all these requirements in a cost effective and practical manner.

2 February, 2010

The winding up of Greenhouse FriendlyTM and the uncertainty over the CPRS leave the Australian voluntary carbon offset market without a clear accreditation label despite the introduction of the National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS).

Believing the CPRS would come into force in mid 2010, the government has instigated the winding up of the Greenhouse FriendlyTM programme, the Department of Climate Change’s initiative to accredit voluntary carbon offsets and certify carbon neutral products and services.

In early 2009 it was announced that Greenhouse Friendly would finish by 1 June 2010 – the same date the CPRS was supposed to begin. In December last year the government finally released – one year late – the National Carbon Offset Standard which was designed to, in some ways, take over from Greenhouse Friendly. The problem is the standard largely relies on the CPRS to provide the mechanisms for certifying offsets which, with a CPRS in place, would only come from reforestation initially.

Now with the CPRS start date delayed 12 months and real uncertainty about it coming in at all, there exists a policy gap meaning there in no accreditation framework after July 1 to approve local carbon offsets.

The NCOS outlines the standards for offsets that will be accepted for the purpose of voluntarily offsetting under its framework. These include a mixture of international Kyoto Protocol offsets (CERs, ERUs, RMUs), two strong international voluntary standards (Gold Standard, Voluntary Carbon Standard) and Australian Emissions Units generated under an ETS. There are currently no VCS projects listed in Australia likewise there are no Australian based Gold Standard VER projects or projects eligible for Kyoto Protocol credits here.

Therefore if Australian companies want to offset emissions under the Standard they will be forced to support projects generated overseas in the absence of a local framework.

Of course the NCOS is not a mandatory standard and there are numerous quality domestic offset projects which provide a range of co-benefits to the environment. However credibility is a key issue for the voluntary market and its essential the government acts quickly to provide some certainty to organisations participating in the market to address this policy vacuum.