Queensland’s Low Carbon Leaders
Queensland is holding a Climate Summit this coming week, in conjunction with the Climate Group, featuring a range of top speakers and bringing Government and business together to address issues and opportunities. Minister of Climate Change and Sustainability Kate Jones leads a session “Positioning Queensland Businesses as Low Carbon Leaders”.
On Wednesday 4 November, Queensland holds its first Climate Summit:
A decade ago it was the digital economy that fundamentally changed the way we operate and do business across borders. Those forecasts of the growth and impact of a virtual economy have become a reality.
As we approach the end of the first decade in the twenty-first century, the low carbon economy is emerging, partly out of necessity and partly as a result of greater awareness on climate change, and is beginning to have a noticeable economic impact.
What was previously associated with problems of high-cost and inefficiency is rapidly becoming a high-growth industry where profits and returns are increasingly attractive.
Prospering in the new low carbon economy is essentially making business-sense of climate change. Fundamentally it is transitioning from a cost-based efficiency approach into realising new growth opportunities in alternative investment, technology and production.
With the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen only a month away, the conference will provide a timely focus on the imminent changes that may arise from a new Global Deal on greenhouse emissions reductions, what it will mean for Queensland and how the State can take advantage of business opportunities and continue to play a leadership role.
Speakers include:
Hon Anna Bligh MP, Premier of Queensland
Hon Kate Jones MP, Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability
Hon Andrew Fraser MP, Treasurer and Minister for Employment and Economic Development
Hon Stirling Hinchliffe MP, Minister for Infrastructure and Planning
Hon Tim Mulherin MP, Treasurer and Minister for Primary Industries, Fisheries and Rural and Regional Queensland
Prof Tim Flannery, Macquarie University
Steve Howard, CEO, The Climate Group
David Beards, Company Secretary, Bunnings
Robert Hill, Chair, Carbon Trust
Susan Johnston, Special Advisor on Climate Change, Anglo Coal Australia
Peter Hanley, Division Director, Utilities & Climate Change, Macquarie Capital Advisers
Nathan Fabian, CEO, Investor Group on Climate Change
Doug McTaggart, CEO, Queensland Investment Corp
Michael Gill, Director of Internet Services Group, CISCO
Ben Keneally, Head of External Affairs, Better Place Australia
Rick Humphries, Director, Carbon Greening Australia

ABOUT THE ORGANISERS
THE °CLIMATE GROUP is the world’s leading international NGO focused exclusively on the solutions to climate change. The °Climate Group partners with the most influential leaders from businesses and governments, helping them to take a leadership position on climate change, facilitating stronger collaboration on market mechanisms and policy development, and communicating successes with a particular focus on the links between reduced greenhouse gas emissions and improved financial and economic performance.
Using the work of these leaders as a catalyst, The °Climate Group accelerates international action on climate change with a strong focus on practical
solutions. We promote the development and sharing of expertise on how business and government can lead the way towards a Low Carbon Economy while boosting profitability and competitiveness.
The °Climate Group is also independent and politically neutral – a vital component of our ability to be authoritative and influential. Although we have very close working relationships with and value the support of government and business, we place great importance on remaining free of influence from any sector. It is for these reasons that corporate and government leaders seek us out to convene events, advise on strategy, provide information on solutions, and help forge new partnerships at the highest levels.
www.theclimategroup.org
The Queensland Government has a strong track record of leadership on climate change, and has committed to doing its part in meeting the national target of a 60 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2000 levels by 2050. Queensland launched its first climate change strategy, ClimateSmart 2050, in July 2007 which provided $1.4 billion in investments.
In August 2009, the Queensland Government launched its updated climate change strategy, ClimateQ: Toward a greener Queensland. The ClimateQ strategy consolidates and updates the approaches taken in ClimateSmart 2050 and sets out the next crucial steps in Queensland’s response to climate change.
Importantly, ClimateQ complements the Commonwealth’s CPRS and the national Renewable Energy Target by starting to prepare key economic sectors for the future and encourage emissions reductions at least cost to the economy. Through ClimateSmart 2050 and ClimateQ strategies, Queensland has an extensive suite of initiatives – both new and ongoing – to help mange Queensland’s transition to a lower carbon future.
www.climatechange.qld.gov.au/
Also on the same day, Wednesday 4 November there’s an important public forum in Brisbane, initiated by Climate Connectors:
There has been plenty of scaremongering from big polluters about action on climate change and jobs, but the truth is that Australia can create hundreds of thousands of new clean energy jobs if we move forward.

Please join us in Brisbane next Wednesday 4 November for an important public forum on climate change and jobs. Speakers will include:
• Sharan Burrow (President, ACTU)
• Don Henry (Executive Director, Australian Conservation Foundation)
• Clare Martin (CEO, Australian Council of Social Services)
• John Connor (CEO, The Climate Institute)

Wednesday 4 November
9:30am (morning tea provided) Presentation to begin at 10:00am
2nd floor, TLC Building
16 Peel St, South Brisbane

Source: www.climateconnectors.org

Challenge for Long-term Sustainability
The Sustainability Challenge is a revolutionary new training and auditing tool that will assist organisations and communities in the shift to long-term sustainability, says Anne Maree Huxley, CEO of Models of Success and Sustainability (MOSS), who will be in Brisbane for the launch on Thursday 5 November.
It will prepare managers, employees and stakeholders through a process of introspection to transition their organisation from a culture of short term take, make and waste to one of long term sustainability – a survival imperative for organisations operating in a world of increasingly scarce resources.
Leveraging the successful Challenge Methodology, the Sustainability Challenge will develop essential understanding and capability around complex issues such as emissions reduction, sustainable supply chains and social responsibility whilst auditing one’s cultural attitudes towards sustainability. The tool can also be used to help organisations develop a sustainability road map of organisational priorities. More…
Sustainability Challenge events have already been help in Melbourne and Sydney. After Brisbane (5 November), Perth will feature on 25 November. Plans are in hand for further events in Canberra, Hobart and Adelaide
Moss announces Winning Trust and Credibility Workshop Series:
Never has the demand for responsible business been so great with confidence in the corporate world now at an all-time low. If ever there was a convincing business case for corporate social responsibility, the time is right now as companies scramble to win trust from increasingly sceptical and doubtful stakeholders.
Credibility is crucial to success in an era where business in under such intense scrutiny. The building of solid stakeholder relationships is a critical component of every company’s license to operate.
Australia and the world is asking profound questions about the fundamental values and ethics of commerce. Companies are under mounting pressure to prove their reliability on everything from environmental responsibility and social and social accountability, as well as their financial integrity.
Tackling these urgent issues, two of the world’s pre-eminent experts in corporate social responsibility are staging a series of one-day workshops across Australia in a bid to help companies develop credible strategies to address escalating stakeholder expectations.
Led by international CSR and sustainability specialists Ian Heath and Jonathan Wootliff, these two former civil society leaders who now advise major multinational corporations in Asia, Europe and the USA, are coming to Australia for the 2009 Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Leadership Workshop series.
MOSS invites you to attend one of these limited-capacity events:
PERTH Monday 23 November – MELBOURNE Wednesday 25 November – BRISBANE Friday 27 November – SYDNEY Monday 30 November
2010 Dates are as follows:
ADELAIDE Tuesday 9 March – PERTH Thursday 11 March – MELBOURNE Monday 15 March – SYDNEY Wed 17 March – BRISBANE Friday 19 March
Registration opens daily at 8.45am with all events running from 9am -5pm. Please note all venues are CBD and will be confirmed upon registration. EARLY BIRD CLOSES 1 MONTH PRIOR TO EVENT so book today to avoid disappointment as numbers are strictly limited.
Join us in Copenhagen
The countdown is on and preparations are well underway for COP 15 at the UNFCCC in Copenhagen.
MOSS has secured a limited number of tickets for Australian Business representatives interested in attending the UNFCCC in Copenhagen. Be part of the debate. Hear first hand what the world leaders, business community and academia have to say on topics such as mitigation, technology and carbon trading at the UNFCCC.
If you would like to join MOSS in Copenhagen, our delegation will attend from 14th – 18th December. We recommend flying out of Australia Saturday 12th December with a day to rest, register (you will be photographed for a security name tag) and receive a briefing before 5 gruelling days of days and nights of meetings and activities. The event runs from the 7th – 18th December and you can attend for the full duration, however it is a heavy schedule and 5 days is usually sufficient to make the most of your registration.
Without a doubt it’s networking heaven for anyone in the sustainability sector. In Bali we had access to the most up to date thought leadership and insight from Economists such as Lord Stern, Environmental activists such Al Gore, leading climate scientists from the IPCC and city Mayors such as Michael Bloomberg Lord Mayor of New York, as part of the C40 initiative discussions.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has confirmed his attendance and will be encouraging other world leaders to also attend. President Obama has also indicated he will attend. The side events and exhibitions will be extensive covering the latest technology and know how.
Source: www.moss.org.au

Green Campus Saves Millions
Harvard University started with small-scale pilot projects to build momentum for its Green Campus initiative, which now saves the institution more than US$7 million a year, according to the program’s founding director, Leith Sharp.
CE Daily Reports (23 October 2009):
Harvard University started with small-scale pilot projects to build momentum for its Green Campus initiative, which now saves the institution more than US$7 million ($7.6 million) a year, according to the program’s founding director, Leith Sharp.
Sharp told a Sydney seminar that environmental issues were “marginalised” at Harvard when she joined as Green Campus director in 2000.
In the 15 years preceding her appointment, greenhouse gas emissions at the university had risen 60% as a result of increased computer use, growing demand for air-conditioning, and an expansion of energy-intensive laboratories.
The only way she could convince the university’s “fiscally conservative” deans to part with funding for sustainability initiatives was if they could see a clear return on their investment.
So Sharp set about developing a business case for various sustainability initiatives with a demonstrable payback, including behavioural changes for staff and students, a shift to environmental procurement, and small-scale infrastructure upgrades.
After delivering on these, she was able to procure more money to fund additional staff for sustainability projects that would make more savings.
By 2009, Harvard’s Green Campus team had grown from a staff of one to employ 24 people full-time at a cost of US$2.2 million a year, who are delivering direct annual savings to the university of US$7 million, earning it recognition in various sustainability indexes as the greenest campus in the U.S.
‘Start with small-scale pilot projects’
Sharp said the starting point for a sustainability program should be small scale, short term pilot projects, “things that feel manageable for people given their immediate context”.
“At Harvard we piloted everything. People would initially say, ‘Oh no I couldn’t use biodiesel or ‘No way, I can’t do green cleaning’.
“We’d come back and say, ‘why don’t we just try it in one building? Why don’t we try it in one bus for one month?’”
“Now we have all of the buses using biodiesel, most of the cleaning services are using green cleaning strategies, most projects now use ground source heat pumps [and] more and more projects are using solar-thermal,” said Sharp.
She said staff and students all over the campus are now coming up with their own ideas for pilot projects.
“You get to a stage where the culture has shifted enough that the core energy and motivation no longer sits within the sustainability team, it’s become everybody’s role,” she said.
“The savings become absolutely extraordinary once you get to that level of engagement across the institution.”
‘Work to perfect the green building process’
The bulk of Harvard’s $7 million annual savings came from infrastructure upgrades, Sharp told CE Daily after the seminar.
These range from small-scale lighting, heating, ventilation and cooling projects to mid-range building management system upgrades and more extensive green building renovations.
While the first green building projects incurred an added cost, over time the Green Campus team streamlined the design and construction process, getting all the stakeholders involved earlier so their ideas could be integrated earlier – and therefore more cheaply.
“You’re not going to find that in the very first project you do, the first couple of projects are really where you start to learn your lessons,” she said.
‘Change behaviours and add capacities’
The Green Campus team also realised very significant savings from behavioural changes. A program encouraging students in residential dorms to switch off lights delivered annual savings of US$300,000 to US$400,000 a year, while programs in the laboratories educating students to use fume hoods properly saved US$200,000 to US$300,000 a year.
“Improving people’s capacities also generated some substantial savings,” she told CE Daily.
“We had a lot of building managers who didn’t know how to operate their direct digital controls that were responsible for managing building systems, so we would train them.”
Since 2001, a Green Campus loan fund of US$12 million interest-free capital has so far lent out US$14.5 million on more than 180 one-off infrastructure upgrades and behavioural change projects, with a 27% average return on investment.
‘Consider the full life cycle of projects’
Sharp stressed the importance of shifting people’s mindsets from “low first cost” to life cycle costing.
“It is a method of project evaluation in which all costs arising from owning, operating, maintaining and ultimately disposing of a project over an agreed period are accounted for and converted into today’s dollars,” she said.
“Decide on the thing that has overall financial effectiveness over that long timeframe, not just the cheaper one up front.”
‘Don’t under-resource your sustainability team’
Sharp told CE Daily that without the right level of investment in staffing capacity to engage with people on the issues, change behaviours and add capacities, a sustainability program will fail.
“Your typical organisation will fund one environment manager or sustainability director and wish them luck,” she said.
“That’s going to be enough for them to have a presence and to claim a level of interest in sustainability, but it won’t be anywhere near enough for them to actually reap the scale of achievement and cost effectiveness they could.”
At Harvard – an organisation of close to 50,000 people – a change management team of 24 full-time professionals was “about the right scale”, she said.
Source: www.cedaily.com.au

Emissions Scheme Tough on Miners
Australia’s key export industries will face the toughest emissions trading scheme in the world, even if all the Coalition amendments are adopted by the Government. This is the finding of new analysis, says Mitchell Hooke, CEO of the Minerals Council of Australia.
Australia’s CPRS, even if amended, will still be world’s toughest
Statement from Mitchell Hooke, Chief Executive Officer, Minerals Council of Australia
Australia’s key export industries will face the toughest emissions trading scheme in the world even if all the Coalition amendments are adopted by the Government.
That is the finding of a new analysis comparing key provisions of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme and the European Union’s emissions trading scheme.
The analysis prepared by BAEconomics applies the European Union’s eligibility rules for transitional assistance for trade exposed firms to Australian industry. It shows that up to 38 Australian business sectors that will confront the full CPRS energy tax would be shielded if they were located in the European Union.
These 38 sectors include food processing, manufacturing, automotive exports, mining and minerals processing.
This comprehensively debunks claims that Australian industry and exporters will be given an easy ride under the CPRS as it is currently designed, or if it includes the Coalition amendments.
The analysis shows that the CPRS provisions to protect the competitiveness of Australia’s trade exposed firms are much narrower than the EU scheme. The report identifies dozens of sectors where European firms will face a much lower burden than their Australian competitors.
The BAEconomics report makes it possible to compare support provided by i) the CPRS, ii) the CPRS with Coalition amendments and iii) the assistance that would be provided if Australia adopted EU rules.
If Australia adopted the EU criteria for maintaining market share and jobs, Australian exports worth around $145 billion would be shielded from the full CPRS energy tax.
That represents around 70 per cent of the value of Australia’s top 25 exports, which were worth about $206 billion to the economy in 2008.
Under the CPRS, Australian exports worth just $30 billion will receive partial ‘shielding’ from the full impact of the proposed new energy tax.
That represents just 15 per cent of Australia’s top 25 exports.
Under the CPRS with the Coalition amendments, exports worth $100 billion will receive shielding from the full impact of the scheme. That represents nearly 50 per cent of the value of Australia’s top 25 exports.
The analysis further demonstrates that the CPRS, in its current form, is out of step with international practice. Unless the CPRS is better aligned with global efforts to reduce emissions, it will simply result in lost international competitiveness and carbon leakage as international customers source minerals from lower cost producers.
If these flaws are not addressed, the economic consequences of this policy failure will be felt most acutely in regional Australia where 1 in 4 jobs is dependent on exports.
The Coalition amendments address many of the flaws in the CPRS, including by expanding the number of sectors that will face a lower rate of the energy tax until other nations take on matching commitments.
But any watering down of these amendments would, by definition, increase the level of competitive disadvantage faced by Australian industry and exporters, and thus increase the prospect of thousands of lost jobs in Australia’s export sectors.
The BAEconomics report can be found on the Minerals Council website.
Source: www.minerals.org.au

Smart Grid, Cleantech & Green Chips
It was yet another good week for cleantech in the United States, with President dedicating US$3.4 billion to further advancing smart grid development and with bullish news coming from the financial realms, according to Green Chip Review Editor Nick Hodge.
On Tuesday, the President made the largest single Recovery Act announcement to date, dedicating $3.4 billion to further advancing smart grid development. The money — paid in grants of up to $200 million each — will go to pay for as many as 18 million smart meters across the country.
That announcement sent many smart grid stocks to one-day, double-digit gains. It also foreshadowed great earnings in the same sector. . . Seemingly on cue, Enersys (NYSE: ENS), Itron (NASDAQ: ITRI), and American Superconductor (NASDAQ: AMSC) all released positive earnings reports this week. The latter climbed over 20% in one day!
And the good news didn’t stop there, as cleantech continued to prove it can combat recession, create jobs, and stoke portfolios. . .
German solar firm SMA Solar Technology announced it is opening a $22 million factory in Colorado. Fisker Automotive announced plans for spending $528 million to overhaul an automotive manufacturing plant it bought from the now-bankrupt GM as part of a stimulus-funded deal.
In fact, the results of cleantech funding have been so fruitful that Obama signed another spending bill into law this week — a bill that will push another $33.5 billion into everything from solar research to energy efficiency and flood control.
Just hours later, Obama’s signing was followed by a Reuters report stating that solar executives from Suntech, Sharp, and BP are “bullish on 2010.” According to the report, “Executives cited various forces that could drive growth in 2010, including U.S. stimulus funds for green projects, extended tax incentives and new financing.”
Of course, we’ll be ready to capitalize on that bullishness as it plays out.
More from Green Chip:
What are Global Acres?: Global Acres & Ecological Footprints
Green Chip Contributing Editor Emily Rutan defines global acres for readers and discusses what our total world ecological footprint means for the planet’s biocapacity.
Solar Rights: A Solar Bill of Rights
Green Chip’s Jeff Siegel reports on the Solar Power International Conference this week, as the Solar Energy Industries Association details a “Solar Bill of Rights.”
Smart Grid Investments: A Smart Grid Recap for Investors
Energy & Capital Editor Nick Hodge discusses smart grid investments by compiling his recent works on the subject.
Super Start-Ups: Get In Now on this $297-billion- a-year Market
Tech giants like Cisco Systems and Google will share billions of gov’t stimulus dollars and make tens of billions in profit as the smart grid develops. . . but the real money is in start-up companies. There’s still profit to be had in these super start-ups. . . if you act soon.
Solar Energy Stocks: The Truth about Solar
Editor Nick Hodge discusses solar energy stocks, including the rampant misinformation disseminated about the sector.
Veolia Environnement Stock: French Company’s Water and Transit Projects Boost the Big Easy
Editor Sam Hopkins reports from New Orleans on the city’s continuing Katrina recovery efforts and the French company being paid to finally get the job done.
23 Energy Companies You Should Know About: Share Prices to Pop from Gov’t Slush-fund Boost
Knowing how much funding each company gets — and when — will be worth its weight in gold. We’ll share with you this little-known list of companies in line to receive big dollars, and how you can profit from their government funding.
Smart Grid Development: $3.4 Billion for Smart Grid Development
Nick Hodge is a regular contributor to Green Chip Review and Energy & Capital.
One of the bright young minds in today’s cleantech industry, Nick is putting his knowledge of nascent green markets to use in several ways. . .
He’s the Managing Editor of Alternative Energy Speculator, an investment advisory service focused on taking advantage of every aspect of cleaner energy, from the stop-gap companies that are making a fortune lowering carbon emissions to makers of more fuel efficient engines and other technologies that will help the U.S. successfully build a bridge from current fuel to the energy of the future.
Nick also runs Green Chip International, which is dedicated to giving you the sharpest insight, not just into clean technology trends but also the geopolitical context that makes markets move.
A featured guest on Canada’s Business News Network and Yahoo!’s Tech Ticker, Nick is also very interested in uncovering the massive profit opportunities associated with a growing lack of freshwater and the maturation of the global carbon markets.
Nick is also the co-author of the bestselling book, Investing in Renewable Energy: Making Money on Green Chip Stocks.
Source: www.greenchipstocks.com