Climate Change @ Work & Cool Customers Learn to Handle Summer Heat

Electricity consumption over the Australian summer was lower than the same period last year, creating a drop in greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector, says the Climate Group, while the Workplace Research Centre has plans for Climate Change @ Work conferences in Sydney and Brisbane, as well as a National Sustainability Conference in Singapore.

Peter Ker in The Age (22 March 2010):

ELECTRICITY consumption over summer was lower than the same period last year, creating a drop in greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector.

As Melbourne prepares to join other cities in Earth Hour festivities this Saturday, the latest report on emissions in Australia’s eastern states was labelled as “encouraging” by environmentalists.

Measuring consumption and emissions trends across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia, the survey found electricity consumption was almost 1 per cent lower than the previous summer.

That translated to a 1.6 per cent reduction in emissions from the energy sector over the period, or about 1.2 million tonnes of greenhouse gases.

The cuts were largely caused by trends in NSW, with Victoria recording an extremely slight reduction in emissions from the sector of 0.05 per cent.

Results of the study, conducted by the Climate Group, mirror the recent survey of the full 2009 year, where emissions and electricity consumption were lower than 2008.

Those results were thought to be linked to the slowing of the economy during 2009, but Climate Group spokesman Rupert Posner said no such reasons could be applied to the latest summer results, which are strongly influenced by the amount of electricity used for household cooling.

“I would imagine that a big part of [the reduction] is people being more energy conscious,” he said.

Earth Hour will again encourage people to turn off lights this Saturday at 8.30pm to raise awareness of climate change.

From humble beginnings in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour has grown to become an international event, with famous locations like Times Square and the Eiffel Tower joining in last year. Millions of people in more than 80 nations are expected to participate this year.

Source: www.theage.com.au

The Workplace Research Centre, University of Sydney is organizing the 3^rd Climate Change @ Work Conference to take place on the 26^th of May 2010 at the Hilton Sydney.

This significant conference promotes achieving sustainability in the workplace through sustainable leadership and management practice. The conference brings together key thought leaders and decision makers to discuss issues such as how sustainability practices will affect skill demands and jobs as well as operational issues such as achieving carbon reduction in the workplace.

One of the major themes of the conference will be the discussion of “Green Jobs” and the challenges faced in “Greening” our workforce. In an era marked by deep global recession on one hand and the specter of climate change on the other, the pursuit of so-called green jobs could become a key economic driver in sectors like energy, transportation, buildings, and infrastructure.  

However in addition to greening production technologies, skill-building will be critical both for new employment and for transforming existing jobs, highlights Michael Renner, Senior Researcher at the Worldwatch Institute in Washington and the International keynote speaker for the conference.

The green skills challenge will be interwoven in many of the presentations throughout the day however another key management issue presented at the conference will be how to promote, communicate and engage your employees in sustainable development and carbon reduction in the workplace.

The conference will present ideas for Environmental Practitioners and Senior Management with case studies from industry, unions, group training organizations and other employers, all leaders in the Environmental Sustainability movement.

Hon Greg Combet AM MP, Minister Assisting the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency is expected to open the one day conference, which also features an address Carbon reduction in the Workplace by Robert Hill, Chair of the Federal Government’s new Australian Carbon Trust. He is the former Australian ambassador to the United Nations and held the environment and defence portfolios in the Howard Government.

The Climate Change @ Work conference will also be held again in brisbane, after the success of last year’s event. It is scheduled for 4 August and once again will be held in conjunction  with Griffith University and Asia Pacific Centre for Sustainable Enterprise.

The Workplace Research Centre is also making its presence felt for the first time overseas, this time in association with the National University of Singapore, to stage the National Sustainabilty Conference on 20/21 May this year.

National Sustainability Conference

Environmental Up-Skilling & the Green Collar Economy, 20th & 21st May 2010, Singapore

The Office of Environmental Sustainability (OES), National University of Singapore and the Workplace Research Centre (WRC), University of Sydney are jointly organising The National Sustainability Conference 2010, entitled “Environmental Up-Skilling & the Green Collar Economy”.

This conference builds on the Climate Change @ Work series of conferences which take place in Australia and promote achieving sustainability in the workplace through sustainable leadership and management practice.

Source: www.wrc.org.au