That Was The Week That Was

A week of high and lows: Listening to real people who know what they’re talking about. Speaking out on where Australia should be heading. Trouble on the ground and in the air. ABC Carbon’s Ken Hickson opens up his diary.

Without wanting to bore my readers, I do want to make sure I don’t miss mentioning some of the important things I was up to this past week (9 -13 November 2009). So here’s a rare and exclusive look into my diary:

Monday

Met up with Adam Twemlow from KPMG’s Gold Coast office, where he has a focus on climate change. We discussed, among other things, the Carbon Outlook report, a Queensland Government collaboration with KPMG that uncovered real information about the impacts of the CPRS on SMEs. It looks at profit and loss, on-the-ground carbon assessment of 50 firms from seven sectors (manufacturing, food processing, tourism, retail, building and construction, transport and aviation) across Queensland. KPMG is one professional services firm ready to help businesses of all shapes and sizes adapt to a low carbon economy, as well as meet Government regulatory requirements. Visit www.industry.qld.gov.au/climatechange or www.kpmg.com.au

Read a good article in Australian Financial Review by Brad Orgill headlined “Market won’t fix climate change”. Find it if you can at www.afr.com.au

Then Greg Bourne gave some real up to date insight on the “Road to Copenhagen” in a talk to the Institute of Sustainable Resources at Queensland University of Technology.

Tuesday

Started the day by meeting up with Bret Peterson, who runs The Unfair Advantage, a marketing management advisory business. He has ideas for business but he’s also keen to do – and help other businesses – the green thing. For more see www.unfair.com.au

Great Barrier Reef was the focus of most of the day. WWF joined forces with the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre to showcase the work done there and in conjunction with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. (See article above).

It was a lunch hosted by JB Were, catered for very sustainably by celebrity chef Ben O’Donaghue (best known for “The Best” series) and attended by a few notables.

Met up with Graeme Wood again, the man who founded Wotif.com but now puts a lot of time into  Wild Mob. This is a not-for-profit, non-political organisation, providing volunteers the opportunity to work on important environmental projects in remote, iconic destinations. For more see www.wildmob.org

Also caught up with an old friend from the Sunshine Coast, James Turner, who is doing some great work promoting the right sort of “pinger” which will stop dolphins (and whales) getting caught up in nets. Learn more on www.fumunda.com

Wednesday

This was the day for Electric Vehicles. The first time anyone in Australia has focused on this so intensively. It was the brilliant initiative of Brisbane-based Philippe Reboul. He brought together people from the car industry, power suppliers, researchers, councils and state Governments. Pity someone from Canberra was not there to hear what they should be doing. (See article above).

It really become very obvious during the day that Australia is going to be left behind unless it starts very soon to get its electric vehicle act together. I sense that we put a lot of time into research and test runs. But it is beyond that stage. We need to follow the example of other countries – France, Israel and Denmark are three movers and shakers – and get our infrastructure set up.

Also got together with a small bunch of enthusiastic people at the Business Eco Forum. Attention seemed to focus on waste and recycling. And what Government is now saying that industry – and all of us – must do. The fact that at least two of the attendees in the group are in the waste and recycling business shows that finally Government is putting its stamp of approval and regulation on what it should have done long ago.

Thursday

It was time to get on my Virgin Blue flight for Sydney armed with a bag of books to deliver to eager book stores and others. Pity the baggage handlers didn’t read the very obvious fragile label, managing to badly damage the bag and some of the precious contents. Sir Richard Branson and Brett Godfrey will hear about this!

Managed to retrieve some books (in good condition) and deliver to Lee Stewart of Change2, who decided these make an ideal gift to give to clients at this time of the year. Also discussed how we might assist each other in the sustainability business – online and off.

Thanks to mine host (Philip Sharp) we managed to deal with the damaged goods (clothes and books) and create some semblance of order out of near total disaster.

Visited my friends at the Workplace Research Centre at University of Sydney and after discussing the recent successful Climate Change@Work conference in Brisbane last month, started exploring options for taking the show abroad. Singapore next stop!

Met up with Pax Leaders Labs’ Louise Metcalf – a fan of my book – and after “crying over spilt milk”,  got to discuss trends and developments in sustainability coaching and consulting.

In spite of Sydney getting lashed by a drenching storm, I managed to get to a workshop at WWF headquarters which focussed on climate change, involving fellow Governors and staff. Ably run by Dr Dedee Woodside, the workshop was a great opportunity to tap into the wider resources of WWF. Also met up with KPMG partner Peter Kingston, who heads WWF Australia’s Finance and Risk Management Committee.

Friday

Up early and off to Macquarie Park to the Foxtel Studies to record an interview for Sky News Eco Report. First part of it was used on their special edition focussing on Copenhagen. I had my say and it went to air on Friday night, which was repeated over the weekend. You can hear a podcast on http://www.skynews.com.au/eco/. The next instalment of my interview should see the light of day in a week or two when I sound off on plans for Green Earth Communicators.

I also made time to meet up with my old journalist friend Robin Bromley and share a few tales and ideas (newspapers, publishing, planes and trains.)

A quick trip to Canberra (my first) was primarily to catch up with some appropriate Government officials and visit a book store or two. Managed to get to Paper Chain in Manuka – on the recommendation of Carbon Planet’s Dave Sag – where the book is now on sale.

My visit was cut short by a Virgin Blue phone call. My scheduled 7pm flight to Sydney was suddenly cancelled, so would I get the airport to catch a 5pm flight!

My quickest ever city tour as severely shortened. I made it to Sydney and home to Brisbane earlier than expected to unload my tales of woe, my damaged goods and wounded pride.

Happy that I’d sold some more books, met a lot of great people, engaged in some fruitful discussion  (on and off air) and arrived home safe and sound.

Not one to carry a grudge – and I do chose to travel with Virgin Blue by choice – I have to say there is something exceedingly strange about a baggage policy that agrees to repair a damaged bag, but does nothing about damaged contents. When we say something is fragile, it means it needs some care and attention. We usually mean the contents, not the container!

To my friends at Virgin, you’ll be hearing more from me. To those at Canberra, who missed me this time, don’t worry, I’ll be back.

Ken Hickson

Source: www.abccarbon.com