Another Global Advisory Role for Carbon Abatement & Management Expert

Global CarbonSystems has announced the appointment of world leading business sustainability expert, Dr Martin Blake, to its advisory board, as “he is an ideal person to support CarbonSystems’ in its global expansion into Asia, Europe and the Americas,” Mr David Solsky, the CEO of Carbon Systems said this week. The former Royal Mail sustainability chief is also chairman of the Singapore- based Carbon Zero Solutions.

Announcement:

Global CarbonSystems has announced the appointment of world leading business sustainability expert, Dr Martin Blake, to its advisory board. In making the announcement CarbonSystems’ chief executive David Solsky the appointment follows an extensive search and selection process, and has the enthusiastic support of the company’s directors.

“Dr Blake is an ideal person to support CarbonSystems’ in our global expansion into, Asia, Europe and the Americas,” Mr Solsky said. “He brings to the role a rare combination of experience at the highest levels of business, academia and public life. His leadership and management credentials are proven and well-recognised.”

For the past seven years Dr Blake managed the strategy and delivery of corporate social and sustainability programs for the Royal Mail Group, creating an internationally recognized Corporate Responsibility Program that has won over 75 national and international awards, including the World Mail Awards for carbon management and the Carbon Trust Standard.

Dr Blake was responsible for wide ranging programs that saved Royal Mail £20 million per annum and slashed its carbon footprint by 20 per cent per cent over a three-year period. He also reduced transport related carbon emissions by 10 per cent, building energy consumption by 20 per cent, waste by 50 per cent and water by 20 per cent. Royal Mail will slash its carbon emissions by a further 34 per cent by 2015. The Royal Mail Group is the UK’s largest single employer with more than 195,000 employees, 14,000 retail outlets and a fleet of 35,000 vehicles.

“I’m delighted to have been given this opportunity to assist CarbonSystems build on its outstanding record and reputation as a leading global sustainability software company,” Dr Blake said. “I am strongly committed to building the capacity of business leaders to achieve operational cost savings by investing in sustainability programs. In my advisory role I will be assisting CarbonSystems to capitalise on its early market momentum in Australia and the UK, and to grow its position as a global market leader in the provision of energy, carbon and sustainability accounting software.”

Prior to joining Royal Mail Dr Blake spent over 20 years in the Middle East working first for an American Healthcare provider and later the largest oil company in the world, Saudi Aramco, where he managed multiple state-of-the-art community infrastructure projects including hospitals, roads and universities, for a population of 30 million people.

Dr Blake has had a distinguished academic career. He earned Doctoral and Masters degrees in business administration from Hull University, and a science degree from the University of West England. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Sustainable Business Development at both Griffith University and the University of Southern Queensland.

He holds directorships with leading private and public companies, including Ecologic (green transport and logistics) in the US, Sabien Technology Group and Amida Recruiting in UK. He is Executive Chairman of Carbon Zero Solutions (Sustainability and Carbon Management Consultancy) in the UK and Asia-Pacific, a strategic advisor to the Scottish Government’s Renewable Energy Group, and a Trustee of PURE, a UK charity specializing in Socially Responsible Carbon Offset.

CarbonSystems is a global provider of energy and carbon accounting software. Its technology helps companies manage their environmental performance and operate more efficiently by driving cost savings in their use of energy, fuel, gas, water, waste, and other environmental metrics. A privately owned and funded Australian company,

CarbonSystems has offices in Sydney, New York and London and has clients in diverse sectors, including corporate property management, education, electricity and gas, government, food services, fast moving goods distribution, information technology, managed services, mining, logistics, and professional services.

Source: www.globalcarbonsystems.com

Cleaning Up After Wanton Acts of Wastefulness

“My pet hate is watching people being wantonly wasteful” says Andrea Cally in The Age. “I’d rather see blood and gore than people treating the bay like a giant ashtray, emptying rubbish onto the road, or my personal nightmare, leaving the shower or tap running. As we become more conscious about climate change and our carbon footprint, we may think these wanton acts of wastefulness have gone the way of the chain-smoking, whiskey-guzzling screen heroes of yesteryear. Think again.” Surprisingly, people are still making more rubbish and on Clean Up Australia Day (6 March) thousands will scour the country on a mass pick up run.

Andrea Cally In The Age (4 March 2011)

Infidelities, identity fraud and blatant sexism aside, one of the most disturbing scenes in the ’60s period drama series Mad Men is the aftermath of a Draper family picnic. In the blink of an eye this idyllic picture of domestic bliss turns into one of wanton destruction, as the picture-perfect Don and Betty commit a blatant act of litter and run.

As soon as Don downs the last of his beer, he hurls his empty can into the trees. Meanwhile, his wife casually dumps the remaining food scraps and rubbish on the grass and walks away. These crimes against nature are all the more shocking because they are committed in front of impressionable children.

We all have our own forms of film torture. For some, it’s people who drive without looking at the road, or staged driving in a studio. Others hate onscreen violence or heights. My pet hate is watching people being wantonly wasteful.

I’d rather see blood and gore than people treating the bay like a giant ashtray, emptying rubbish onto the road, or my personal nightmare, leaving the shower or tap running.

As we become more conscious about climate change and our carbon footprint, we may think these wanton acts of wastefulness have gone the way of the chain-smoking, whiskey-guzzling screen heroes of yesteryear. Think again.

We are undoubtedly more environmentally aware today than the Drapers. But while our on-screen alter egos are environmentally evolving — encouraging us to be at one with nature in Avatar, showing us that greed and oil don’t mix in There Will be Blood, and giving us a glimpse into the wasteland we are creating inWall-E — the 2010 Clean Up Australia Day report shows the reality isn’t quite so squeaky green.

Last year’s report shows there was a 6 per cent increase in the number of items recovered at each site, equating to an extra 124 items per square kilometre.

Seven of the 10 most common items found were recyclable, and nine of those 10 were forms of packaging, including paper, PET drink bottles, alcohol bottles and aluminium cans. Clearly the ‘‘reduce, reuse, refuse, recycle’’ message isn’t registering.

Beaches and coastal areas were the third-most rubbished sites last year, and rivers and creeks were not far behind in fifth place. About 80 per cent of land-based litter, ends up in our waterways. This includes  plastic bags, which have a 450-year life expectancy. Any animal that ingests a plastic bag will die;  once its body decomposes, the plastic bag is freed to kill again. It has certainly earned its nickname as the serial killer of the sea.

The number of miscellaneous items recovered peaked at 21.2 per cent in 2010, compared with a 15-year average of 13 per cent. This upward trend is due to the number of cigarette butts found, which made up 92 per cent of this waste stream. Despite the fact that the number of people smoking has nearly halvedfrom 30.5 per cent in 1988 to 16.6 per cent in 2007, one in every five items removed during last year’s clean up was the legacy of this dirty little habit.

While cigarette butts were the most common item found, plastic food and drink containers achieved the most coverage for the 16th consecutive year, comprising 40 per cent of all recovered items.

Made from a cocktail of chemical compounds, plastic is one of the most pervasive and destructive waste forms in the world. During its long lifespan it poses a danger to surrounding flora and fauna through leaching, animal ingestion and injury, as well as transporting invasive species.

We all have a part to play in righting these rubbish-related wrongs, including the film and television industry, which reflects the acceptable social mores of the day. These industries have certainly done their bit when it comes to cigarettes, especially the fag-free, fresh-breathed fraternity in TV land.

You only have to listen to the loud chorus of disapproval whenMad Men confronts us with images of pregnant women sucking on a cigarette or socking back a wine to realise how much our attitudes have changed when it comes to polluting our bodies. Now it’s a matter of applying that logic to our external environment.

I, for one, would sleep better if the film industry introduced an animal-welfare style disclaimer for the environment that guaranteed that ‘‘no valuable resources were wasted; no landscapes, airspaces or waterways were contaminated, during the making of this film/TV show’’.

In the meantime I will be doing my bit by keeping my patch of Australia beautiful this Sunday. Care to join me?

Andrea Cally is a freelance writer. Clean Up Australia Day is on Sunday. www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au

Source: http://www.theage.com.au

Go Beyond Carbon Price to Invest in Climate-Friendly Infrastructure

The climate change policy debate was reignited last week with Prime Minister Julia Gillard committing to introduce a carbon price from July 1, 2012. At the start of February, it seemed Prime Minister Gillard was gambling with her climate credibility by adopting a carbon price-only policy. Now, just a few weeks later, and Julia Gillard is gambling with no less than that, her political future, and the future of our planet. But it’s time, says Leigh Ewbank, Director of Public Policy at Beyond Zero Emissions, for the Australian Government to put investment in climate-friendly infrastructure at the heart of its carbon price push. It’s the key to securing a carbon price and putting Australia on the path to a safe climate future. Read More

By Leigh Ewbank on ABC’s The Drum (3 March 2011):

The climate change policy debate was reignited last week with Prime Minister Julia Gillard committing to introduce a carbon price from July 1, 2012.

At the start of February, it seemed Prime Minister Gillard was gambling with her climate credibility by adopting a carbon price-only policy. Now, just a few weeks later, and Julia Gillard is gambling with no less than that, her political future, and the future of our planet.

Gillard’s strategy draws a parallel with John Howard’s GST. While shock jock Alan Jones accuses the Prime Minister of lying (remember that cringe-worthy ‘JuLIAR’ jibe?), the argument is not as potent as critics think. Surely Alan Jones would remember that in 1995 John Howard said ‘There’s no way that GST will ever be part of our policy… never, ever. It’s dead.’ As we know, it was Howard who won the 1998 election on the pledge to introduce a GST and did just that in 2000. Gillard is betting that delivering a domestic policy achievement, like Howard, will trump flip flopping in the eyes of the public.

Countering the onslaught of the Abbott-led Coalition and the greenhouse mafia is a great challenge to Labor’s agenda. To blunt these attacks Labor must look beyond the support of the large environment groups, that some argue are ‘impotent’, and the clean-tech industry that is still in its infancy. Labor must demonstrate to the public that it’s serious about the climate change challenge and invest carbon tax revenue to projects that create jobs and help build a domestic clean technology industry. Without this transparent allocation of tax revenue, Labor’s carbon price push could go the same way as Rudd’s mining super profits tax.

Gillard’s flood levy that passed the House of Representatives last week, demonstrates the advantage of linking taxes with investments. In contrast to the ‘super profits’ tax, that failed to clearly articulate how its revenue would be used and was swiftly demolished by the major miners, the flood levy is directly linked to rebuilding Queensland’s flood-affected infrastructure. This is why I think the measure has withstood opposition attacks and gained strong public support (Exhibit A and Exhibit B).

It’s not too late for Labor to link its carbon tax with investments. Rather than focus solely on compensation for households and industry, Labor can invest carbon tax revenue in nation-building climate change initiatives.

In any case, regardless of whether Australia gets a carbon price, public investment will still be needed to fund large-scale infrastructure projects to create the foundation of a clean economy. New transmissions lines, electric vehicle recharge stations, high-speed rail and the first baseload concentrated solar thermal plants are currently beyond the capacity of the private sector. This infrastructure, which will not get built by carbon price signals, is the platform needed to deliver Gillard’s vision of a ‘sweeping technological revolution like Information Technology …in the 1980s and 90s’.

Instead of compensating the carbon-intensive industries of yesterday, Labor must invest carbon tax revenue in the industries of tomorrow. These investments can provide the Government with leverage against unreasonable demands for industry compensation. Every dollar that Gillard commits to compensating emissions intensive industry is one less for climate-secure infrastructure.

It remains to be seen whether Labor will adopt this approach. One thing is for sure: if Labor implemented these measures prior to launching its carbon price campaign then it would have the support of thousands of Australians working to decarbonise our economy. Without this support, Labor will rely on the political landscape in Canberra to price carbon.

In the House of Representatives, Rob Oakeshott has already indicated that he’d support the carbon price. The exclusion of agriculture should satisfy independent Tony Windsor, who has regularly expressed concern over the impacts of the climate crisis, and it has beenreported that Andrew Wilkie is ‘broadly supportive of carbon pricing measures’. While the Rudd’s failed CPRS and RSPT policies required a combination of Coalition, Green, independent and Family First support to pass the Senate, from July, the Government has a Greens balance of power to work with.

The Greens have previously supported an interim carbon tax of around $23 per tonne, so it’s plausible that Gillard could win the party’s support for carbon price at that level. It’s worth noting that Labor has some leverage on the Greens. After blocking Labor’s first attempt at carbon pricing and protecting Australia from a deeply flawed emissions trading scheme, the pressure is on the Greens as much as Labor. While Senator Brown and colleagues deserve credit for demanding stronger measures, blocking the carbon pricing legislation for the second time could be politically harmful, especially when the largest environmental groups have elevated a ‘price on pollution’ as the key remedy for our climate change crisis.

The Greens will push for the carbon-price plus approach Australia needs to successfully decarbonise. Senator Christine Milne already flagged the need for feed-in tariffs, among other measures. This sensible approach is consistent with international norms. Though Germany and Spain are party to the European ETS, feed-in tariffs have done the heavy lifting. It is the combination of carbon pricing and FiTs that is deploying renewable energy in Europe.

Australia has an upward carbon emissions trajectory. Recent Department of Climate Change analysis estimates that Australia’s emissions are set to grow by 24 per cent by 2020 from the year 2000. A price on carbon is one measure to arrest our nation’s ballooning emissions, but it alone is insufficient. It’s time for the Australian Government to put investment in climate-friendly infrastructure at the heart of its carbon price push. It’s the key to securing a carbon price and putting Australia on the path to a safe climate future.

Leigh Ewbank is Director of Public Policy at Beyond Zero Emissions.

Source: www.abc.net.au