Linfox Sees Green Business as Big Business

Regardless of what happens in Copenhagen, green business is becoming big business. For trucking firm Linfox the need to show its international customers it was meeting world-class environmental standards was the driving force behind its program — not any new law in Australia. Peter Fox says the initial target of reducing emissions by 15% has been met ahead of time.

Glenda Korporaal  in The Australian (11 December 2009):

LINDSAY Fox reckons he doesn’t know what an ETS is, but the 72-year-old founder of the international Linfox trucking and logistics empire, and his son Peter who now runs the company, committed to an ambitious environment and climate change policy some years ago.

The impetus was not any change of policy in Australia or any international agreement on climate change, but pressure from the group’s big US customers.

Linfox provides trucking services in Australia and Asia for many big US companies, including Procter & Gamble, Kraft, Kellogg’s, Mars and Campbell Soup.

Fox senior says the group has some 40 people involved in its GreenFox strategic plan for 2008-11, designed to cut the group’s greenhouse gas emissions globally by 15 per cent of its 2006-07 level.

With more than 14,000 staff and 5000 trucks operating in 11 countries it was a big ask.

The plan included shifting to hybrid vehicles for company cars, programs for fuel-efficient driving, paper recycling, switch-off-lights programs, tree planting, energy audits, carbon mapping software to analyse carbon emissions from each step of the supply chain, and closer monitoring of fuel usage (the major source of the group’s emissions).

Peter Fox says the initial target has been met ahead of time.

“It came about by seeing our American customers,” explains Lindsay Fox.”They asked us what was our green program.”

The bitter political debate over the Rudd government’s proposed emissions trading scheme, and the inevitable controversies at the Copenhagen conference, have overshadowed the ongoing and widespread pressure on businesses to become more fuel-efficient and to reduce their carbon footprint.

The failure of the ETS legislation has overshadowed the fact that green business in its various forms is becoming a big field, and is set to become even bigger.

In the case of Linfox the need to show its international customers it was meeting world-class environmental standards was the driving force behind its program — not any new law in Australia.

Having surfed to power on an anti-ETS platform, Coalition leader Tony Abbott still felt the need for a photo opportunity this week looking at rooftop solar panels.

Some of Australia’s companies already must report details of their carbon emissions under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme. Passed in the final months of the Howard government, the law requires large energy consumers and emitters to submit their first reports from last October.

Jonathan Jutsen, who 25 years ago founded consulting company Energetics, argues the controversy over the possible costs of carbon reduction in Australia overlooks the fact that companies can get real cost savings by taking a closer look at their energy usage, fuel and other carbon-related costs.

In the latest edition of The Deal magazine, in The Australian today, aviation writer Steve Creedy takes a detailed look at the plans of the big airlines, including Qantas, Virgin Blue and Air New Zealand, to cut fuel costs with a range of measures.

These include more fuel-efficient aircraft such as the A380s, more fuel-efficient flight paths and lighter catering trolleys, and installing dryers to reduce moisture in planes, cutting their flying weight.

Australia’s small market and its abundance of cheap energy have meant it has not always led environmental developments. Much has been made of Australians in the solar power business having to go overseas to commercialise their ideas.

Conversely, Australia has a growing diaspora of expats who have developed expertise in various facets of green business.

Advance, established several years ago, initially in New York, to connect successful Australians around the world, has established an Advance Green Network of people in green energy businesses.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong launched the Advance Green Advisory Group in New York in September.

The group aims to promote networking among Australians in the green energy business around the world, advise the government on climate change and environmental issues, and help to identify green opportunities for Australian businesses overseas.

The group’s members include Jack Whelan, chief operating officer of Environment Business Australia, James Cameron, vice-chairman of Climate Change Capital, Martijn Wilder, global climate change and emissions trading business head at law firm Baker & McKenzie, Ken Newcombe, chief executive of Washington-based carbon finance business C-Quest, Geoff Sinclair, global carbon sales and trading head with Standard Bank and Josh Carmody, a fund manager with the Asian Development Bank’s Asia-Pacific Carbon Fund.

Another person to watch in the group is Mina Guli, a lawyer who worked with the Sydney Futures Exchange in 1999 to design the structure of the first exchange-traded carbon credits.

She is now based in China, running Peony Capital, which she founded about two years ago with business partner Tim Clisshold, author of the book Mr China.

Peony is a carbon fund that encourages innovation and action to reduce greenhouse gases in China.

Several members of the group — including Cameron, Newcombe, Sinclair and Carmody — will attend the Copenhagen conference.

The defeat of the ETS legislation in Canberra will not stop the global pressure on businesses to curb energy usage and emissions.

Regardless of what happens in Copenhagen, green business is becoming big business and Australians have a role to play.

Source: www.theaustralian.com.au