Sustainable Business Weekly QLD Edition [Budget, Sustainable Transport]

Budget

After weeks of warning Australians, the budget would be tough, on Tuesday night Treasurer Wayne Swan made a quite a predictable budget speech reiterating the measures that the Government already pre-leaked or released.

Tuesday, Bob Brown said: “I hope you're not holding your breath for any mention of indigenous Australia or the environment.”

On Thursday Tony Abbott replied to the budget by reiterating speeches from the 2010 Federal electoral campaign.

The carbon price debate & the 2011 Budget were overshadowed this week by the recent developments in off-shore processing of asylum seekers.

The details of the proposed Carbon Tax have still not been finalised and its impacts have been left out of the budget. As expected, the Budget was silent on the implications of a carbon price mechanism. The Government has indicated details of this initiative will be announced in July 2011.

The proposed framework indicates all revenues raised from the carbon tax will be recycled back into the economy.

For business, this means less than 50% of the revenue will be redistributed to industry and R&D investments in clean technologies, with the remainder going to households.

Many of Australia’s largest organisations will be significantly impacted and, under the current timeline, will have less than a year to prepare, develop and implement a comprehensive strategy.

One has to dig a little deeper to find news of any environmental initiatives in this year's budget. Most of the initiatives involve delays, postponements or elimination of programmes.

What has been included in the Budget is an additional $100 million until 2024 for investment in early-stage renewable energy. This clearly has limited implications in comparison with the proposed carbon price.

The renewable energy industry was particularly hard hit. Funding cuts and spending deferrals came in at more than half a billion dollars.

The Australian Federal Government is opening up the “Population” debate again under the platform for a Sustainable Australia with $140 million of new expenditure:

• to encourage employment precincts in outer metropolitan suburbs to reduce travel time and fuel use;

• to support for regional areas to plan for future growth and housing supply, and

• new indicators to measure the nation's sustainability needs.

Labor’s billion dollar promise to modernise the electricity grid to accommodate renewable power looks to be in trouble. The Government has confirmed its previously announced intention to provide an upfront tax deduction for exploration of geothermal energy sources from 1 July 2012.

The National Schools Solar Program, which supported schools to put pv panels on the roof, will be wound up, saving the government $156.4 million.

The National Rainwater and Greywater Initiative, which provided money for people installing rainwater tanks and greywater systems, will be ended.

The Green Car Innovation Fund & 'cash for clunkers' have all been previously eliminated. Most of the transport and infrastructure funding announced was for roads. However, the FBT is moving to a flat rate 20% over the next 4 years, removing perverse incentives to drive. There is no detail on these measures but one would assume this means it will be on new leases and the current ones will be grandfathered.

Funding for the carbon capture and storage research 'flagship' has been delayed, saving $420million over several years. An additional $84.2 million will support landowners who set aside protected areas for wildlife.

Sustainable Transport

24 May 2011 the Society of Sustainability & Environmental Engineering (SSEE) will be hosting a Technical Meeting at Engineering House, featuring Dr Andrew Simpson one of Australia’s foremost independent experts in renewable electric vehicle (EV) technology, policy and strategy.

There will be a panel discussion on the wider issues of sustainability & transport including representatives & advocates of mass transport, active transport & new technologies versus the incumbent modes/technologies.

The Panel includes:

Genevieve Graves - the Manager, Sustainable Transport at RACQ. A policy analyst for the past twenty years she has experience in transport, social capital and human services. Her role at RACQ is focused on greener motoring including electric vehicles and eco-driving. She is a keen environmentalist and the Treasurer of Save Our Waterways Now, a local environment group seeking to restore the habitat of the Enoggera Creek catchment.

Robert Dow - administrator & founder of RAIL Back On Track: A web based community group that advocates for sustainable transport solutions mainly rail and advocates strongly for rail commuters, and at times other public transport commuters eg. bus & ferry, & is also concerned with the interface of other modes of public transport with rail.

Robert is by profession a medical scientist and was an academic at the Queensland University of Technology before he retired in 2010. He is a Life member and Fellow of the Australian Institute of Medical Scientists which reflects his long involvement in the Medical Science profession. Robert served in the Australian Army for around 23 years in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps and saw operational service in South Vietnam and Irian Jaya, and retired as a Captain. A life long interest in railways and frustration with failing transport services lead Robert to form RAIL Back On Track to engage with the media and advocate for public transport improvements.

Thea (Tae) Baker – is an Inner City resident of Brisbane who passionately took up the cause of CityCycle, Brisbane City Council’s flagship and flagging active transport project, from its release in October 2010. After living in the Inner City, including Spring Hill, New Farm and Fortitude Valley, Tae has been an avid user of Public Transport since first relocating to Brisbane from the car dominated Gold Coast almost ten years ago. Now, instead of walking or taking the bus, Tae walks and rides to work using the CityCycle scheme, as well as incorporating it into her social life as her primary means of transport for the Inner City. Tae is the National Recruitment Coordinator for a major charity based in Brisbane and often finds herself in our other capital cities and rural towns – often with her helmet in tow. Not your typical lycra wearing cyclist, Tae will be able to discuss the successes and challenges of CityCycle for Brisbane and its users from her own anecdotal experiences.

ASBG June Seminars

Don’t forget ASBG QLD’s Environmental Management Seminar on Thursday 16 June 08:00-12:30

Recycling, Transport, Wetlands, Wildlife, Coal in Court

Why Materials Efficiency Matters!

Rod Welford, Chief Executive of the Australian Council of Recycling Inc (ACOR), will be giving a lunch time presentation:

· describing the reformed role of ACOR to provide policy leadership around resource efficiency;

· exploring some of the policy requirements for improving economy-wide efficiency in the use of resources;

· outlining how the more efficient use of materials can drive efficiencies in energy and water concurrently;

· Considering the implications for climate change and the as yet unrecognised importance of resource recovery and recycling to achieving Australia’s carbon abatement goals.

Thursday 12 May 2011, 12:30 - 13:30 in the Wet Tropics Room at the Department of Environment & Resource Management (DERM) Level 3, 400 George Street. BYO Lunch

The next session on 25 May 2011: Learning from the past: the history and future of human sustainability, Richard Cassels, Director, Climate Leadership

Sustainable Transport

On the 24 May 2011, the Society of Sustainability & Environmental Engineering (SSEE) will be hosting a Technical Meeting at Engineering House, featuring Dr Andrew Simpson one of Australia’s foremost independent experts in renewable electric vehicle (EV) technology, policy and strategy.

Following Andrew’s presentation there will be a panel discussion on the wider issues of sustainability and Transport including representatives and advocates of mass transport, active transport & new technologies versus the incumbent modes/technologies.

Note for your diary:

Annie Leonard: the star of the Story of Stuff will be in Brisbane as a Keynote Speaker for the SSEE 2011 International Conference in October this year. Go to the Conference Website to register your interest. The conference runs from the 24 to 26 October 2011 at Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC).

ASBG June Seminars

ASBG QLD is very excited about a couple of seminars to be hosted at Norton Rose Australia in June 2011.

Details of the Environmental Management Seminar on Thursday 15 June 08:00-12:30 are in last week's blog.

In 2008, Workplace Relations Ministers from around Australia agreed to nationally harmonise work health and safety (WHS) laws. Safe Work Australia is currently developing national model WHS laws, which the Commonwealth and each State and Territory will implement by the end of 2011.

The national aced agenda for the harmonisation of work health and safety laws and practices is progressing and will be a focus for Workplace Health and Safety Queensland over the next twelve months.

Employers & managers should become familiar with the new legislation and the impact it will have on their businesses.

On Wednesday 22 June from 08:00 to 12:30, ASBG is running a Safety Management Seminar which will include the proposed new regulations and new codes of practice.

World Environment Day

ASBG’s rural correspondent Lord Julian will be celebrating all things for a sustainable lifestyle, in Boonah for World Environment Day featuring free creative workshops, market stalls, demonstrations, talks, local organic produce, recycled artwork and jewellery, native wildlife, eco cleaning products, live entertainment, and recycling bays.

Wetland Management online tool

The Queensland Government has launched new online tools on its wetlands management resource website, WetlandInfo. The new online tools include wetland place names, an ability to link wetland mapping using Google maps functions and an advanced search function that allows users to search for wetlands. An up-to-date toolbox of planning legislation allows planners, decision making agencies and individuals to get a customised list of laws and regulations that could affect a project that impacts on wetlands.

Protecting endangered animals and eradicating pests

Australian ecologists at the University of Queensland, have developed a set of simple rules that will not only help protect endangered native species and eradicate introduced pests in Australia and overseas, but also manage biosecurity and disease outbreaks.

The research which was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week, describes a decision tool that will help wildlife conservation managers to prioritise their management strategies and focus on the most efficient conservation or control strategy.

Qld Coal Miner in Court

Mining giant Xstrata has been taken to the Land Court by the community based activist organisation – Friends of the Earth.

Xstrata has been asked to defend the greenhouse impacts of its proposed Wandoan coal mine.

An initial hearing this week has set out the scope of the trial. A variety of experts will give evidence concerning the impacts of Wandoan Coal mine on Qld's environment & the global climate. The trial is set for 22 August 2011.

osama bin laden

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Carbon Price, Coal Seam Gas, Flood, Cows

ASBG June Seminars
ASBG QLD is very excited about a couple of seminars to be hosted at Norton Rose Australia in June 2011.

We are still fine tuning the programmes. Registration forms will be sent out soon. Both these seminars will provide an update on the recent changes to Australian & Queensland Laws affecting Environment & Safety respectively.

The Environmental Management Seminar on Thursday 15 June 08:00-12:30 will feature Andrew Wilford discussing the bigger picture & setting the context for Environmental Management.

Rebecca Hoare (Norton Rose Australia) will provide an overview & an update of recent changes to Australian & QLD Environmental Law.

Omar Ameer from DERM will be informing those who attend the seminar on how to stay out of trouble with one’s Environmental Regulator.

On Wednesday 22 June from 08:00 to 12:30, ASBG is running a Safety Management Seminar which will include the new changes to Dangerous Goods Packaging & Labeling requirements (Global Harmonisation).

There is a Carbon Price workshop ready to roll, as soon as there is sufficient detail released by the federal Government (watch this space).

Implementation of the Carbon Price

The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency is calling for written submissions from interested stakeholders on the proposed architecture and implementation arrangements for a carbon pricing mechanism.

Submissions will be used by the Department to inform the development of policy options for discussion by the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee (MPCCC). In order that views can be taken fully into account in the design of policy options, the Department is seeking written submissions by close of business 10 May 2011. Submissions should be emailed to CarbonPriceSubmissions@climatechange.gov.au by 10 May 2011



Coal Seam Gas
ASBG QLD have been hearing a lot of about Coal Seam Gas from frustrated proponents and disaffected opponents who share a common grievance with the Queensland Government Regulators: The Department of Environment & Resource Management (DERM) &/or the Queensland Water Commission (QWC).

ASBG QLD recently heard from a frustrated Environmental Manager from a major Coal Seam Gas proponent, complaining about the amount of pointless analyses & data collection that was required by the Regulators that:
A) Added no value (in terms of knowledge or information);
B) Used time, money & human resources that could be better spent on problem solving or collecting more useful information.

As Environmental Practitioners, there is going to be a huge demand for our services to address complex environmental & regulatory compliance issues.

It would appear the Regulator faces a problem with recruiting and retaining staff (with appropriate qualifications & experience). Anecdotal evidence would suggest that the Coal Seam Gas industry is poaching staff (either passively or actively) from where ever it can get them.

ASBG QLD has started to hear more stories from other industry sectors (such as Petroleum Refining & the Sugar Industry) that are losing staff to the Coal Seam Gas sector and are having a lot of difficulty replacing them.

An unusual alliance of farmers, environmentalists & scientists called the Western Downs Alliance has been lobbying the State and Federal Governments claiming that Coal Seam Gas activities are potentially hazardous to human health, agricultural land & underground water.
One of the Western Downs Alliance’s greatest fears is that Coal Seam Gas Development could irreparably damage the Great Artesian Basin. This lobby is calling on Government/s to impose a moratorium on the industry until all outstanding social & environmental issues have been addressed.



Qld Flood Inquiry
The Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry continues its public hearings into the 2010-11 flood events. It was heartbreaking to hear about the emergency calls from flood victims in Toowoomba and hear of the heroics of the people of Grantham.

The public hearings will be held in Goondiwindi, St George and Brisbane this coming week (3-6 May 2011). The interim report is due in August 2011, to enable early recommendations to be implemented before next summer's wet season.
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Cows means Farts
ASBG QLD’s newly acquired rural reporter, Lord Julian of Boonah, reports that farmers are happy because cattle prices are at a high & there is lots of grass around!

ASBG is interested in what Lord Julian will make of Professor Ross Garnaut’s Update Paper 4: Transforming rural land use.

an Easter Rant about cars, poo & wee, diarrhea & vomitting

Apparently up to six people will read this rant, if I am lucky. Well, six people will look at this rant. I have seen the statistics, my blog is not very popular. So my blog has become my confessional.

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned. This week, I drove a car.

I have given up trying to save the world......It is not my world to save.

However, I have also given up working in the fossil fuels industry.

I once provided Environmental management services to petroleum refineries. I am now a card carrying member of petroleum anonymous....

Up until this week, I could say:

My name is Rowan Barber, I am a petroleum addict, it has been six years since I last drove a car.

......but I have fallen off (or on) the wagon. Last week, I was required to drive a car as part of my new responsibilities, working for a water utility.

It gets worse.

I have taken on a job as an inspector, supervising the installation, renovation &/or repairs to sewers & water mains.

In the past couple of weeks, I have seen first hand - how silly we all are.

We take our Number 1's (also known as urine) & we mix it with vast quantities of drinking water & our Number 2's (also knowns as faeces). This slurry is gravity feed and/or pumped over vast distances (predominantly using coal fired electricity) to sewage treatment plants.

At the sewage treatment plants, we (as a society at Municipality level) spend vast sums of money, time & electricity, separating our Number 1's from our Number 2's and the water (which is no longer drinking water quality).

We (Ratepayers & Taxpayers) have built a vast network of pipes & pumps to move our mixture of poo, wee, water & industrial waste across 100's of kilometres.

Many of these pipes leak.

The slurry of substances in sewage is highly toxic & choc full of human specific pathogens.

This is not wise.

During the floods in South East Queensland in January 2011, (in my view) the system completely failed. Our sewers were inundated with flood water. Many pump stations & sewage treatment plants were also inundated with flood water.

The untreated sewage mixed with flood water & mud, was distributed in and through our low-lying suburbs.

The mud (erosion of topsoil from places like the Grantham, Toowoomba and all the upper catchment areas of the Bremer & Brisbane Rivers), became a nutrient rich matrix for cultivating human specific infectious diseases.

During the peak of the flood (12 January 2011), our former Prime Minister - Kevin Rudd was out wading through floodwaters, assisting to evacuate his electorate. On the 15 January 2011, he was admitted to hospital with some sort of foot infection.

Months later, there is still anecdotal evidence of an epidemic of diarrhea & vomiting, which may have begun from flood water to human transmissions. These illnesses appear to be persisting through human to human transmissions (at Child Care centres, schools & workplaces etc).

As I write this blog post at 4:00 am on Sunday 24 April 2011, I have been up all night looking after my 20 month old daughter.

She has a fever. She has been vomiting. Her poos are liquid. She wakes up coughing. This is her third episode of this kind of illness since January.

She is going to be ok. We have paracetomol to reduce her fevers. We have been able to keep her hydrated & re-hydrated. She is still getting some food & formula and holding it down (or in) long enough for her little body to take in some nutrients.

According to Water Aid,

"Diarrhoeal diseases kill a child every 20 seconds."

So as the carbon tax rages around me in Australia, every 20 seconds a child (like my daughter), dies from easily preventable diseases.

In many developing communities, they poo & wee on the streets. They do not have toilets. Flies, rats, dust, wind & rain transfer human pathogens directly or indirectly from poo to people.

In my own community, we are sophisticated. We poo in toilets. We mix in our wee & we flush it away with lots of water. We all know about Carbon Dioxide now. Some of us deny the impacts. Some of us ignore the consequences, but how many people actually know where their poo goes?

Here is a song I wrote a few years ago, to the tune of the Beach Boy's song - Surfin' USA.

I wrote this song in frustration, at the stupidity of what we do as a society & as municipalities in Australia. In Brisbane we have $7 billion worth of water recycling infrastucture (pipes, pumps, plants) which is sitting idle, because we do not recycle our sewage. We are still discharging tertiary treated sewage back into our creeks, rivers & oceans. When it rains or floods, we discharge untreated sewage back into our creeks, rivers & oceans.

Well everybody did a motion,
Across the U.S.E*....
& it all ends up in the ocean,
We're surfing poo & wee,
You’d see em flushing the toliet
mixing their ones & twos
flushin with potable water,
Surfin wee & poo

Sewage has primary treatment,
To remove the chunks that stink,
By the time its tertiary treated,
It could be fit to drink....
All that embodied energy,
Embodied water too...
Would it not be better to separate our ones & twos?

You see the deep outfalls at Bondi
& discharged at Potter Point
Sepia Depression & Bolivar
Sandgate & Luggage Point
All over Port Phillip Bay
& Gunnamatta Beach

Everybodys gone surfin
Surfin wee & poo

We all mix our wee & poo,
We’re gonna flush real soon
We’re flushing down our faeces
We just waste our poo
We could be growing our veges
We could be growing a tree
Tell Jack Sim were surfin
Surfin poo & wee

Gibson Island desal plant
is keeping Incitec cool
they waste the Nitrogen & phosphorus
then burn the fossil fuel
All over Australia
We mix our ones & twos
Everybodys gone surfin
Surfin wee & poo

Everybodys gone surfin
Surfin wee & poo.

Everybodys gone surfin
Surfin wee & poo

*United States of emergency

Sustainable Business Weekly QLD Edition [Water, Ideas, Sustainable Food]

ASBG June workshops

This week ASBG announced a couple of workshops to be hosted at Norton Rose in June. Registration forms will be sent out soon.

Both these workshops will provide an update on the recent changes to Australian & Queensland Laws affecting Environment & Safety respectively.

Thursday 15 June 08:00-12:30

Environmental Management Practitioner's Workshop

Wednesday 22 June 08:00-12:30

Safety Management Practitioner's Workshop (incl Global Harmonisation).

There is a Carbon Price workshop ready to roll, as soon as there is sufficient detail released by the federal Government (watch this space).

ASBG attended a breakfast meeting on the National Broadband Network (NBN) hosted by Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation. ASBG are looking at holding a discussion forum to discuss the Ecological Sustainability aspects of the NBN.

The blame game

Last week the Premier, Anna Bligh, made an announcement in Parliament relating to the possibility of councils taking back their water businesses.

Brisbane City’s Lord Mayor, Graham Quirk, has spoken to the media stating that Brisbane City Council is not at this stage planning to resume control of water and sewerage services. Brisbane City Council is more focused on calling on the QLD State Government to cap bulk water prices.

It’s business as usual for Queensland Urban Utilities (which covers the municipalities of Brisbane, Ipswich, Scenic Rim, Lockyer & Somerset). ASBG cannot imagine any of the other Councils wanting to take back the associated risks & liabilities.

Qld Flood Inquiry

Last week the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry announced the first round of public hearings into the 2010-11 flood events. The interim report is due in August 2011, to enable early recommendations to be implemented before next summer's wet season.

Last week the Inquiry focused on the operations of the dam. The Operations Engineers gave testimony about the procedures they follow. It was noted that priority is given to the integrity of the dam itself. The inquiry reviewed the decisions concerning the impact downstream, particularly flooding in the urban areas of Ipswich and Brisbane.

The public hearings will be held in Toowoomba and Dalby this coming week (18-20 April 2011).

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Ideas Festival Program

The 2011 Ideas Festival will be held from 19 to 22 May at the State Library. Delve a little deeper into the themes of food futures, sustainability and happiness, things are bound to get a little bit deep and meaningful.

The Festival Program was release this week.

Sustainable Food

This week Food Connect is celebrating the first birthday of 3 of it's pioneering replications. The three social enterprises based in Sydney, Melbourne & Adelaide have taken the model pioneered by Food Connect Brisbane and adapted it to work for local farmers in and around their respective cities. The model is an innovative hybridization of the well know Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) local food system gaining support around the world.

The founder of Food Connect Robert Pekin said this week that "even through trying times for a lot of businesses these replications had taken a lead role in proving that you can be good at business and also be good for farmers at the same time".

A recent survey, carried out by Independent consultants, interviewed 6 of the original farmers concluded with the all the farmers describing food connect as a friend. Many of these farmers would not be in business today if it were not for Food Connect. This is despite the desperate figures of an average of five farmers leaving the land in Australia per week.

From a competitive point of view Food Connect is around 20% more affordable and yet still manages to return an average of 50% of the retail dollar back to the farmers (the average is around 15%) Robert commented. "I don't actually know of any retail distributor that even comes close to the value given back to farmers than us".

At the recent national sustainable food summit held in Melbourne recently, the Food Connect model was mooted as one of the few models that embodied how a truly sustainable food business should look and act. The Food Connect Foundation was set up around 2 years ago to be the custodians of the replication of the model as well as set up other programs needed to provide food and fibre resilience to communities.

For information foodconnect.com.au

In future editions of the Sustainable Business Weekly, ASBG will discuss a Life Cycle Analysis of a foodconnect tomato, which was carried out by the Engineering firm Arup.

Campaign Ruby - a review

It was my Dad's birthday in March.

What does one get one's benevolent father, who (by his own admission) has everything he wants or needs?

I had a chat to my Mum and threatened to get Dad a copy of Jessica Rudd's first novel. My family has a history of buying each other presents that we would want for our respective selves.

Mum received a milkshake maker for one of her birthdays. Anyway, cutting to the chase, Mum thought "Campaign Ruby" might be inappropriate for my Dad. She thought is may be a little risqué or perhaps too Mills & Boonish. So Mum struck preemptively and bought "Campaign Ruby" for me.

I was hooked from the start. Unfortunately, I did not have the luxury of reading it through the night. I have a beloved wife & a 20 month old daughter who consume almost all of my waking moments (apart from the 40 hours a week that I spend peering down sewers). My family are my world & I have very little time these days for recreational reading.

So I read "Campaign Ruby" in installments. A half hour over lunch. Another half hour in the evening before acute hypersomnia would kick in. Like Bobby Sands through an hour glass, so are they days of our lives.....

Con-current to my interest in "Campaign Ruby", our illustrious former Lord Mayor announced his intentions to run for the seat of Ashgrove.

So I found myself filling out an application to join the Labor Party. After three years of waging a futile campaign against 32 000 tonnes of CO2e during construction and an estimated annual GHG emissions for the operation of the project are 18 120 tonnes CO2-e (averaged over a 12 year period from time of opening) from the Northern Link Road Tunnel.

So I followed Ruby Stanhope around a fictional campaign trail, as homework for an eminent campaign for the seat of #Ashgrove.

I found myself completely engaged in the world depicted by Jessica Rudd. I wanted to write letters to Max Masters (the Leader of the Opposition - also known as the LOO), supporting his immigration policy. I also wanted to scream when I realised that Ruby Stanhope - Former Senior Analyst (Emerging Markets) had no appreciation of ecological limits to growth.

I found it refreshing to read a novel with such great characters. The women were real women. The men were realistic men (with limited fashion sense, something I could relate to). My favourite character was Ruby's niece - Clem also known as Clementine Genevieve Gardner-Stanhope. My least favourite character was Ruby's brother-in-Law, Mark because I know blokes like that.

So, I basically I am saying that "Campaign Ruby" is definitely worth the read. It is not the "Brigit Jone's Diary" I was expecting and although Ruby swears like a trooper and sleeps with an egomaniac, the sex is not gratuitous. Thankfully, there is not too much information. The insights (and/or incites) into politics are fascinating and accessible, even to those without much interest in politics.

If @Taezar were to ask me HowmanyPandas? I would have to say six out of five Pandas. I will be interested to hear what my Mum thinks. Now I am waiting for the sequel- #RubyBlues

Jess Rudd reports on twitter: "First draft of #RubyBlues is almost ready to submit *throws air punch*"

I cannot wait.......but I guess i will have to.