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Welcome
The
past month has seen some key activities in the industry such as the NZ
Government's announcement of its intended emissions targets and the
worlds largest forestry AAU transaction to date. Read on to find out
more.
We are happy to announce that we have joined the UNEP Climate Change
Network.
As a pre-public announcement, check out www.celsias.co.nz. It will be
officially launched later this month. It is the NZ chapter of an action
based social networking platform with a tag line that says it all, 'Sustainability is Not a Spectator Sport'.
Get registered, it's free and commit to some actions!
Some exciting news, hot off the press, Sam Webster just won a second
world cycling gold in Moscow. Read more here.
We introduced Sam in our previous newsletter & press
release. He is a member of the G-Race pro cycling team whom
we are sponsoring.
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Release
of New Toyota Prius
Yesterday
saw the official NZ launch of Toyota's 3rd generation* Toyota Prius.
You can find out more about the car on Toyota NZ's official Prius web
page here. Not surprising is the
tauting its improved fuel economy of 3.9L / 100km and lower emissions
of 89g CO2 /km (essentially performance / class of roughly a mid sized
2.0L, with an environmental footprint of less than a small 1.3L),
amongst a raft of other technically advanced features.
Whilst the new car was interesting, what was more interesting to learn
was in fact the less publicised Tsutsumi factory in Japan where the
Prius is built. Tsutsumi is one of 5 Toyota Eco-Factories around the
world that pioneer cleaner operations. For example, the factory has
some 50,000 square metres of solar panels generating up to 2,000 kW of
energy an hour which supplies
some half of the sites total electricity requirements. For comparison,
an average NZ home uses around 10,000 kW of electricity per year.
Even the buildings itself have been covered with some 22,000 square
metres of photocatalytic paint which reacts to sunlight helping
breakdown nitrogen oxides (NOx).
The factory also operates a comprehensive water recycling system which
has halved the discharge into local rivers, while the discharged water
itself is actually cleaner than the waterways.
It is good to learn that Toyota are serious and considers the "full
life-cycle" of their vehicles from creation, use to disposal.
As an aside, Toyota NZ will be trialling a plug-in
version of the Prius early next year.
* For clarity, whilst this is considered
3rd generation in NZ, it is actually the next generation from the 3rd
generation Japanese import Prius.
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NZ
Government sets emissions target
As you no doubt have
heard, the New Zealand Government earlier this week announced
that it will set the 2020 emissions reduction target between 10 and 20%
below 1990 levels, with a proviso dependant on other countries
commitment. This has sparked off quite a stir in the industry with both
supporting and opposing views.
This target means a cut of somewhere between 34 to 44% in real terms
due to our current level which is some 24% above 1990 levels. Business New Zealand welcome the target and
considers it a sensible balance given NZ's circumstances.
However this is still considered to weak by quite a few. The Green
Party states that "Our opening bid is too low." and will further
undermine NZ's clean, green brand. They have issued a report, Getting there, where they have
outlined an affordable emissions reductions path.
The NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development comments that 20%
commitment as a minimum is a good start, but would need to go higher again.
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Industry
News
-
This is a must read.
The Commerce Commission has released the final
version of the 'Guidelines for Carbon Claims'. You can download it from
here.
- World's largest transaction to date involving a purchase & sale
of 520,000 forestry AAUs happened on July 31. Read more here.
- Most New Zealander want 20%+ emissions reduction target,
according to recent ShapeNZ survey.
- Regi.com which was one of 2 NZ Voluntary Carbon Credits registry has
now been decommissioned. They were part of M-Co which was purchased by
NZX and have been folded into TZ1
(the other NZ Voluntary Carbon Credit registry). Records from
from regi.com is in the process of being transferred to TZ1 this week.
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