Welcome
It
has been a busy month for us since the last newsletter. A combination
of post-event follow-up and the start of the new financial year.
As it
happens, there appears to be a natural alignment between carbon
assessments and the new tax year. So if you are considering getting a
carbon
footprint assessment or carbon certification done for your business for
2009, this is a good time. Of course there are many other compelling
reasons that now is the best time to convert 'intention into action'.
Why
not drop us a line.
Our
next 'Carbon Friendly Drinks' is scheduled
for Wednesday June
17th. Another great opportunity to meet and mingle with other
like-minded people across industries. If you are in Auckland that
evening we
would love to have you there. Time and location details to follow.
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A
Matter of Trust
With
great delight, we would like to share with you some interesting
insights into the March 09 Sustainability Priorities Monitor, a recent
piece of research undertaken by Sustainable Advantage.
Nick Jones, Director of Sustainable Advantage outlined during his
presentation (download from here) the main areas of frustrations facing
consumers today with businesses. In a world where environmental,
financial and social issues are front page news, it is imperative that
businesses understand these and develop strategies to address them.
These are the foundations towards [re]building trust, 'trust' which is needed to succeed
in the world of tomorrow.
As
co-sponsors of the event along with Urgent Couriers, SBN, Enterprise
North Shore & Hayes Knight, we are glad to be able to offset the
carbon footprint of the attendees, calculated to be approximately 0.2
tonnes CO2-e minimising the impact to climate change.
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Education
and Spreading the Word
The
topic of climate change and Kyoto Protocol is by no means new,
especially given the main stream media coverage of this over the past
few years. Our experience however has shown that even today by far a
large
majority of NZ businesses not to mention the general public, do not
understand the carbon market frameworks established to address this.
Although it can be a
complicated area fraught with political and scientific debate, the
basics are simple. One of our challenges being a
leader in the industry is to help bridge this gap. We have done so by
making it easy for businesses to 'take action' with our certification
programme. Additionally, we are fortunate, in that with Seeby's public
profile he has been able to
speak and promote this area in various forums such as:
- NZ Cosmetics Association -
AUT Business School
- NZBIO CEO Breakfast
to name but a few. However we need to do more if things are going to
change.
Each of you are an extension of our voice and we need your
help in educating and spreading the word to those around you.
To support this we offer i) a referral programme and ii) public
speaking engagements. Come talk to us for more details.
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Industry
News
-
Kiwi stars are backing the new Greenpeace 'Sign On' Campaign aimed to
persuade John Key to sign on to a target to cut NZ GHG emissions by 40%
by 2020. More about this on stuff.co.nz.
- The NZBCSD is welcoming reports that the Government intends to offer
up to 900,000 owners of pre-2000 homes a $1,500 grant to insulate their
homes. Click here to
read more.
- Most New Zealanders (71%) did not understand the meaning of the term
'sustainability', according to a broad survey of NZ attitude done by Perceptive. Press release about
the survey here.
- Mixed messages about validity of the current NZ ETS. Whilst there is
a review being undertaken, clearly with strongly mixed views (you only
need
to look at some recent articles such as, Business
could get greenhouse emissions 'practice run' says economist, Try
cap on carbon price, MPs told
or Review into ETS ends
hearing submissions), until it is
formally suspended by the government, the original policy
implementation
is actually still in force. There are already approximately 100
participants in the ETS from sectors including forestry, energy
generation and transport. In addition, the first transaction of 50,000
tonnes of New Zealand Units (NZUs) already took place earlier this year
in March.
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