Archive for September, 2009
I came across two interesting climate change projects this weekend. First, in the build up to the crucial Copenhagen conference later this year, Google have published some models on the possible impacts of climate change using Google Earth google.com/cop15.
There is a good introductory video from Al Gore on YouTube:
Second, there is the Extreme Ice Survey. This is a project to study the effects of climate change on glaciers using time-lapse photography. As the site says, seeing is believing and these videos of glaciers from around the world provide compelling evidence of the immediacy of climate change. The site also includes some stunning photographs.
Again, there is a good introductory video on YouTube:
This year, Greensense have partnered with Spring in the Valley to measure the environmental impact associated with the festival and make recommendations for future years. This is a great initiative and shows that the event organisers and participants recognise the value of the environment to the community in social, environmental and economic terms and are keen to ensure its longevity.
Today, Greensense attended the media launch of the Festival and met a number of the people involved in making the festival the successful, iconic event we know it as today. The launch celebrated the aboriginal heritage of the region with some entertainment and bush tucker, complemented with some of the region’s wine’s.
Our audit will measure resource usage and emissions associated with transport, food and drink, electricity usage and waste and recycling. Following the festival, the report will be made available here.
There is currently a significant gap in Local Governments’ ability to collect and report greenhouse gas emissions with the termination of the Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) Program and the absence of a dedicated Local Government reporting system.
Additionally mandatory reporting requirements through the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme have put some Local Governments and Regional Councils in a position of having to report emissions data to the Federal Government.
To ensure that Local Governments have a robust and consistent reporting framework with which to meet their mandatory or voluntary reporting requirements, Greensense and WALGA, have partnered to develop a Greenhouse Gas Reporting and Abatement Platform for Local Governments.
WALGA is inviting its Members to participate in the platform from its inception and seeks Expressions of Interest to participate in the pilot program from October 2009, or join the roll out of the program from January 2010.
For further information or to register an Expression of Interest for the pilot program please contact either the Climate Change Coordinator at WALGA, Melanie Bainbridge on 9213 2039 or email mbainbridge@walga.asn.au or Greensense Managing Director, Derek Gerrard, on 0403 068 271 or email derek@greensense.com.au
The 2009 Waste & Recycling Conference is on this week at the Esplanade Hotel in Fremantle. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘The Business of Risk or just plain Risky Business?’. This Friday’s program includes a stream on climate change. The keynote speaker for the stream will be Professor Dexter Dunphy from the University of Sydney. I’ll also be speaking during the climate change stream and the title of my presentation is ‘Emissions Abatement, Offsets and Permits: Finding the Right Balance’. If you’ll be at the conference on Friday then I hope you’ll come to my presentation, otherwise you can download a copy of my paper from the conference proceedings.
In my local newspaper this week the headline article was “City Split On Beach”. The article describes the discussion at council on the best way to deal with the current erosion at the sand depleted Watermans Beach.
While I’m sure the jury is out on whether we want to relate this directly to climate change and rising sea levels — it struck me that we will see more of these types of articles as the affects of climate change increase their emerging speed.
In many ways there is no easy answer to dealing with coastal erosion, but as a Perth loving company we recognise this will be one of the imminent climate change adaptation issues we need to deal with. We are engaged with a number of clients looking at adaptation strategy and our primary advice here is to begin the planning process early. It will be much better to review risks and mitigation now, rather than having too many situations where there is a “City Split On Beach”.
Greensense is continuing to grow, with Annette McNamara our most recent addition. After eight years in the resources sector, Annette joined Greensense in May this year under a part time arrangement and has recently accepted a full time position. Since joining us, Annette has been fine-tuning our Sustainable Event Management offering and assisting with numerous carbon audits. Annette has a passion for the environment and continued study, recently completing a postgraduate certificate in Sustainable Development, the first step towards her Masters.