Seven weeks ago, we kicked off the Perth Solar City Bring It Down Challenge, where seven schools were challenged to bring down their energy use over seven weeks.
This morning, the results are in, and I’m pleased to congratulate Mundaring Christian College who achieved a stunning 54% reduction in energy use. On Friday, Peter Collier, the Minister for Energy will visit the school to present their award, which will include $10,000 for an eco-makeover at the school.
You can view Mundaring Christian College’s energy use in real-time on their Greensense View Dashboard.
Every school in the competition made dramatic energy savings. The average weekly reduction was 26%. Together the schools saved over 64,500 kWh of electricity and a 33% reduction against their combined weekly historical baselines. This is enough energy to power 10 average homes and saved almost 60 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
The biggest total energy saving was made by Ballajura Community College. They saved over 23,500kWh on their own, which represented a 16% reduction against their weekly historical baseline.
These savings didn’t require capital investment in new green technology, but were made just by reducing energy waste at the schools. If we’d tried to achieve the same savings using new PV systems, we would have needed more than 310kW of capacity across the schools.
The schools in the competition ranged from one of the largest secondary schools in the state, down to small independent primary schools. So we think the results of this competition are reflective of the kind of energy waste that exists across every school in the state. Tackling this waste could provide huge benefits to the community.
There are about 1050 schools in WA, so if we could scale this achievement out over every school, we could save around 72,000,000 kWh a year. Based on a tariff of 25c per kWh, this saving would be worth around $18,000,000 and would save more than 65,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year.
The savings don’t end here. We will continue to monitor each schools energy use with Greensense View and we’ll provide an update in 6 months on how everyone is going.
Every school dashboard can be viewed from the Bring It Down page on the Perth Solar City web site, or you can click on the schools below to see how they are going:
Upper Swan Primary School
Ballajura Community College
Woodbridge Primary School
Mundaring Christian College
Hillside Christian College
Swan View Senior High School
Weld Square Primary School
We are holding a Sustainability Sundowner at The Vic Hotel in November in conjunction with The Green Network. You can download the Event Flyer (PDF) here.
EVENT DETAILS
Date: 11th November 2011
Time: 5:30–7:30pm
Venue: The Vic Hotel
The Clean Energy Future bills passed the lower house last night, and passage through the Senate looks assured, so Australia will have a carbon price by mid 2012.
Late amendments benefit waste sector
One of the most significant late amendments to the bills related to emissions from landfill. This is relevant to a lot of our local government customers. Previously, the threshold for many landfill facilities was going to be 10kt because of proximity rules that only applied to this sector. Now the threshold will be 25kt like every other facility affected by the legislation. Because landfill operators will only be liable for emissions from waste disposed of from the start of the scheme (non-legacy emissions), many operators won’t be affected at all for the first few years of the scheme, and operators that implement good abatement strategies may be able to stay below the threshold indefinitely.
Also, landfill operators will have the opportunity to reduce 100% of landfill emissions using CFI offset-credits. So, for example, a landfill operator cold invest in a forestry project to reduce their liability. While this might help reduce the cost of the liability, the other significant benefit is the potential to provide cost certainty. Landfill facilities continue to produce emissions after the facility is closed because of the time it takes waste to decompose. This means operators have to increase gate prices now to fund the liability when the facility is closed and no longer able to generate revenue.
The carbon price will be driven by the market so anticipating the size of this future liability is difficult. By investing in an offset project that will generate a stream of offset credits over time, they can fix their carbon price in future years, and so more easily manage this future liability.
While most CFI offset projects are associated with the agriculture sector and land management, the waste sector itself can produce offsets from projects that reduce legacy emissions, for example by extracting methane from closed cells at their facility for flaring or power generation. They can then bank these offset-credits to reduce their future liability.
While the waste sector will be heavily impacted by a carbon price, these late amendments provide some new opportunities to reduce the impact.
Last week we started the Perth Solar City Bring It Down Challenge, where seven schools are being challenged to bring down their energy use over seven weeks.
Round one of the competition is over and we’re incredibly pleased that every school has managed to reduce their energy use. Mundaring Christian College and Hillside Christian College are neck and neck at the moment, with Mundaring just pipping Hillside in Round 1 with an awesome 50% reduction in their energy use.
Ballajura Community College is the largest school in the competition, with a huge student population and a baseline energy use of over 24,000kWh per week, which is equivalent to about 220 average homes. While they only scored 10 points this round, I think the 6% reduction, equivalent to over 1,500kWh, is fantastic. To put 1,500kWh in perspective, its equivalent to the energy that Ballajura might get if they installed a 55kW PV array.
If you’d like to check out the complete results from round one, you can download the Western Power Bring It Down Challenge Round 1 Results (PDF).
Every school dashboard can be viewed from the Bring It Down page on the Perth Solar City web site, or you can click on the schools below to see how they are going:
Upper Swan Primary School
Ballajura Community College
Woodbridge Primary School
Mundaring Christian College
Hillside Christian College
Swan View Senior High School
Weld Square Primary School
Greensense is working with Western Power and the Perth Solar City project to run the Bring It Down challenge.
Seven Perth schools have been challenged to reduce their energy use over seven weeks. The school that makes the biggest saving will win a $10,000 eco-makeover for their school from Perth Solar City. We have provided each school with a real-time energy monitoring system to help them find energy savings and to run the competition.
We have loaded historical data on each schools energy use into Greensense View to calculate a baseline. Each week we award points to the schools based on their energy reduction against their baseline. This way smaller schools like Weld Square Primary School can compete with bigger schools like Ballajura Community College.
The competition will extend over the up coming school holidays, so there is a big incentive for schools to understand and manage their energy use when the school is unoccupied. One of the top tips we gave schools was to develop ‘switch off’ plans for their class rooms and common areas. These apply from lunch breaks, to after school, and from weekends to school holidays.
Every school dashboard can be viewed from the Bring It Down page on the Perth Solar City web site, or you can click on the schools below to see how they are going:
Upper Swan Primary School
Ballajura Community College
Woodbridge Primary School
Mundaring Christian College
Hillside Christian College
Swan View Senior High School
Weld Square Primary School
We’ll be tracking the competition and providing advice to the schools throughout the competition and you can follow the action on our Twitter stream: @GreensenseView.
Greentech Media recently published an article titled “The Rise of Information Based Cleantech”. It explores the value of technology, information, data and automation in building an energy efficient future — the sweet-pot of our technology Greensense View®.
A couple of the key points they discuss are:
Data as a Service
Our energy networks and the energy guzzling equipment that runs on them are still not that smart, but they’re becoming more intelligent as sensors and communications become cheaper and more widely available. This intelligence allows the collection and analysis of massive amounts of data that can be leveraged for monitoring and verification of performance and identification of efficiency opportunities.
Automation
Once we have the data related to energy production, distribution and consumption, the next natural step is to tackle the optimisation of these activities. Information plus automation can lead to significant resource and dollar savings.
Simply put, the data matters. 23% of Australia’s emissions are directly attributable to energy demand in commercial and residential buildings. Everything in our buildings that consumes (or generates) energy can be metered and monitored today. This data significantly improves the overall quality and quantity of our decision making, engages and educates building occupants and fuels innovation and collaboration that ultimately accelerates the move to a more energy efficient future.
As part of the Clean Energy Future policy announcement, the Government unveiled plans for a new National Energy Saving Initiative. This kind of scheme is already in place in NSW, Victoria, and South Australia.
The main mechanism driving the Energy Saving Initiative will be similar to that driving Australia’s renewable energy target (20% renewable energy by 2020).
The large-scale renewable energy target (LRET) and small-scale renewable energy scheme (SRES) both place a legal obligation on energy retailers to obtain and surrender a rising number of certificates each year which represent a unit of renewable energy generation. Renewable energy project developers obtain these certificates from the government. The trade in these certificates creates a financial incentive for further investment in renewable energy.
In the case of the Energy Saving Initiative a similar legal obligation will be placed on energy retailers to obtain and surrender certificates which represent a unit of avoided energy consumption. Again, there is likely to be some kind of rising target, which for a retailer will represent an increasing proportion of the electricity they send out each year. For example, in year 1 of the scheme, retailers may be required to obtain certificates equivalent to 1% of the electricity they send out.
As with LRET and SRES, the supply of certificates will come from energy savings projects. For different kinds of energy savings projects there will be different recognised calculation methods, and accredited project participants will by able to apply these methods to obtain certificates from the government.
The next step in the implementation of the Energy Saving Initiative will be a consultation process. You can register to receive more information about the initiative by emailing energyefficiency@climatechange.gov.au.
- Electricity tariffs increased on 1 July 2011.
The new financial year is here and, as promised by the current state government, it has brought an increase to the cost of electricity with it.
We have successfully conducted a number of energy audits for our clients in recent times. After completing the on-site audit, we prepare and submit a detailed Energy Report for their review.
The report helps clients to identify where and when they are using energy in their business operations and, importantly, they contain quantified recommendations to help them reduce their usage, and associated costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
As you would expect, the recommendations for each client vary somewhat. However, there was one recommendation that was common to nearly all client facilities - conduct a tariff analysis.
If you’re based in WA and your business uses more than 50MWh (50,000 kWh) of electricity each year, then you are probably on Synergy’s L3 tariff. Did you know that the cost of your electricity has just increased by 29.5%? Your daily supply charge has also increased by a similar amount to just under 50c per day!
If your business is using more than 50 MWh of electricity each year, then you have a fully contestable site and are entitled to go to the market and seek alternative quotes from other energy retailers.
The team here at Greensene encourages you to spend some time investigating your options and seeking three quotes from energy retailers - you may just find a better deal that could save you hundreds of dollars in 2011/12.
Yesterday the Government finally released their plan to price carbon through their Clean Energy Future package. This package will see the Government tackle climate change by:
- pricing carbon
- encouraging renewable energy
- encouraging energy efficiency and;
- increasing the amount of carbon stored in the land (through the Carbon Farming Initiative)
Perhaps the most talked about and anticipated announcement was the detail supporting the price on carbon. From July 1, 2012 this new package will see about 500 of Australia’s top polluters pay a fixed price of $23 per tonne of CO2e emitted. This price will rise by 2.5% per annum for three years before becoming a market-driven Emissions Trading Scheme, with linkages to international markets.
For now, the Carbon Price will apply to stationary energy, industrial processes, fugitive emissions and non-legacy waste. Significant compensation has been announced for both households (approximately $4 billion per annum) and industry (approximately $3 billion per annum).
In addition to the carbon price, there is a strong focus on delivering cleaner energy through investment in new technologies and the closure of highly emissions intensive energy generation as well as further investment in renewable energy technologies.
It is expected that this package will deliver on Australia’s commitment to reduce pollution by 5% on 2000 levels by 2020, and 80% by 2050.
This new, long-term, trajectory is one of the most significant aspects of the package, representing a 2% decrease in emissions from today’s levels, while supporting a projected increase in the Australian population of over 13 million.
So what to make of the package?
There are a number of pros and cons of this package, which we will continue to see debated in the public domain in the coming months before it goes to Parliament in November. Whilst no-one would argue this current package is perfect, given the unsuccessful history we have of trying to address climate change (whether it be through an emissions trading scheme, a carbon tax, energy efficiencies or direct action) I think this package represents a compromise that will not only show the world that Australia is willing to do their bit to address climate change, but hopefully will also provide the momentum needed to shift Australia to a low emissions future.
For businesses, the package will mean something different for everyone. To understand its impact and prepare for a July 1 2012 start, businesses who believe they will be impacted should give careful consideration to the package with regards to their own operating environment. Unless you are directly liable, your main focus should be on energy use in your business.
With a planned start less than 12 months away it won’t be too soon to start such a review immediately. If needed, Greensense is able to assist with such a review and to develop any strategies to address any anticipated risks or cost increases.
Greensense is running two sustainability courses in conjunction with the Australian Institute of Management.
The Foundations of Sustainability program is designed to give participants an understanding of sustainability. Participants will be able to identify the conceptual and practical aspects of sustainability and how it affects the environment, society, and the economy. They will also be able to identify how sustainability could be applied to their organisation. The 2-day course is running on two dates this year, July 25–26 and October 13–14, and you can register to attend with AIM.
The Strategic Sustainability for Today’s Oranisations program takes a rigorous approach to the development and implementation of a strategy for sustainability. In this program, participants will be inspired by seeing and hearing leading edge examples of sustainability both commercially and residentially. Participants will also be pushed to fine-tune their own organisation’s strategy through a series of workshop sessions. These workshop sessions will turn the inspiration of sustainability into a practical strategy and business model that can be implemented. This is a three day course that will run September 12–14, and again you can register with AIM.
You can read more about both programs in this brochure: AIM Greensense Sustainability Programs.
Is the opposition to the carbon tax justified?
Prime Minister Julie Gillard is currently in Perth and has taken the opportunity to announce the federal government’s intentions to provide compensation to those households that are most likely to feel the brunt of the impending carbon tax.
The Federal Government intends to provide an estimated $5 billion a year in household assistance and it will be directed at low and middle income earners, with compensation likely to phase out for those households with a combined income over $150,000 p.a.
Julia Gillard said that compensation will be offered as a combination of tax cuts, family payment increases, and pension and allowances increases. Household assistance will also take account of different family circumstances, such as whether those affected by the proposed carbon tax are low to mid-income earners, or bringing up kids etc.
Census data indicates that just one in ten Australian households earn more than $150,000 p.a. (the level that the proposed compensation will cut out) and that the average Australian family household has an income of around $85,000 p.a. Therefore, the good news is that the majority of us will receive some form of compensation to help reduce the effects that a price on carbon will have on utility prices such as electricity, gas, and, water, and other everyday products and services.
We should not lose sight of the reasons behind the introduction of a price on carbon, which is to help drive gains in efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a bid to combat climate change. It’s not all about saving the environment, there is an excellent business case for increasing efficiency and decreasing waste. For example, BP recently set a goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 10% over 10-years. They achieved the target in 2-years and saved $750 million in the process! Dupont set themselves a reduction goal of 65% over 10-years. They’re almost there and have saved themselves $3 billion!
One of the criticism of the Carbon Tax is that by providing households with compensation you remove the motivation to change behaviour and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This isn’t the case because the tax will cause the relative costs of more carbon intensive products and services to increase, giving people an economic incentive to choose a greener alternative. The tax also provides a strong incentive for businesses and households to become more energy efficient. For example, for households the carbon tax will reduce the payback time for investments in better insulation, more energy efficient appliances, and roof-top PV systems. These improvements will go straight back into household budgets, saving people money.
Whilst the precise design of the Carbon Tax is still to be confirmed, it will bear a close resemblance to the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) that the previous Rudd Government tried to introduce in 2009-10, except with a longer period of fixed-price permits (fixed price in that the price is set by the government, not the market, the cost of permits will still rise each year). Irrespective of the exact timeframes and the exact details, it is now a matter of when, not if, we will see the introduction of a price on carbon here in Australia.
Rather than see it as “tax”, we should use it as an opportunity to strive to increase our sustainability and even save money.
The ‘Hawthorne Effect’ is a psychological phenomenon in which subjects in behavioural studies change their performance in response to being observed or surveyed.
According to Wikipedia, the term was coined in the 1950s based on analysis of a series of experiments on worker productivity conducted at the Hawthorne Works factory in the 1920s.
The experimenters found that the workers’ productivity seemed to improve when any changes were made and slumped when a study was concluded. Ever since, the effect has been seen as a hindrance in behavioural research which experimenters must correct for in the design of their experiments.
The ‘Hawthorne Effect’ has a number of friends and associates. For example, the Pygmalion Effect is an effect where the greater the expectation placed upon people the better they perform. The Novelty Effect is the tendency for performance to initially improve when new technology is instituted, not because of any actual improvement in learning or achievement, but in response to increased interest in the new technology.
While these effects can be problems for researchers, when our goal is to effect behaviour change anyway we can, then these psychological phenomena can help us hit the ground running.
If you are implementing an advanced metering system for example, then don’t keep it a secret! Tell your staff and other stakeholders that you are monitoring energy and water use in real-time (Hawthorne). Tell them you have innovative new systems in place to detect energy and water waste (Novelty). And, tell them you are expecting significant reductions in energy and water use (Pygmalion).
While these kinds of nudges are only the very start of an effective ongoing behavioural change program, they are a cheap and simple way to influence people and to start making positive improvements.
In May this year The Australian published an article with the headline: Summer of disaster ‘not climate change’: Rajendra Pachauri. Of course, it’s just not true to imply that there is no connection between the disasters Australia experienced this Summer and Climate Change.
Just as we cannot attribute any one single weather event to climate change, we can’t rule out a connection for any single event either. Given we are seeing these events taking place at much greater frequency and intensity around the world, as predicted by climate change models, to deny the connection seems foolish.
Like many climate change articles in The Australian, this one made me cross. Whether or not it is intentional, there seems to be a concerted effort in our national newspaper to diminish the significance of climate change and to undermine the case for action.
The Deltoid science blog has a good series of posts on The Australian’s War on Science, if you’re interested in the newspapers ‘form’ on the climate science.
Anyway, I was reminded of this headline when the video below started doing the rounds on the Internet this week. Adapted from Bill McKibbin’s OpEd in the Washington Post a few weeks ago, the video provides quite stirring rhetoric and is a reminder of the implications of climate change for our quality of life. While the focus is very much on natural disasters and politics in the US, our own ‘Summer of disaster’ gets a mention.
The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency has started to unveil the proposed methodologies for the generation of offsets under the Labor governments Carbon Farming Initiative.
The idea behind the CFI is to provide economic incentives to land owners and managers to adopt practices that reduce carbon pollution. Whilst the list of eligible activities is likely to grow, the government has released methodologies for the first two; savanna burning and the capture and combustion of landfill gas.
More details on both can be found on the DCCEE website. For local governments and other landfill operators, the landfill methodology is definitely worth a read. Whilst much has been borrowed from other, more established, methodologies such as NGER, there are also some significant differences, both in the broad rules governing what emissions are “in play” under the scheme, as well as the very technical details of how abated emissions are calculated.
On a different note, just a reminder about our upcoming event looking at role of behavioural change in sustainability projects. More info and booking details here.
The dynamic team here at Greensense continues to grow and I’m very happy to be the latest addition. My name is Jason Menzies and I’m a qualified Environmental Scientist and the new Business Development Manager. With over a decade’s experience working in the environmental arena, I’m ready and raring to help our clients achieve their business and sustainability goals.
Before joining Greensense in April, I spent the last 8.5 years managing the award winning Switch your thinking! Program across 10 WA local governments.
In that time Switch your thinking! has been constantly recognised as one of Australia’s leading behavioural change programs and has led the way in terms of engaging the broader community to affect resource conservation and greenhouse gas reduction, in a bid to combat climate change.
In my previous role working for local government, I was very successful in forming meaningful partnerships with a myriad of different stakeholders including State and Federal government agencies, corporate sponsors, small to medium sized enterprises, schools and community groups, in a bid to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.
The formation of these partnerships enabled the development and implementation of a suite of innovative projects including WA’s first 5-star rated display village (Newhaven Estate 2006), The Green House, the Green Light Schools Fundraiser and Switched on Business & Industry – all of which received critical acclaim at a state and national level.
I’m now available to help you, your organisation and community address and progress energy and water efficiency, waste reduction and greenhouse gas abatement, in a bid to achieve financial and environmental savings and help ‘green your bottom line’.
Come and say hello at our upcoming Greensense Event which will be held on Friday 3 June – I look forward to seeing you there.
