Welcome to the 3rd show of Sustainable Synergy on 89.7FM Eastside Radio.
I am Frederick Malouf. In these programs, I’ll be discussing with key people the industrial side of sustainability, not only how the waste of one industry can be the fuel of another, but also how implementing cutting-edge technology will sustain our abundant lifestyle and be in synergy with the environment and different human cultures.
In the first 2 programs, I gave a very, very concise picture of the evolution of sustainability and a shortlist of various international organisations and businesses who venture to be the backbone of sustainability. In this show, I’ll be concentrate solely on the who’s who of sustainability in Australia.
All future programs will be interviews, the first three being with Bruce Taper from Kinesis, who is a consultant for the City of Sydney and their Green Transformers project, Andre Leu from the Organic Federation of Australia who will discuss national organic standards in Australia, and Bronwyn Darlington from Rise Up, who has and is instigating businesses that are built on a fair trade foundation which not only produce products of higher quality than mainstream manufacture, but are as competitively priced. That’s something for corporate people who value the bottom line and marketing appeal as their primary concerns to think about.
I’ll also have Jon Dee on the show. He was the founder of Planet Ark and now Do Something, and also sustainability director Bernard Carlan from the DECC, and cutting edge designers, some of which were guests at the recent Sydney Design 09 event Eat Green Design, held at the Powerhouse Museum.
The people I am looking forward to presenting and discussing sustainability are the scientists, inventors, sustainability consultants, and ecological economists, the people who do the arithmetic and tell it like it is. Integrating these ideas into formidable plans that business can take on board, appealing to the ever-increasing intelligent consumer is the objective of this program.
Of course, any and all links of whomever I outline today and every week will be on the Sustainable Synergy Australia Facebook page as well as on the Eastside FM website as soon as it is re-launched.
Lets go to the tune Cerro Largo by Apparat and I’ll return with who’s of Sustainability in Australia.
Welcome back! The time is 11:38am. That tune was called Cerro Largo from the band Apparat. You are listening to Sustainable Synergy on 89.7 FM Eastside Radio, your on-air resource of information on what will make sustainability possible in our near future. In this show it is all about who’s who of sustainability in Australia.
It seems inevitable that I must begin with how sustainability is addressed with Australia’s government institutions. They create reports and policy, evaluate and research new technologies, give advice and do their best to industry and consumers alike about how to become a sustainable society. While I’d like to say that the federal departments are the parent of state and local departments, it does not really work that way. State departments take any federal policies under advisement, and adapt such policy for wherever they govern, and local governments apply the most suitable parts of state policy according to their municipalities. So when you see Environment in the titles of Federal AND State departments, and they BOTH have something for consumers and business, they are actually giving advice on different parts of environmental policy as per what section they cover. Considering that achieving sustainability is an integrating concept, I had hoped, and still hope, that such information is prioritised by the effects solutions provide, not which policy provides what solution and apply for approval. Nevertheless, if you are not sure which department can answer your question, I am assured that they can direct you to the right place.
Probably the most pertinent department at present is the Department of Climate Change (www.climatechange.gov.au)
They also publish Sanctuary magazine, a guide on sustainability for the home. There is a direct link to this section at www.yourhome.gov.au.
The Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, and I quote: “strives as a key priority to encourage the sustainable growth of Australian industries by developing a national innovation system that drives knowledge creation, cutting edge science and research, international competitiveness and greater productivity.The Department is committed to developing policies and delivering programs, in partnership with stakeholders, to provide lasting economic benefits ensuring Australia’s competitive future”. They are accessible at www.innovation.gov.au.
The government initiative Aus Industry (www.ausindustry.gov.au) lists a series of climate change programs to assist and promote green practices for industry, namely the Climate Ready Program, the Green Building Fund, a Re-tooling for Climate Change initiative, and a Green Car Innovation Fund.
There is also the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, a government body that effectively outlines the effects of Climate Change policies on the agricultural industry. www.abare.gov.au
Probably the most significant department for all industries is the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism. I am not sure how Tourism fits in with the other two, but anyway, they have links that outline our domestic target for reducing emissions by 60% by 2050 (I thought it was 80%), as well as our international commitment liaising with members of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP), which together account for more than 50% of the world’s carbon emissions.
Two NSW departments that adapt such Federal policies are the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water, and the Department of State and Regional Development. I will have Brendan Carlan from the DECC on a later program to discuss current statistics and illustrate what NSW is doing to reduce them.
Every state has its own environmentally aware sustainability departments, of which Victoria’s are very prominent, not only in their government but also with the many consultants, advisors, and industry leaders in their sector choosing to be based there.
Finally, local governments are poised to take on the solution head-on, developing waste management plans and inviting public meetings at accessible venues, just as Waverley Council did last Sunday. However, irrelevant inconsistencies still occur, as I am told, such as different states have different coloured lids for selective waste types. That means, blue lids for NSW mean something else to VIC and SA. I would have thought that, considering how national we are, and how many people move form one state to another, that this would have been nationalised from the beginning. It’s a small thing, but, to me, it shows a lack of consistency and integration, and later, someone will say this is a big issue and spend taxpayers money on new lids.
Sometimes, I think all these mistakes are planned. For the record, government spending makes up 38% of our GDP.
Let’s go to Digitonal and their tune Come and Play …
Hello and welcome back. The time is now 11:4?am. You are listening to Sustainable Synergy on Eastside FM. If you have just tuned in, I am outlining who’s who in the world of sustainability in Australia. All broadcasts and scripts and links are available on the Sustainable Synergy group page on Facebook.
I’ve just spoken about the Australian government departments involved in sustainability, but what organisations, consultants, and events are probably a coffee break away from you are just as, if not more concerned, with making Australia sustainable?
Again, I have a sample list of organisations with sustainability close to their heart. At the risk of sounding like a retired metronome, they are:
Australian Certified Organic (www.australianorganic.com.au)
Australian Conservation Foundation has a section on sustainable cities
Australian Council of Recyclers (www.acor.org.au)
Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (www.asbec.asn.au)
Environment Institute of Australia & New Zealand (www.eianz.org)
Forest Stewardship Council Australia (www.fscaustralia.org)
Green Building Council of Australia (www.gbca.org.au)
National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia, or NASAA (www.nasaa.com.au)
Organic Federation of Australia (www.ofa.org.au)
Plastics and Chemicals Industries Association (www.pacia.org.au)
Publishers National Environment Bureau (www.pneb.com.au)
Slow Food Australia (slowfoodaustralia.com.au)
Sustainable Living Foundation (www.slf.org.au)
The Natural Step (www.thenaturalstep.org/australia), which also have offices around the world, provide a very positive framework to succeed sustainably. They will host “Sustainability – Introduction to strategies, tools and step-by-step planning for success” in Perth on August 27. The Natural Edge Project (www.naturaledgeproject.net), based in Queensland and with the CSIRO in Canberra, publish the Factor series; (Factor 5 will be complete this year) and ECOS magazine.
One of the Natural Strategies Group’s campaign is the 3 Council Ecological Footprint, a collaboration between Randwick, Waverley, and Woollahra councils. Look for their work at www.reduceyourfootprint.com.au where they list a series of projects to do exactly that. Australia’s arm for Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability, or LOHAS for short, is represented in Australia by Mobium in Melbourne (www.mobium.com.au). They publish a series of reports such as Strategy, Planning, Innovation and GreenTracker and provide customised research for client-specific sectors.
Clean Up Australia (www.cleanup.org.au) and Clean Up The World (www.cleanuptheworld.org) have a wide range of projects to educate consumers, in particular Say No To Plastic Bags and Clean Up Australia Day, which began in 1987. It’s founder, Ian Kiernan, sailed through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch gave him the impetus to begin this now nationally acclaimed event. It’s on the first Monday.
Jon Dee’s Do Something campaign (www.dosomething.net.au) works across the reduction of paper, plastic bags, water bottles, and food waste. Look at specific websites of each of these campaigns for details. He also a founder of Planet Ark (planetark.org), which is well entrenched in building an awareness for sustainability. Look for their projects and the latest news on www.planetark.com.
Clean Green Australia (www.cleangreenaustralia.com) provides info links to its sustainably-driven 938 members. Melbourne-based Green Card Training promotes a very easy way to understand how to save energy, thereby reducing carbon output (www.greencardtraining.com.au). Online directories such as Green Pages: (www.thegreenpages.com.au) and Eco Directory (www.ecodirectory.com.au), and the The Organics Directory www.theorganicsdirectory.com.au provide very informative links where you can decide for yourself who is green with you.
There are also a few finance investment entities interested in ethical and sustainable investment, such as Responsible Investment Association Australasia (www.responsibleinvestment.org) and Australian Ethical (www.austethical.com.au). Companies that must meet certain requirement before being accepted as relevant sustainable businesses can me researched through the Australian SAM Sustainability Index (www.aussi.net). And one cannot forget CL Creations (www.sustained.com.au) and Connection Research (www.connectionresearch.com.au).
And so it goes on and on …
Australia has and will host these events in 2009:
Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne Feb 20-22
Greenfest 5-7 June at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens (www.greenfest.com.au).Asia Pacific Summit took place in Melbourne in 11-13 July 2009, and coming up are the:
Going Green Expo (www.goinggreenexpo.com.au) in Brisbane 18-20September 2009
Society for Sustainability and Environmental Engineering in November in Melbourne (www.sustaintheplanet09.com)
Global Biosecurity 2010 conference, beginning February at Brisbane convention centre (www.globalbiosecurity2010.com)
I wonder why I could no sustainable events hosted in Sydney?
It is imperative that I explain that these are just a few of the organisations, companies, and publications working at giving us all information for a sustainable future. I have not picked any as a preference over others. I’m just running out of time.
In these first three programs, I’ve presented a very small outline into the 150 year history of sustainability, how an economic system that does not put the environment and society first is inherently not sustainable, the people of the past who have forewarned this as far back as the turn of the century, and those who are making changes today. I like to think that many of these people are present-day contemporary superheroes. And I will have the pleasure of introducing them to you. And, no, don’t worry. I already know I am not going to run out of them. All superheroes have their own style, do things a little differently, and they don’t always get along, but they do know what they want to achieve. I hope that, through this program, they can all find each other, communicate together, and build a foundation that is much more sustainable than current policy and economics is obviously neglecting.
Next week, my first superhero, Bruce Taper, will discuss his Green Transformers analysis for the City of Sydney and BASIX certification, followed the week after by Andre Leu from the Organics Federation of Australia, who is finalising a national identity for certified organic produce, and on September 9 we’ll hear from Bronwyn Darlington from RiseUp who has built a fair trade business model where quality for all costs no more. That and the marketing edge corporates can exercise through her is worth a promotion.
All broadcasts, links, and scripts are available on the Sustainable Synergy group page on Facebook.
Any and all feedback, suggestions, and worthwhile links are welcome by all listeners and their friends.
Stay tuned now for Georgina Reed and Peter Marsh with their program A Touch of Cool. I’ll leave you all with a track from Fauna Flash, from their album Fusion, Alone Again.
And don’t forget: sustain yourself, sustain the world, and enjoy your week.
Listen to The Who’s into Sustainability in Australia broadcast here