Australia's new Climate Change policy - How will it affect your business?

Rudd’s first act as Prime Minister was to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which will take effect in March 2008. By ratifying Kyoto, Australia has committed to capping its greenhouse gas emissions to 108% of its 1990 emissions level.
At the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Bali last December, Rudd committed to a 60% reduction in emissions by 2050. He also committed to developing a comprehensive emissions trading scheme by 2010, increasing the proportion of renewable energy to 20% of our national electricity supply by 2020 and investing in research and development to deliver transforming technologies.
This is great news if you are in renewable energy R&D, but what about general business practices? Will changes be required to meet these targets or is it only something the big corporations need to worry about?
If you are a large user of energy, you may already be feeling the impact of climate change requirements, with government programs monitoring your emissions and requiring management plans. But even small businesses will eventually experience pressure to reduce their emissions. This will come via government policy or customer or supply chain pressure.
Don’t be caught unprepared when you receive new carbon reduced supply requirements from your key customer, or if new legislation is gazetted that forces you to take quick, disorganised action. If you’re still going around discrediting climate change science, understand that you are no longer in agreement with the majority of corporations.
Many businesses are already taking the initiative to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. They state that taking action improves corporate image, aligns corporate actions with the environmental concerns of suppliers, customers and employees, reduces costs, increases return on investments and reduces risk. Many businesses are going ‘carbon neutral’, and expecting their supply chain to follow suit.

Here are four simple actions you can take to prepare your business:
1.  Know your greenhouse gas emissions – undertake a simple audit (there are many internet-based tools that can assist you) to calculate your current greenhouse gas emissions (through the use of electricity, gas, petrol and materials).
2.   Improve your energy efficiency – investigate ways of reducing your greenhouse gas emissions by improving your energy efficiency. Set achievable targets – for example, improve fleet efficiencies by 25% over 3 years.
3. Offset your emissions – Consider offsetting the emissions you cannot reduce by signing up to an accredited Green Power scheme to increase the use of energy from renewable sources, or a carbon offset program that will calculate your emissions and offsets for you.
4. Develop ‘green’ business practices – Incorporate environmental considerations into your business policy and practices to further reduce emissions. For example, consider the environmental attributes of supplies and reduce waste.
Incorporate these four simple steps into your 2008 business plan so that you are prepared when you receive that supplier, customer or government-driven ‘difficult question’ that could, if implemented without careful consideration, cost your business far more than is necessary. Implementing the above four actions in a planned manner has the potential to save your business large amounts of money, reduce risk and comply with future requirements. Nicole Croker can be contacted at www.businessenvironment.com.au

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