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Green News
Alice Springs named in Solar Cities program
Alice Springs is set to become Australia’s red centre energy champion!
Alice Springs is one of just five cities around Australia to be selected to participate in the Australian Government's Solar Cities program.
Led by a consortium of local organisations, the Alice Solar City project will empower the community to become energy champions through improved awareness, energy efficiency measures, solar energy technology and smart electricity metering and tariffs.
The project aims to make Alice Springs a model for the rest of Australia and the world to follow. By the end of the project, the estimated reduction in CO2 emissions will be the equivalent of taking one quarter of all Alice Springs vehicles off the road.
Controlling wildfires on the Arnhem Land plateau
Indigenous rangers working with scientists and Bushfires NT have made remarkable progress in recent years in controlling wildfires on one of northern Australia’s most precious landscapes – the Arnhem Land Plateau. The rangers are using their own traditional knowledge together with high-tech satellite information and helicopters.
This plateau harbours hundreds of Indigenous rock-art sites, including those of Kakadu National Park and is a home for plants and animals found nowhere else in the world. The wildfires have been damaging art sites and habitats.
The rangers have dramatically reduced the area of the plateau scorched by wildfires, and in doing so they have reduced greenhouse gas emissions from the region – by an amount equivalent to removing 30,000 cars from the roads every year.
In return for this service they are being paid over $1M a year by the energy company Darwin Liquefied Natural Gas which offsets these cuts against its own emissions. This income is providing meaningful jobs and producing a range of other social and economic benefits for the communities involved in controlling the fires.
Qantas Sustainable Tourism Seminars
Qantas will host a free seminar on sustainable tourism as part of the Northern Territory’s October Business Month. Featuring keynote speakers Molly Harris Olson, Aaron Wood and Dr Warwick Frost, the seminar will cover issues such as green washing, running sustainable events and global green consumer marketing trends. The hands on event will be followed by refreshments and will provide business networking opportunities. For more information click here
Inaugural Green Travel, Climate Change and Ecotourism Conference
Australia’s first global conference dedicated to Green Travel, Climate Change and Ecotourism is to be held in Adelaide and Regional South Australia from 17 – 20 November 2008.
The impacts of climate change are already having marked effects on the tourism industry and a number of conference keynote speakers and concurrent sessions will provide valuable information on how we can make operational changes to reduce our environmental footprint and anticipate the changes that are likely to occur within the overall tourism industry.
Climate Action Certification Program
Visitors will easily be able to judge the efforts being made by tourism operators to reduce or eliminate the carbon footprint of their operations with a new certification system being launched by Ecotourism Australia’s new arm, Climate Action Australia.
The Climate Action Certification Program is dedicated to ranking efforts to reduce carbon emissions. It is designed for all sectors of the tourism industry, regardless of size and level of carbon reduction already undertaken.
Promoting your green credentials
Many businesses use carbon offsetting to differentiate themselves and their products from their competition.
As the green industry and the presence of carbon offset marketing grows, concerns are emerging about what consumers and businesses are really purchasing when they buy carbon offsets and carbon offset products.
The increase in carbon neutral or ‘low carbon’ claims has created confusion. As there are no universally accepted definitions of these terms, understanding of the terms varies among consumers.
That is why it is essential consumers are provided with accurate and full information about carbon offset claims associated with products or services, in order to make informed decisions. Providing consumers with ‘the full picture’ is essential to ensuring they are not misled.
To assist operators in promoting green credentials, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has produced a guide.
