It seems like 5 minutes ago that all the worthy winners for the 2011 Green Gown Awards Australia’s were announced and celebrated at the prestigious National Wine Centre in Adelaide, however its time to start thinking about 2012! If you have a worthy, exemplar sustainability initiative that you want to get recognised within the tertiary education sector then make sure you enter the 2012 Green Gown Awards Australasia. There are 3 new categories for 2012 bringing the total to 8, and the Awards launch on Monday 4 June 2012. Read more about the awards here…

The ACTS online forum – the ACTivator Forum – is now live and ready for members to use. We welcome all members to engage in discussion, ask questions and in turn answer any queries where you are able.

Check out the ACTivator forum here!

ACTS is currently seeking a new Regional Director (RD) for the South Queensland region. The primary role of the Regional Directors is to: coordinate and manage existing members in the region; recruit new members; coordinate 4 events throughout the year (these can be workshops, seminars, networked luncheons with a key speaker – these events will be supported through ACTS funding); attend yearly meetings with the ACTS Board and other Regional Directors; and take advantage of opportunities presented.

For more information, or to submit an expression of interest, please email info@acts.asn.au by February 2012.

The 2011 ACTS Annual report has now been published and you can view it here.

Please take a look today and share with all your colleagues!

This report highlights all the good work that ACTS has undertaken in 2011. It gives you an indication of just how ACTS is embracing and supporting tertiary education institutions to ensure sustainability is core business.

Special Mail Out Bulletin

Request for Melbourne based institution participation

ACTS and AYCC are developing a partnership to deliver a program that will involve tertiary students mentoring high school students through the Switched on Schools campaign. AYCC has secured funding from the City of Melbourne to commence a pilot of the programme and as a result are looking for 3 Melbourne based institutions to take part. The attached flyer will provide more information.

If you have any questions or are interested in being involved please contact:
Ryan Shaw
AYCC
0425846751 or ryan.shaw@youthclimatecoalition.org

Request for building and energy consumption data

Sustainable thinking company, pitt&sherry, is leading a major national study from the Federal Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency (DCCEE), which will build – for the first time in Australia – a comprehensive model of the stock and energy use of non-residential buildings in Australia. This model will be used to inform energy and climate policies, and summary data only will be published as a “baseline study” by mid 2012.

To date, pitt&sherry has been able to garner a great deal of information from organisation across Australia, however, data from the tertiary education sector is sadly lacking. In this context, pitt&sherry would like to request your co-operation in this important project. On behalf of the DCCEE, pitt&sheery would be most grateful to receive from you any or all the following stat with respect to buildings and energy consumption:

• Floor area, in total or by building type;
• Numbers of buildings by type;
• Energy consumption by fuel for the above;
• End-use data for the above (eg. break-downs by lighting, HVAC, process, etc);
• Time-series data for the above, if available (1999 is the first year covered by this study).

Critically, and as detailed in the attached letter, any data you are able to provide will only be published in confidentialised form – unless you give specific permission that disaggregated data may be published.

If you have any questions please contact:
Phil Harrington
Principal Consultant – Climate Change
(03) 6210 1489 or pharrington@pittsh.com.au

What’s the carbon pollution reduction target?

The target is to cut carbon pollution by at least 5 per cent compared with 2000 levels by 2020. Doesn’t sound like much? In real terms, this means cutting net expected pollution by at least 23 per cent in 2020 which means cutting 160 million tonnes of pollution (equivalent to emissions from 45 million cars) from the atmosphere every year until the end of the decade.

Will this cost me more?

It’s true that some of the costs paid by polluters will be passed through to the prices of the goods you buy. It’s also true that over half of the money raised from having a price on carbon will be used to fund tax cuts, pension increases and higher family payments. The remaining money will be invested to support jobs and help to build Australia’s clean energy future. Brands that are genuinely doing better will now stand a chance, and being more economically viable may allow them to drop prices.

How will having a price on carbon cut emissions?

Despite having strict corporate laws and regulations around water and solid waste pollution that have been in place since the 1970s, releasing carbon pollution is still free and unregulated in Australia so currently there is no incentive for major polluters to reduce emissions.

A carbon price changes this. It puts a price on the carbon pollution that Australia’s largest polluters produce. A price on carbon pollution creates a powerful incentive to businesses to cut their pollution either by investing in clean technology or finding more efficient ways of operating.

How does it work?

For the period 2012-2015, there will be a fixed price starting at $23 per tonne. This price will rise by 2.5% each year, in real terms. Facilities that have direct (ie. Scope 1 – CO2-e produced on-site) greenhouse gas emissions of 25,000 tonnes of CO2-e a year or more will be expected to pay the tax. Liable businesses will be required to buy and surrender to the Government a permit for every tonne of emissions they produce. After 2015, the Carbon Tax will morph into an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), whereby permits will be tradable between organisations so the price per tonne of CO2-e will be set by the market (subject to a floor and ceiling price). An ETS enables set target emission reductions. Under the plan for a clean energy future, Australia will cut 159 million tonnes a year of carbon emissions by 2020.

Will it actually work?

The experts agree – money talks. Economic experts around the world (including the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Productivity Commission) recognise that putting a price on carbon is the most environmentally effective and cheapest way to cut pollution. A carbon price will encourage businesses across all industries to find the cheapest and most effective way of reducing carbon pollution.

For more information on the Australian Government’s report visit ‘What a carbon price means to you: A pathway to a clean energy future’

“As a Board member of the Environmental Association for Universities & Colleges (EAUC), I’ve been delighted to see the development of close links with both ACTS and our North American cousins in AASHE. The recent EAUC Scotland Conference was the latest in a series of events that have really brought home the collective power of our sector as a global force for sustainability. The collective approach being taken towards Rio+20 is the most immediate, potent and important example of that.

Having been fortunate enough to attend the ACTS Conference in Melbourne in 2010, I’m aware of the amazing work being done by ACTS and the immense value that sharing expertise across our shared experiences can offer. I was, therefore, delighted to be invited by ACTS to serve on its Advisory Board.

While my role at my home institution, the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, encompasses an eclectic mix of issues including sustainability, public engagement, internationalisation and more, the breadth of that portfolio has allowed me to bring a different perspective and some wider context to deliberations in the EAUC Board. I hope to be able to do the same in this new role with ACTS and I look forward to having a chance to renew acquaintances, perhaps at a future ACTS Conference.”

Fraser Lovie is a Policy Adviser at the University of Aberdeen. He is also an EAUC Board member and Convener of the EAUC’s Scotland Branch.

Follow the EAUC on Twitter @TheEAUC or @UCCCFS and on Facebook

The UK’s 2011 Green Gown Awards, hosted by journalist and presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy, was a resounding success and a fitting celebration for the pioneering environmental and sustainability initiatives that have been championed in the education sector this year. Winners and Highly Commended awards were bestowed across 13 categories and guests from universities and colleges from across the UK were joined by leading figures from institutions such as HEFCE, Universities UK, The Guardian Higher Education Network and the Carbon Trust to commend visionary projects which are pushing the environmental best practice boundaries.

Organised by the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC), Chief Executive Iain Patton describes the Green Gown Awards as a shop window for environmental and suitable best practice, stating that “although it is a challenging and anxious time for universities and colleges, this year’s winning and commended entries demonstrate not only that innovative institutions are taking successful action to minimise their environmental footprints and enhance their social contribution, but also that this is often accompanied by other organisational benefits. The financial savings from many sustainability actions are certainly compatible with the belt tightening that seems inevitable in future years. It is therefore all the more important the whole sector learns from the successes of the Green Gown Awards’ winning and commended entries”.

Winning entries included Salford University’s “Energy House” – Europe’s only full-size fully functioning house, which has been reconstructed to replicate the UK’s hard-to-treat properties in a fully controllable climatic chamber and Coventry University’s “Carbon Challenge” scheme which empowered staff and students to take responsibility for their own electrical consumption, resulting in saving of 2,000,000kWh, £213,000 and 1100 tons of carbon in two years. A full list of this year’s winning and Highly Commended entries can be found on the UK’s Green Gown Awards website.

Now in their 7th year and represented internationally by ACTS, The Green Gown Awards were founded in 2004 by the Higher Education Environmental Performance Improvement project and have grown in reputation and stature year on year. With a record number of entries, the Green Gown Awards are firmly established as the most prestigious recognition of sustainability excellence in the further and higher education sectors.

On 17 Oct 2011 – 18 Oct 2011 Seoul, Republic of Korea played host to the Major Groups and Stakeholders Asia Pacific meeting feeding into the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development processes (Rio + 20 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 4-6, 2012).

The meeting prepared an Asia Pacific Statement, responding  to the themes set by the UNCSD, as well as highlighting the unique challenges that face the Asia Pacific region, and the potential contributions from the region to the global debate. ACTS President, Leanne Denby, was there feed into discussions and better understand the direction the region and indeed the greater international community is taking.

“ACTS has been working with EAUC, AASHA, GUNI and KAGCI to develop an international response to RIO+20 on behalf of the tertiary education sector. In order to strengthen that statement it was esstential for us to have a presence at the Asia Pacific meeting. It was a real eye opener to be amongst so many crusaders from all countries of the Asia Pacific, and get a better understanding of the adversities each area faces. After being in the meeting, it has made the role of tertiary education in reaching sustainability even clearer to me.”

ACTS members have the opportunity to comment on the statement we intend to submit, which is due on November 1 2011. Please note that all comments or suggested changes must be track changed and returned to rio20@acts.asn.au no later than October 28. We apologise for the quick turnaround and hope this doesn’t deter you from reviewing the document.

Friday 11th November 2011
2.30 – 4.30 pm
Edith Cowan University
Room: JO 1.447 (Council Chambers)
Joondalup campus, Building 1, 4th floor

With sustainability in mind, you may like to come by train. The Joondalup train station is within easy walking distance of our campus. Building 1 is on the corner of Grand Boulevard and Kendrew Crescent, 1 kilometre from the train station. ECU has arranged a free TransPerth bus from the train station to campus (every 10 minutes). Take bus 10 for a direct route or 11 for a city tour.

This free ACTS forum will be:

• a conversation so please bring your great ideas and specifically the  ways of working that you have found to be successful;
• focussed on real examples with 5 minutes presentations to start discussion:
  • sustainability in superannuation by Patrick Chamberlain
  • Sustainability in planning by Tim Perkins
  • Sustainability in the social professions by Trudi Cooper
  • Sustainability in design by Alun Price; and
• a great opportunity to meet other sustainability professionals working in higher education in Western Australia with refreshments provided.

Please RSVP for catering purposes to
Dr Rowena Scott
ACTS Regional Director WA (Professional Development)
Phone: 08 6304 2447
Email: r.scott@ecu.edu.au