Posted by Sustainability Editor

Next Level Sustainability Training: GRI Standards for Sustainability Reporting

Last chance to enrol in Pre Conference Training: GRI Standards for Sustainability Reporting

Next Level Sustainability is offering the Global Reporting Initiative’s Standards for Sustainability Reporting training course on Friday 29 and Saturday 30 March.

This 2-day GRI Certified Training Course will cover corporate sustainability reporting know-how, and how to run a smooth and effective reporting process.

Registration fees start at $1,265.

GRI Certified Training on Sustainability Reporting

This course is provided by GeoTrends Sustainability, a GRI Certified Training Partner with training materials certified by GRI under the GRI Certified Training Program. The course explains how companies/organisations obtain value through GRI Standards based Sustainability Reporting because it is a proactive, structured, and methodical approach to disclosures about organisational performance, particularly non-financial disclosures. Companies which cannot identify material issues, choose to ignore them, or fail to disclose them, may damage their reputation and brand loyalty and increase the risk of further regulation.

In this training you will learn to:

  • Assess an organization’s significant impacts along the value chain
  • Conduct stakeholder engagement as a function of sustainability reporting
  • Decide what belongs in the sustainability report through a materiality assessment
  • Produce performance measures
  • Align your report with other reporting frameworks (e.g., CDP; Integrated Reporting)
  • Develop top-quality sustainability reports

For further information and to make a reservation, visit the Next Level Sustainability website or contact Dr Robert Gale. 

E: r.gale@nextlevelsustainability 
M: 0434 216 136

5 Sustainability Tips That Require Minimal Effort

When it comes to going green, many can be overwhelmed with advice to cutting your carbon footprint, including making your own compost, installing solar panels and trading in your petrol-powered vehicle for an economic electric one.

Whilst we advocate for all of the above, we also want to provide you with sustainability tips that are quick, easy and simple to implement into your day-to-day living.

  1. Embrace your fresh local produce

    This is one of the easier sustainability tips to undertake. Opt for a trip to the local farmer’s markets to enjoy fresher (and more flavoursome) produce. Support your local community while saving the amount of CO2 that would have been spent transporting your fruit and vegetables half the way around the world to the supermarket.

  2. Turn off your computer

    We know it’s too easy to leave your PC or laptop idling by in case of a Netflix emergency – but did you know we spend $250 billion per year on powering up computers? To make it worse, only 15% of that time is spent when people are actually active. Put your technology to bed and help the environment (and your electricity bill!).
  3. Limit your paper usage

    With everything moving into the digital world, our need for printing and paper usage is fast becoming limited. Do your part and avoid the use of printing or wasting paper. Yes – even though it’s recyclable, it still requires a lot of time and resources to make that happen. This sustainability tip doesn’t only need to stop in the workplace – don’t print receipts if you’re going to throw them out straight away and avoid unnecessary packaging (including your 15 cent eco bags if you can).
  1. Cut your spending

    We’re all guilty of going overboard with our spending every now and then – but have you ever stopped to think of where your unnecessary clutter will eventually end up? Whether your vice is clothing, homewares or electronic gadgets, it’s important to consider prior to purchasing about the environmental impacts of how this was produced, and what effect it is going to have after you have finished with it. In all cases, one of the easier sustainability tips to utilise the 30-day rule – wait 30 days before you make a decision to purchase what might be considered an impulse purchase.
  1. Cook from scratch

    Yes, this sustainability tip is for the Uber Eats lover in many of us. And it’s really quite simple – the more you order out, the greater your use of packaging, plastics and resources. Save the environment while adding some extra funds to your bank balance and opt for some home cooking. Use your pressure cooker to save even more time, money and energy.

HEAR FROM THE EXPERTS IN SUSTAINABILITY – LESS THAN ONE MONTH TO GO!

Secure your place at the 2019 National Sustainability Conference in Brisbane this April! Check out the program and registration options here.

The Road Ahead to Building a More Sustainable World

“The Garden of Eden is no more”, Sir David Attenborough told Davos 2019 as he delivered his verdict on the destruction that humanity has inflicted on the natural world. Sir David also offered hope, noting that we humans are a “problem-solving species”, but he reiterated that we have just a decade to solve climate change.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres mirrored these sentiments in his “State of the World” address. Megatrends such as climate change are more and more interlinked, he said, but responses are fragmented. He warned that not tackling this was “a recipe for disaster”.

While few of us should need reminding on how pressing the issue of fighting climate change is, what surprised me was how this concern permeated all aspects of the conversation on sustainable development at Davos. And much was up for discussion, from inequality, biodiversity loss and the challenges of reskilling in the face of automation, to global governance, cyber security, food systems and the future of the financial system, to name but a few.

New ways to realise the Sustainable Development Goals

Technology and finance – the main enablers of the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the coming years – were centre-stage. Even the most technologically challenged of us would be awed by the discussions outlining the potential of artificial intelligence, big data and blockchain to make the world a better place. The variety of game-changing ideas in this area opened eyes – and mouths. They ranged from a project to protect airports and critical infrastructure from cyberattacks to encouraging businesses to play their part in realizing the SDGs by incorporating the goals into their business model.

The Road Ahead to Building a More Sustainable World

Image courtesy of the World Economic Forum

Of course, disruptive technology is not a silver bullet for achieving the SDGs, and its associated risks, as well as its benefits, were prominently featured. But the Fourth Industrial Revolution can help accelerate progress towards the SDGs. At the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), we are working to ensure that economies in developing countries can harness innovation to eliminate extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity.

In concrete terms, we have just launched Accelerator Labs in 60 developing countries to identify and connect problem-solvers across the world, using both local networks and data from novel sources, ranging from social media to satellite imagery. We want to support innovators such as Dana Lewis, who created open-source tools to manage Type 1 diabetes, or people like the entrepreneurs who built floating farms in flood-prone Bangladesh.

The Accelerator Labs will become integral to UNDP’s existing country-based teams and infrastructure. They will enable UNDP to connect its global network and development expertise that spans 170 countries with a more agile innovation capacity, to support countries in their national development priorities, ultimately working towards a wide range of SDGs.

Innovative finance

The topic of finance was rarely absent from my exchanges with government representatives and corporate leaders. “Innovative finance” in particular dominated conversations, from its ability to support migrants and refugees to the potential of so-called “initial coin offerings” to fund the next generation of high-growth companies.

We explored ways to attract finance to the SDGs, as well as the need to set up robust impact management processes and tools to identify companies that make economic, social and governance practices part of their DNA. Those sorts of changes could influence companies’ investment flows so they, in turn, are more likely to align with the SDGs.

Connecting the dots between technology and finance, the UN Secretary-General’s Task Force on Digital Financing for the SDGs had its first face-to-face meeting. The role of the Task Force, which I co-chair with Maria Ramos, the CEO of Absa Group in South Africa, is to recommend strategies to harness the potential of financial technology to advance the SDGs.

This article was originally published by the World Economic Forum. Click here to continue reading entire article.

SECURE YOUR PLACE AT THE 2019 NATIONAL SUSTAINABILITY CONFERENCE THIS APRIL!

Hear from experts in all facets of sustainability as they discuss the challenges, opportunities, advancements and progress for sustainability in Australia.
View the 2019 program here. 

The Healthiest Destinations in the World Have Been Revealed

When it comes to health, you’d think London would be leading the pack with its extensive amount of spas, gyms and health-centric eateries. But, according to a new list, no UK city even makes the top 10.

TravelSupermarket has just revealed its list of the world’s healthiest cities, taking into account the number of spas, fitness centres, gyms, yoga studios, pilates studios and parks they have, along with restaurants with vegan options, health food shops, the city’s average daylight hours and how much it costs to stay for a night.

All of these things considered, the site revealed Paris to be the world’s healthiest city, followed by Chiang Mai in Thailand and Spain’s Barcelona.

Below are the top 10 healthiest cities in the world:

1. Paris, France

2. Chiang Mai, Thailand

3. Barcelona, Spain

4. Pattaya, Thailand

5. Vancouver, Canada

6. Miami, USA

7. San Francisco, USA

8. Lisbon, Portugal

9. Denpasar, Indonesia

10. Buenos Aires, Argentina

The French capital boasts an impressive 1,305 vegan restaurants, 894 spas and 139 parks – housing the largest number of healthy lifestyle facilities per square kilometre.

Chiang Mai, with its seven spas per square kilometre, earned second place while Barcelona’s large number of spas, yoga and pilates studios won the bronze.

This article was originally published by the Evening Standard. Click here to view original article.

WHAT MAKES A LIVEABLE CITY? HAVE YOUR SAY AT THE 2019 LIVEABLE CITIES CONFERENCE.

Presenter spaces are open – submit your 300 word overview for your chance to take the stage and share your projects, insight and developments in creating healthier, sustainable spaces to an audience of like-minded professionals. Find out more here.

the healthiest cities in the world

Here’s What Happens to Our Plastic Recycling When it Goes Offshore

Last year many Australians were surprised to learn that around half of our plastic waste collected for recycling is exported, and up to 70% was going to China.

So much of the world’s plastic was being sent to China that China imposed strict conditions on further imports. The decision sent ripples around the globe, leaving most advanced economies struggling to manage vast quantities of mixed plastics and mixed paper.

By July 2018, which is when the most recent data was available, plastic waste exports from Australia to China and Hong Kong reduced by 90%. Since then Southeast Asia has become the new destination for Australia’s recycled plastics, with 80-87% going to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Other countries have also begun to accept Australia’s plastics, including the Philippines and Myanmar.

But it looks like these countries may no longer deal with Australia’s detritus.

In the middle of last year Thailand and Vietnam announced restrictions on imports. Vietnam announced it would stop issuing import licences for plastic imports, as well as paper and metals, and Thailand plans to stop all imports by 2021. Malaysia has revoked some import permits and Indonesia has begun inspecting 100% of scrap import shipments.

Why are these countries restricting plastic imports?

The reason these countries are restricting plastic imports is because of serious environmental and labour issues with the way the majority of plastics are recycled. For example, in Vietnam more than half of the plastic imported into the country is sold on to “craft villages”, where it is processed informally, mainly at a household scale.

Informal processing involves washing and melting the plastic, which uses a lot of water and energy and produces a lot of smoke. The untreated water is discharged to waterways and around 20% of the plastic is unusable so it is dumped and usually burnt, creating further litter and air quality problems. Burning plastic can produce harmful air pollutants such as dioxins, furans and polychlorinated biphenyls and the wash water contains a cocktail of chemical residues, in addition to detergents used for washing.

Working conditions at these informal processors are also hazardous, with burners operating at 260-400℃. Workers have little or no protective equipment. The discharge from a whole village of household processors concentrates the air and water pollution in the local area.

Before Vietnam’s ban on imports, craft villages such as Minh Khai, outside Hanoi, had more than 900 households recycling plastic scraps, processing 650 tonnes of plastics per day. Of this, 25-30% was discarded, and 7 million litres of wastewater from washing was discharged each day without proper treatment.

These recycling villages existed before the China ban, but during 2018 the flow of plastics increased so much that households started running their operations 24 hours a day.

The rapid increase in household-level plastic recycling has been a great concern to local authorities, due to the hazardous nature of emissions to air and water. In addition, this new industry contributes to an already significant plastic litter problem in Vietnam.

This article was originally published by The Conversation. Click here to read entire article.

DISCOVER THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABILITY

Join the discussion on the current challenges, successes and opportunities for Australia’s sustainability practices at the 2019 National Sustainability Conference this April.

Find out more here.