Posted in Social Sustainability

Sheep Cutting Solar Farm’s Maintenance Costs

University of Queensland is saving $50,000 a year in mowing costs at its Gatton campus solar farm by using sheep to keep the vegetation down.

In May last year,  the largest solar photovoltaic (PV) research facility in the southern hemisphere was switched on at Gatton. Comprising of more than 37,000 solar panels, the facility covers a fair bit of ground.

The ABC reports that to mow the grounds used to take 4 days – and cost a significant chunk of change.

Ten sheep were bsheep-solar-farmrought in to help cut mowing costs and seem to be enjoying their new digs; a 4.5 hectare section of the facility.

Given the success of the trial, a further 2.5 hectares will be opened up for the sheep.

It’s not uncommon for livestock to mingle with solar panels. We reported in May that goats and sheep will be used at a solar farm in Japan to help maintain electricity generation at the facility. That scenario goes beyond keeping the grass down – it seems vines growing on fences can throw shadows on some of that plant’s panels, reducing their efficiency.

Renewable energy and agriculture can often go hand-in-hand. Just last week, the Climate Council released a report regarding the renewable energy opportunities available to bush battlers through mixed grazing and electricity generation.

And it’s not just solar power stations where this can be done. At some wind farms across Australia, livestock can be seen contentedly chomping on grassy areas among the turbines, unperturbed by the gentle swooshing of the blades. We’re unaware of any reports of cows suffering from Wind Turbine Syndrome.

One things for sure though, there’s nary a cow to be seen grazing among the electricity generation turbines at the coal-fired Hazelwood Power Station in Victoria; nor sheep in the nearby Morwell open cut coal mine.

Read more.

Building the ‘New Economy’ With Sustainable Social Enterprise

Social-Enterprise sustainabilityThere is a critical need for more diversity in business, and social enterprise could be the answer, writes Alan Greig, from the Social Enterprise Legal Models Working Group.

Sustainable social enterprise can go a long way towards introducing the kind of “values” into capitalism that Kevin Rudd once made reference to in 2009 – “the values of equity, sustainability and community”.

With the range of “values based” enterprises that are rapidly developing – many of them profiled in Pro Bono Australia News – social enterprise is already setting the pace in this direction. Social enterprise is changing the way we do business. As social enterprise grows in terms of scale and diversity, it will provide a solid foundation for building a people-centred “new economy” by also changing the way that income and benefits are distributed through the economy and within society.

How do we know this? In the UK, they have been tackling the task for some years. For example, Jonathan Bland, then chief executive of the Social Enterprise Coalition, said in the UK Guardian newspaper in 2007: “Britain has a very ‘thin’ model of business. The reality, he says, is that there are a range of fantastic business models but a real ignorance about the fact we can use them and be successful.”

The point being that there is a critical need for more “diversity” in the way we do business and the way we own businesses. Social enterprise is now delivering this diversity in spades through its operating models which create social impact, community empowerment and stakeholder ownership.

The economy is currently dominated by the private corporation where only one stakeholder matters – the investor. It is questionable whether this business model is environmentally and socially sustainable. Business systems need to develop beyond the financial bottom line and look to opportunities for involving a wider range of stakeholders – employees, customers, suppliers and the broader community.

Social enterprise business models can do this by delivering social good while keeping wealth in the hands of the community, and achieve this in the mainstream economy through trading activity that is both profitable and self-sustaining. Social enterprise is not anti-market nor is it anti-capital – though they are not based on maximising returns to shareholders through capital ownership (profit distribution is mostly limited to re-investing into the social mission of the enterprise and capital gain is often restricted through an asset lock).

The social enterprise belief system is that people and their knowledge are more powerful than money and that collaboration can be more effective than competition. Also, some forms of social enterprise – cooperatives for example – are re-invigorating the self-help, mutualism and trust of the “old days” when these values underpinned social activity and civil society. To read more click here.

The National Sustainability in Business Conference; renewables, markets, innovation, opportunities and capital will be held 23 – 24 March 2017 at the Hotel Grand Chancellor, Brisbane.

To register for the conference CLICK HERE.

New ‘world’s to-do list’ will ask for accountability for a $3 trillion cleanup of society

Mashable

Amina J. Mohammed, the U.N. Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning, speaks at the Social Good Summit on Sept. 27, 2015.

Amina J. Mohammed, the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning, speaks at the Social Good Summit on Sept. 27, 2015.

Two days after the United Nations formally adopted a set of ambitious goals to tackle the world’s most pressing problems by the year 2030, Amina J. Mohammed’s main concern is getting the word out about them to as many people as possible.

As the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning, Mohammed has spent the past three-and-a-half years corralling the 193 member states to agree on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), often referred to simply as the Global Goals — a blueprint for the world to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and combat climate change within the next 15 years.

Mohammed is one of the people at the forefront of a clever and widespread campaign to make the SDGs famous, especially among youth, including colourful designs and celebrity endorsements — all creative touches the MDGs sorely missed 15 years ago. And though it’s early yet, it seems to be working.

The SDGs were ratified last Friday to replace the last set of goals, the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were adopted in 2000 and expire at the end of this year. While the MDGs saw progress — the global number of people living in extreme poverty has declined by more than half since 1990, for example — various goals, such as reducing the child mortality rate by two-thirds, were not met. The MDGs were also primarily directed at developing countries.

Focusing on issues such as quality universal education, reduced inequalities, improved water and sanitation, sustainability and more, there are 163 specific targets across all 17 goals for tangible actions in developed and developing countries alike.

The 2030 agenda is also much more inclusive, mentioning certain identities such as people with disabilities for the first time — likely due in part to the extensive consultation program that asked average citizens what they wanted to see addressed.

Negotiations weren’t easy. According to The New York Times, certain U.N. member states, including Qatar and the Vatican, argued against including universal access to sexual and reproductive health services as part of Goal 5 (gender equality).

There’s also a hefty price tag; it will cost an estimated $3 trillion to achieve the 17 goals by 2030.

But now that the SDGs have been ratified, there’s one key piece of the puzzle left: how to hold governments accountable.

Read the full article here.

Sustainability in Business Association Education 2015

Sustainability in Business AssociationThe Sustainability in Business Association will celebrate its 6th birthday this year with a change of focus and a wider business and sectoral agenda.

Included in the new initiatives are;

• An updated website with increased member content. This will include sustainability podcasts and papers from a number of conferences.

• Members will have the opportunity to present at a selection of conferences and have their business papers published internationally with an ISBN number. Academic papers will also have the option of peer reviewing before publication.

• Sustainability streams and access to member rates will be available at the following affiliated conferences;
o Australian Liveable Cities Conference – Melbourne (stream dedicated to sustainability practitioners)
o Australian and New Zealand Disaster & Emergency Management Conference – Gold Coast
o Australian Regional Development Conference – Albury /Wodonga
o 8th International Urban Design Conference – Brisbane
o Developing Northern Australia Conference – Townsville

• The Association will also launch a “One Day Sustainability Meeting” series in Melbourne and Sydney, to facilitate the publication of member’s papers internationally.

• Members are encouraged to submit articles (minimum 400 maximum 600 words) for the Association Blog which has an average of 3700 readers per month. Each new story will also be heavily promoted on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

We will work with and encourage both State and Federal Governments to recognise the importance of the sector to the national economy.

Thanks to ongoing support from our business partners the Association will not charge any membership fees in 2015/16.

Lend your support to these initiatives and join now http://goo.gl/yz2cjg

The Digital Work Hub Project: a catalyst for urban and regional revitalisation in SEQ

A 2013 collaborative Regional Development Australia project between the Sunshine Coast, Moreton Bay, Logan/Redland, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, examined opportunities and challenges for establishing a network of digital work hubs across South East Queensland.

The global megatrends influencing the future of work as highlighted by Deliotte & AMP Capital 2013 Its (almost!) all about me. Workplace 2030: Built for us, concludes that workplaces of the future will be designed to connect and facilitate as interconnected hubs providing the catalyst for diverse, vibrant work precincts. Presently however, Australian cities with their agglomeration of knowledge workers and innovative high value added enterprises, coupled with housing affordability and lifestyle factors, are diverging structurally, economically and culturally from regional locations with fewer opportunities for all.

The Digital Work Hub Project addresses wide policy issues to capture productivity and societal gains from offering workers the opportunity to work in, or much closer to, their region of residence as part of an Active Work Model. Digital Work Hubs are a network of highly curated collaborative workspaces that co-locate a number of activities including coworking (freelancers, entrepreneurs, start-ups) and teleworkers (public and private sector professionals) into vibrant urban clusters.

The Digital Work Hub Project, a catalyst for urban and regional revitalisation in SEQ

The project illustrated that when combined with lifestyle choices of knowledge workers, co-location of businesses in regional digital hubs will contribute significantly to regional agglomeration strategies aimed at reducing the economic divide between cities and regional centres.

The research provides data at the both the SEQ and individual regional scale for initial demand modelling for digital work hubs. The research examined commuter flows, skilled and knowledge intensive worker patterns, and the potential cost savings, job and capital creation, and health and wellbeing benefits such collaborative workspaces could provide. In addition the key components required for success were investigated including design, curation and connection to a wider urban and workplace policy platform.

In 2014 the second stage of the project commenced with an SEQ Activation Plan working across the public and private sector to establish the network of digital work hubs across SEQ.

Steven Burgess, Principal, MRCagney and Michael Stott, Director of Masterplanning, Ramboll, presented the Digital Work Hub Project paper at the Liveable Cities Conference in 2014.