Any reason to be Green?

Legislation plays a pivotal role in how all successful businesses run. If you fail to meet the expectations of the major regulations put in place by the government, in time your business will get found out and suffer. How do you deal with areas and topic not covered by government legislation? Why would a business bother adopting policies and practices which aren’t legally binding?

Many businesses are aware of the Green issue, the IT industry and the government included. Several vendors, distributors and resellers have already taken steps to become more Green.

At Haymarket Media we’ve assessed our electricity consumption and recycling while looking to work with external suppliers to improve efficiencies and minimise environmental damage. We didn’t have to make these steps – we chose to. But that doesn’t mean every firm has such dedication to Green issues.

What’s in place?

According to the Department of State and Regional Development, Australia maintains one of the strictest regimes of environmental regulation in the world. The World Economic Forum’s 2006-07 Global Competitiveness Report ranks Australia 16th out of 125 nations for overall stringency of its environmental regulations.

One of the most significant local steps took place late last year when the newly elected Labor Party signed the instrument of ratification on the Kyoto Protocol. The previous government declined to ratify the agreement, arguing the protocol would cost Australians jobs and that Australia was already doing enough to cut emissions. The Kyoto Protocol comprises two mechanisms under which projects can receive credits for reducing emissions – the first is the joint implementation (JI) mechanism, the second the clean development mechanism (CDM). The signing was a huge step forward, but what’s really lacking is IT-specific regulations.

There are regulations which affect IT companies such as the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 (NGER Act) which establishes a national framework for Australian corporations to report greenhouse gas emissions, reductions, removals and offsets, and energy consumption and production, from 1 July 2008. The NGER Act aims to achieve positive outcomes for business, communities and government by cutting red tape for business by reducing the number of reports to government and eliminating duplication across existing state, territory and national schemes. This raises another current issue where Australia’s different states are implementing regulations, fragmenting the overall Green message.

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