The Generator news service publishes articles on sustainable development, agriculture and energy as well as observations on current affairs. The news service is used on the weekly radio show, The Generator, as well as by a number of monthly and quarterly magazines. A podcast of the Generator news is also available.
As well as Giovanni’s articles it picks up the most pertinent articles from a range of other news services. You can publish the news feed on your website using RSS, free of charge.
The Queensland Law Society has congratulated the Queensland government on the passing of long-needed reforms aimed at making purchasing property easier.
President Ian Brown said the passing of new legislation will simplify the residential sales process and is a big step forward for the property industry.
“We thank the the Queensland Government for the opportunity to be involved in the consultation on this newly enacted legislation,” Mr Brown said.
“We have long believed that good stakeholder consultation is the key to good law.
“However, despite positive steps being taken to make purchasing property easier, we caution potential homeowners to take care when finalising their contracts, with changes to cooling off periods soon coming into effect.
“Previously, waiving or shortening the cooling off period required a certificate from an independent lawyer which demonstrated that the lawyer has explained to the buyer the effect of the contract, the certificate and the effect of waiving your cooling off rights.
“The Property Occupations Bill 2013, which replaces aspects of the Property Agents and Motor Dealers Act 2000, allows for shortening or waiving buyers rights to a cooling off period when purchasing property.
“Under the new laws, a buyer personally can waive their cooling off rights simply through written notice to the seller.
“However, it is important for buyers to be aware of this change and be cautious when purchasing property, especially if you are unfamiliar with Queensland’s property laws.
“It is always important to obtain independent legal advice when purchasing residential property.
“We hope that buyers will always contact their solicitor before signing.”
Photon Energy Australia, a subsidiary of global solar power solutions and services company Photon Energy, has recently completed the construction of a large solar power system for a major office building in Sydney’s Central Business District (CBD). The 283 kWp power plant has been commissioned and is up and running. The solar power plant supplements the building’s main daytime energy source.
The power plant will produce 371,000 kWh annually, saving 352 tons of CO2 each year and will assist in achieving a 5 Star Greenstar and 5 Star NABERS rating. The power plant will be used to cover daytime loads with the possibility to export surpluses to the grid, thus generating additional revenue. The system is designed to cover a certain amount of electricity to the building per annum in order to meet the NABERS rating and utilises the available roof surfaces and exposed facades to maximise the output per square meter at the lowest cost per kWh.
“Solar energy is rapidly changing the way Australians look at energy consumption”, says Michael Gartner Managing Director of Photon Energy Australia. “With new financing models available, such as solar leasing or power purchase agreements, customers can now have their own eco-building with a rooftop power plant with no upfront investment. Just costs savings”, Gartner continues.
“PV-systems for self-consumption on commercial property raise a company’s profile, which can be a vital factor in a market where customers increasingly demand that corporates walk the talk on resource efficiency”, says Georg Hotar, CEO of Photon Energy Group.
Solar energy as a power source protects companies against volatile and growing energy prices, thereby raising shareholder value and providing a competitive advantage.
“We are proud to be associated with this flagship project, which highlights that solar PV has reached the tipping point of becoming the most cost effective way of achieving energy efficiency and is a viable choice even given the constraints of inner city locations”, Gartner concludes.
On the eve of the first Abbott Government Federal Budget, business confidence has taken an unexpected downturn. The latest Westpac Group CCIQ Pulse Survey for the March Quarter reveals significant falls in business confidence in both the state and national economies. Weeks of government deficit and debt discussions have spooked the business community.
And with the threat of reduced government services, increased taxes and asset sales looming in both the May 13 Federal Budget and June 3 Queensland Budget, concerns are unlikely to ease.
Chamber of Commerce & Industry Queensland General Manager of Advocacy, Nick Behrens, said the Pulse survey of business conditions identified a dip in the recent strong business sentiment.
“These results confirm that we have failed to capitalise on the past six months and the start to 2014 has not seen the initial strides that we would have liked,” Mr Behrens said today.
The last Pulse survey showed record highs in the second half of 2013 for the outlook of the state and national economies. While results remain in positive territory for the March Quarter, there have been significant falls overall.
“These results are unfortunately further reflected across all key business indicators with falls recorded in general business conditions, sales and revenue, profitability, employment and capital expenditure,” Mr Behrens said.
“Diminished consumer and business confidence bought about by government deficit and debt discussions and rising business costs are key contributing factors influencing these results.
“The results are a strong indication that we cannot take business confidence for granted across the conversations relating to deficits, debt and asset sales. They are unquestionably spooking consumer confidence.”
Some of the key points in the Pulse survey reveal:
The Business Confidence Index for Queensland decreased in the March Quarter by 7.1 percentage points to 51.7. The majority of businesses are expecting similar (32 per cent) or stronger (38 per cent) economic conditions in Queensland over the coming 12 months.
The National Business Confidence Index fell by 8.0 percentage points to 52.2. The majority of businesses expect the national economy to strengthen (38 per cent) or remain the same (35 per cent) over the next 12 months.
General business conditions contracted over the quarter, falling 7.5 percentage points to 44.9. The majority of businesses indicated that general business conditions were weaker (38 per cent) or remained the same (36 per cent).
The Sales and Revenue Index fell 8.1 percentage points to 44.3, with 40 per cent of businesses reporting weaker sales over the three month period.
The Profitability Index decreased by 6.4 percentage points to 37.1, the lowest level recorded since the June quarter 2011. Only 17 per cent of businesses reported stronger profitability levels during the quarter.
The Employment Levels Index decreased by 3.4 percentage points to 45.2. The majority of Queensland businesses are keeping employment levels steady (63 per cent).
Mr Behrens said it was crucial that once the Federal and State budgets had been delivered, politicians start focussing on the positives in the economy.
“When we saw some green shoots in the last six months CCIQ cautioned care and attention were needed to nurture a further recovery in business growth. These results indicate it is too early to take for granted,” he said.
“Optimism and expectation of growth in the state and national economy whilst diminished remains there, but Queensland is yet to convert this anticipated improvement in actual business performance.
“The conversion that was anticipated to occur in the March quarter looks to be pushed out by at least three months.”
Crime Stoppers Queensland and Brisbane City Council’s third anti-graffiti campaign cropped up early morning today in West End.
Crime Stoppers Queensland Operations Manager Jonathon Cowley told the Westender that the AU$3.1 million is spent on cleaning up public spaces and he would not be surprised if local businesses and property owners have to spend a similar total amount.
“What are we missing out on by spending AU$3.1 million removing unwanted graffiti?”
A price tag both Crime Stoppers Queensland and Brisbane City Council urge residents to help them cut.
In the pamphlet they are handing out today says that, “graffiti vandalism can make some people feel unsafe. Further, graffiti vandals can progress to other criminal activities.”
When asked what that entails, Mr Cowley says it is more the feeling that if there is a lot of graffiti in an area, what other crimes are ignored?
“Law and order doesn’t feel right in the area.”
“[That] definitely doesn’t mean that [law and order] isn’t [doing it] right, but it gives you that uneasy feeling.”
When it comes to commissioned graffiti, he says Crime Stoppers Queensland and Brisbane City Council are fine with that.
“It’s an outlet for people who are that artistic to be able to do that [legally].”
There have been discussions surrounding legal graffiti walls in Brisbane. But unfortunately the availability of such walls are limited.
At the moment they are more focused on creating workshops where people come and legally put up their own graffiti at the workshop.
The benefit, he says, of providing such workshops and legal graffiti walls is that they are less likely to get tagged.
“Those places won’t get tagged […] even though [the graffiti artists] don’t have much respect for the law and [property], they do have respect for other artists, or who they believe are artists.”
Corporate Social Responsibility is not enough to save the planet, warns global report.
University of Sydney Business School’s Steve Elliot
An international team of experts backed by the United States National Science Foundation has devised an eight point plan designed to halt unsustainable levels of environmental degradation wrought by the private sector.
The plan is contained in a report titled New Nature of Business, which has been endorsed by a wide range of environmental agencies, academic institutions, government utilities and firms including the oil giant BP, Dow Chemicals and the India based multinational Wipro.
The report, the first international cross disciplinary project of its kind to be funded by the National Science Foundation, “aims to address the lack of awareness, review the challenges businesses face and present a persuasive case for action”.
Highlighting the urgent need for action, the report’s executive summary says that the degradation of the natural world is impacting dangerously on the availability of everything from clear air to food, water and natural resources that were once abundant.
The executive summary continues by saying that the destruction of habitats is leading to a decline in species and, increasingly, to extinctions and that climate change is now a major contributor to the forces that threaten ecosystems and biodiversity world-wide.
In a forward Director of the Board of the United Nation’s Global Compact, Matthew Tukaki, says that “distracted by global transformations and local crises, business has overlooked environmental degradation and the consequent destruction of biodiversity”.
Authored by the University of Sydney Business School’s Steve Elliot, Oregon State University’s Sally Duncan, and consultant Nigel Malone, the report goes on to provide firms with a “decision-making framework” for an environmentally sustainable future.
The step-by-step framework begins with an examination of environmental awareness levels within a firm and of relevant environmental issues and continues on to the formulation and implementation of appropriate responses.
The framework also covers the identification of sustainable business opportunities.
In a section of the report “Nature is part of everything we do”, Wipro’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Anurag Behar, talks of the importance of engaging employees in the transition to sustainable operations.
“We had regular communications to build awareness, employee eco-chapters at our sites and employees proposing improvements in their areas and taking responsibility for them,” Mr Behar said. “In isolation, these may not seem significant but employee engagement and ownership are critical, they create the corporate environment and build the culture.”
In another chapter titled “Risk versus rewards”, BP’s Group Ecology Expert, Mark Johnson, says that his company identifies its key environmental challenges through its risk processes.
These processes “cover both current risks (issues which occur now and may affect our business operations now) and strategic risks (issues which are being talked about and may affect our business operations in 5 to 10 plus years),” he said.
Co-author Professor Steve Elliot says that many firms have not responded to existing environmental challenges because they are unaware of them, are uncertain of their relevance or are uncertain as to how to deal with them.
“Some firms, particularly in the services sector, do not see that they are at least in part responsible for the degradation that we see all around us,” Professor Elliot said.
“Irrespective of their sector, it’s no longer good enough for firms to adopt CSR policies that focus only on their employees or the local community,” he added. “To be good corporate citizens they must also act to protect the environment.”
Sounding a financial warning to firms that fail to act, the New Nature of Business report quotes the founder of Singapore’s Siloso Beach Resort, Ng Swee Hwa, as saying that “consumer awareness will lead to less profitability in the long run for those who do not practice sustainability”.
New Nature of Business: how business pioneers support biodiversity and ecosystem services, is available at www.newnatureofbusiness.org
The report encourages the use of www.newnatureofbusiness.org as an “ongoing source of information and a place to collaborate, contribute and share experiences” with biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES) which are defined as the benefits that nature provides.
The report also invites companies to participate in developing and testing the “Decision-making framework” and to register with the website to stay abreast of BES news.
Atop the hill West of Boundary St, 98.9 is the centre of Country Music and indigenous broadcasting in West End
As part of its relentless counter reformation campaign to eliminate all forms of community service and put the corporations and churches in charge of all aspects of our daily lives, the Federal Government is proposing to cut all funding to Community Radio.
West End community radio station, 98.9 FM is an integral part of the local community, especially those who like Country Music. Brisbane’s famous 4zzzFM is not just a great supporter of live music and local culture, it has a long and powerful tradition of bringing down governments and exposing corruption, oppression and wrongdoing.
It is the effectiveness of community radio that has it firmly in the government’s sights.
A year ago, a strong grass roots campaign reversed a proposed decision by the Gillard/Rudd Government to cut funding to the program to make community radio digital. This government is planning to cut funding altogether.
In response, the Community Broadcasters Association is calling on you to take action.
Our community radio stations are at serious risk.
The Commission of Audit last week recommended that funding for the Community Broadcasting Program be scrapped. The Government is set to hand down its Federal Budget on Tuesday. If the Government adopts the Commission of Audit’s recommendation in the budget, we could see community radio stations across the country forced off air.
Will you help protect our community radio stations by emailing the Treasurer now?
We have less than five days to ensure cuts to community radio stations don’t end up in the budget.
Take a minute right now to email the Treasurer Joe Hockey and tell him that our community radio stations are too important to be put on the scrap heap.
We know that community radio is an integral part of the Australian broadcasting landscape. Community radio provides vital content for so many different communities, especially Indigenous, ethnic, seniors, youth, the vision impaired, religious, and the arts communities.
We can’t afford to lose any of the stations who provide local content that commercial and public broadcasters can’t or won’t cater for.
Help protect our community radio stations by clicking here to email the Treasurer.
Thanks for your support,
Adrian Basso, President, Community Broadcasting Association of Australia and the Commit to Community Radio team
The Queensland Law Society has congratulated the Queensland government on the passing of long-needed reforms aimed at making purchasing property easier.
Crime Stoppers Queensland and Brisbane City Council’s third anti-graffiti campaign cropped up early morning today in West End.
When asked what that entails, Mr Cowley says it is more the feeling that if there is a lot of graffiti in an area, what other crimes are ignored?
At the moment they are more focused on creating workshops where people come and legally put up their own graffiti at the workshop.
