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$2m in sales to date: New Water opened its doors about 15 months
ago, and has so far sold about 1000 of the units. Company turnover is
already about $2 million, and there are 15 staff at the head office in
Ringwood in Melbourne’s east, and a salesman in Sydney.

Growing: “The business is growing, but the challenge is we are
still relatively unknown,” said CEO Andrew Pearce, who was formerly
managing director of TeleTech Asia Pacific, a leader in the call centre
outsourcing sector. “That’s the perennial challenge of small business,
I guess.”

Grey water treatment system next: The company is now in the
process of launching a household grey water treatment system, the Aqua
Reviva, a more sophisticated and expensive product than the Rain
Reviva. This will reuse water from washing machines, showers and hand
basins. Grey water makes up 35 per cent of household water.

Range of sizes: New Water has five shareholders, including the
inventor of the two products, Mal Gordon, a commercial plumber. The
Rain Reviva comes in different sizes. The largest holds 5700 litres of
water and is six metres long and 1.9 metres high. The smallest holds
2000 litres and is four metres long and 1.1 metres high. Widths vary
from 1.1 metres to 1.9 metres.

Out of sight: Mr Pearce said one of the advantages of the Rain
Reviva was that it was out of sight. “There are no tanks in place that
hide windows,” he said. Also, the bladder fills very quickly because it
is connected to the house’s rainwater spouts at several points. Being
small, it can fit into confined spaces. New Water also installs a range
of conventional water tanks.

The Age, 25/11/2005, p. 2

Source: Erisk – www.erisk.net 

Efficient use of natural light: The ninety square metres of
flow-though spaces have an entry, a main office, a meeting room, a
vestibule kitchen, a fully decked bathroom and a separate office for
interior decorator Mrs Sederof. There is also a north-facing deck,
which is used as an outdoor lunch and sitting space. It catches the
breezes and the sun. The whole office suite, which was raised on a
lightweight platform, is all about capturing sunlight and natural
cross-ventilation. Mr Sederof says air-conditioning is only ever needed
when the temperature rises above 35 degrees. “And then we only put it
on for the computers.”

$22 winter heating bill: The winter heating bill was more
impressive. With the shades up and sunlight pouring into the office,
“we spent only $22 on heating this year”, says Mr Sederof. They set up
their business in 1980 when they were seen as eccentrics who attracted
“hippie clients with little money”. Their housing and high-budget
projects have now earned them more than 20 awards – mainly for
exemplifying energy-efficient or sustainable housing – but the primary
rules of the game remain unchanged.

Materials the key: “It’s still all about double glazing, thermal
mass, cross-ventilation and insulation,” said Mr Sederof. The internal
walls of the office, for instance, are made of 60-millimetre straw
plasterboard, which is heavier but cheaper than ordinary plasterboard.
Aside from containing their ecological footprint so effectively and, as
Mr Sederof points out, “adding phenomenal value to the property’, one
day in their retirement years, the upstairs suite might be useful as a
rentable office or living space. Hence the full-scale bathroom.

The Age, 26/11/2005, p. 9

Source: Erisk – www.erisk.net 

Western Australia has created the nation’s first tradeable legal right
to offset carbon dioxide pollution by tree plantings, according to the
state government.

Tony McRae, parliamentary secretary to the Agriculture minister, said
the Oil Mallee Company of Australia had become the first company to
take advantage of the new legislation.

Visitors from Japan joined Mr McRae, 40 farmers, industry
representatives and community members at an official launch of the
Carbon Rights and Plantation Agreement held at a large mallee property
in WA, the Shields’ family farm, near Koorda in WA’s Wheatbelt.

“This legislation makes the creation of legally enforceable agreements for carbon dioxide trading,” Mr McRae said.

“Effectively carbon dioxide has become a commodity which can be bought
and sold and will encourage the development of a major tree growing
industry in the Wheatbelt based on the value of the carbon stored by
mallee eucalypts.”

OMC chairman Professor Syd Shea said that as mallee trees grew, they
absorbed carbon dioxide into the leaves, branches and their large root
systems.

“Carbon dioxide absorbed from the atmosphere can be claimed as a carbon
credit and the credit traded to offset pollution Professor Shea said.

“Above-ground material can also be harvested for a variety of uses.”

The unique attributes of the mallee eucalypt have been recognised by
Japan’s second largest power company whose representatives also
attended the ceremony.

The company has worked with the OMC over the past five years to
research and prove that mallees can create an efficient carbon sink. A
1,000ha trial was established in 2003 and has been highly successful.
Interestingly, the power company supplied electricity to the Japanese
city of Kyoto, which lends its name to the protocol on climate change.

An international market would allow sale of this credit to an
ever-increasing trading network. Australia’s refusal to enter into the
Kyoto Protocol results in Australia being locked out of this lucrative
trade.

Arising from regulatory determinations, Integral Energy has introduced
an “inclining block tariff”. This involves restructuring the main
tariff from a flat “any-time” rate to a two-part tariff, with the
second block charged at a higher rate than for the first block.

Network becoming strained: Integral says this tariff reform
began the process of establishing a price signal related to electricity
consumption. “Our analysis shows that rapid growth in the use of
air-conditioning places an increased strain on our network, but these
costs are shared amongst all customers. Over the last 18 months we have
strongly advocated the need for tariff reform as a means of providing a
price signal to customers based on their consumption and usage
patterns.”

Differential will increase: Integral argues that customers with
air-conditioning are typically its largest consumers who, under the new
tariff structure, will pay a slightly higher cost for their higher
demand over time. “Based on customer reaction, and the potential for
demand management benefits, we intend to progressively increase the
price differential between the blocks.”

DM program launched at Castle Hill: Integral Energy has also
launched an Australian first Demand Management (DM) program at the busy
Castle Hill commercial centre in March, in partnership with the NSW
Government’s Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA). The
program is designed to cut peak load on Castle Hill infrastructure and
delay the need for costly network upgrades.

Greenhouse savings: It says: “With commitment from leading
retailers at Castle Towers, and the potential for more to join, the
program will also deliver significant reductions in greenhouse gas
emissions.”

Reference: Integral Energy Annual Performance Report 2004, 51
Huntingwood Drive, Huntingwood NSW 2148, PO Box 6366, Blacktown NSW
2148, ph: (02) 9853 6666, fax: (02) 9853 6000, email: integral@integral.com.au website: http://www.integral.com.au

Federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson and Industry Minister lan
Macfarlane have put a formal proposal to the Prime Minister for a $1
million study on the viability of a home-grown nuclear power industry,
according to The Australian Financial Review (28 November 2005, p.3).

We must seriously consider home-grown nuclear power: “We can’t
responsibly dig… 30 per cent of the world’s uranium out of the ground,
export it overseas and allow some 440 reactors to operate and expand in
other parts of the world and not seriously consider this as an option
for ourselves,” Dr Nelson told Channel 9’s Sunday program.

Full examination necessary: Nelson and Macfarlane had called for
a full examination of developing a nuclear power industry to be carried
out by the Australian Academy of Science in collaboration with other
academies, he said.

The Australian Financial Review, 28/11/2005, p. 3

Climate Friendly make Green Power available nationally through
web: Climate Friendly is a new wave company which makes Green
Power available nationally using a web interface and also directly to
the corporate sector. Customers can choose between Climate Neutral
products such as Emerald (which uses 100% accredited Green Power),
Green (25% accredited Green Power) and Economy (10% accredited Green
Power).

Climate Friendly to buy RECs to match customers energy
consumption: While Climate Neutral customers continue to purchase
electricity from their standard electricity supplier, Climate
Friendly will purchase and surrender the equivalent number of Green
Power Rights and Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) from eligible
generation sources to meet the customer’s electricity consumption.
The net result is identical to purchasing Green Power from an
electricity supplier.

Port Kembla’s new Green Power generator to power 1500 homes:The
Port Kembla 0.5MW Wave Energy Plant located 200m east of the eastern
breakwater in Port Kembla, NSW, was granted Green Power approval in
September 2005. Since Green Power accreditation was granted, a
full-scale ocean trial of the Energetech wave energy device has taken
place at Port Kembla, and a proportion of this power has also been
used to produce desalinated water on-board the device. Results from
the latest trial are positive, and indicate the technology is capable
of producing more power and fresh water than has previously been
claimed. Based on the recent test results, a full scale project
should power up to 1500 homes, or produce three million litres of
water per day per production unit.

Energy Australia partnership adds to Green Power portfolio:
A newly formed partnership between EnergyAustralia Pty Ltd and
International Power Pty Ltd, called EA-IPR Retail Partnership, is a
new participant in the National Green Power Accreditation Program.
Trading as EnergyAustralia, electricity and gas retailer in Victoria
and South Australia, the partnership has added to EnergyAustralia’s
Green Power product portfolio. EnergyAustralia’s Green Saver product
is 12.5% accredited Green Power and was launched on 5 September 2005
to provide residential customers with a new Green Power accredited
energy option. EnergyAustralia will also shortly be launching a new
commercial Green Power product called Green@Work
for its Commercial and Industrial customers in Victoria and South
Australia.

Erisk Net,
22/11/2005