Web version – Climate_Project CPA Centering on Excellence Sydney NSW 12 May 2010

A great title for an excellent program  CPA Australia are hosting over the next few weeks in several centres around Australia.

This morning I had the privilege of speaking to a group of CPA’s in Sydney on climate change and sustainability.

The PowerPoint slides that generated some conversation are attached to this post.

A couple of things that we did discuss:

• The use of language – what does sustainability really mean? There seems to be a push for sustainability to mean financial viability, social involvement and a range of other things that obscure the real intent of sustainability, which is environmentally focused. One definition of sustainability is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Report of the World Commission On Environment and Development: Our Common Future, The Bruntland Commission, United Nations, 1987)
• The price of externalities. One participant raised the point that the reason we don’t value or recycle water or indeed assess carbon contributions fully is because there is no real economic price on either. How do we transition to an economy that prices these resources effectively?
• Every bit helps. We have to look at our businesses and understand what our carbon footprint is as a start to the cultural change required to drive behavioural change. We all have a role to play in developing awareness and understanding the issues.

 Thanks for contributing to the discussion today.