• Last week I was in Hobart where I organised and chaired the Climate variability stream at an International Conference plus gave a talk.
• 2 serious waste issues
• Johnnie Mac’s CD went to No 1!
• Amazing value - I was really surprised
• FarmReady Funding 
• Links to 8 Articles
• And a video

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Two serious waste items are fluorescent light globes and tubes and eWaste.  I started investigating this because I have a terminally dead computer aged around 6 years.  So I called the Council to ask about disposal.  Believe it or not this ISO 14001 certified council does not provide for disposal of these in a convenient manner.  At least they took down details for their corrective action system.  

Ewaste needs to be driven several kilometres to a place that charges me to leave it with them.  

Fluoro globes and tubes need a longer drive in a totally different direction to a council depot.  Otherwise we can allow this waste to mount up in our yards until the annual hard rubbish collection.

They were unable to tell me what happens if the waste is simply put in the recycle bin.  Not surprisingly most of this waste ends up in landfill polluting the water table.  Who actually goes to all this trouble?  They just don't get it.  If there is going to be environmental improvement in Australia it has to be easier to do it right than to do it wrong.

A great rule for all business is to make it easier to do it right than to do it wrong.  Then people stop making mistakes.

No newsletter last week because I went to Hobart for an international aquaculture conference which while both enjoyable and successful was also time consuming and tiring so I decided not to try to rush out a newsletter as well.

I organised and chaired the Climate variability stream which was big picture in the morning and down to the individual business level in the afternoon.  Some interesting snippets from this conference are posted as articles below.

For those of you who were interested in my friend Johnnie Mac’s CD release, he did finally go right up the charts, passing the likes of Michael Jackson and the Rolling Stones.  This was an astonishing effort for a local Australian horticulturalist and busker without a record label behind him.  25% of the proceeds will go straight to Johnnie and Michelle’s tree planting charity and better recognition will hopefully lead to a more stable income to help them to maintain their environmental work which is their major passion.  I thought that the marketing process may well have been interesting to some of you.  I know this was not typical of my newsletters but it was both environment and marketing!

I was really astomished!

I have been investigating what other online training courses across a range of subjects charge and I am amazed at the huge comparative value that I give my clients.  No I am not putting up my prices because I want to keep the systems within easy reach of small business people but I will point out that you get three to four times the value from me than from others who provide online training.

I am not trying to sell here.  I just ask whether you are open to realising the very real value you do get from me and if you know people who need help, please pass this on if you know someon who may find working with me helpful.

So I thought I would outline what you do get:

• 15 hours of very small group training and coaching with me by phone without needing to leave your office
• Plus I ask you to fax and email your files as you go along so that I can critique them and get back to you so that we can be sure that you are on target
• Plus you get a choice of training materials, with written, audio and video files so that you can choose the learning style that suits you.
• Plus you get a trainer/mentor who has been working with quality systems for 20 years and who has spent 12 years full time preparing clients like you for certification while keeping it simple, low paper and effective.  I am a qualified auditor and one of the most experienced in this field in Australia and I have the same systems in my own business so I do what I suggest to you which is actually quite unusual.  My own business is certified to ISO 9001, quality (customer satisfaction) and ISO 14001 (environment).
• Or you can choose the self paced CD's that have all the same materials as the coached courses, including the new videos, and you book in for on-on-one coaching when you need/want it which is on a pay as you go basis  after the first 30 minutes that is included.
• And of course you get the same help that I have charged some businesses up to $60,000 for when I have worked with them one-on-one in their worksites.  The online training is very leveraged because I wrote it once (and updated as it is now version 7) and deliver your download files many times although the coaching and mentoring phone calls are live with you, and I pass these savings on to you.

For farmers and fishers, the good news is that you can now get FarmReady funding to subsidise doing  environmental management systems and I will shortly add quality and safety to this.

If you are in other businesses, there is no subsidy but you will find that the greater efficiency and reduction in errors will more than cover your costs of getting your management system.

The 3 major problems that clients come to me for are:
1.    They are growing their businesses, or want to, but when they take on staff, they find that staff make errors, contractors can be worse and this adds a whole extra level of risk and stress.
2.    They are finding tender applications are increasing demands for proof of safety, quality and environmental or sustainability requirements.  
3.    They have image problems with either regulators of neighbours and need evidence of their environmental, safety and quality respectability
4.    and a fourth is that they would like to access additional markets that require certification.

YES if you have any of these problems, I can help you.

And I help you to keep it simple so that you do not need to take on an extra person to help management your system because the time you save more than covers the time to run your simple management system.

My kindest regards,

Jean

Articles

New Video for Jean click to view the video

Frustrated by Staff Errors? Blocked by Red Tape in Tenders? Just Want To Keep Things Simple? Your SOLUTION is here with Jean Cannon’s Online Training -Environment, Safety, Quality, Integrated, ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 Systems. Simple, effective, low paper increases profit it will save you time and money.....

Is Your Business Adaptable In the Face Of Disasters?

As I started to write my talk for the climate change stream at the aquaculture conference, I wondered whether that was the right question and changed it to ask “is your business viable in the face of climate variability?”   Aquaculture is very vulnerable to weather, energy and water availability and there is a huge up front investment involved

This is a question that a lot of businesses would benefit from asking even if they are not as vulnerable as aquaculture.

There are two issues that we should think about when discussing climate change and these are:

• How to prevent it getting worse
• How to cope with the consequences

Individually we can’t do much about the prevention and cure, so we need to manage our own consequences.

It is time to ignore what anyone believes, even though the science is very strong and there is only uncertainty around how fast it is happening and how severe it will be.  Meantime:.......................

The hidden costs of disasters for business

Last week I listened to a talk by barramundi grower, who was severely hit by category 5 cyclone Larry in North Queensland.

The start of this story is about cyclones but read on for floods, bushfires and even long term power failure.  Could your business cope?

Is excessive carbon dioxide causing whale strandings?

One of the really interesting talks at the aquaculture conference last week was by Professor Gustaaf Hallegraeff.

While the excess carbon dioxide emissions, increases phytoplankton the species distribution may change and that could bring some unexpected consequences including changes in distribution of species and increases in the number of toxic algal species...............

Huge Scottish potential for renewable energy

If Scotland stopped using oil, it would still have plenty of energy.  A new report shows that wind, wave and tidal energy could power the country seven times over within four decades.  Not a lot is being used at the moment and it would, hopefully will, require an estimated £4bn investment per year.

This would however, generate £14 billion profit from electricity sales by 2050 and provide about 60,000 jobs in Scotland, according to the report by the Offshore Valuation Group, a coalition of government and industry organisations.  It would also strengthen the case for Scotland becoming a major exporter of renewable energy to Europe.

How modern life puts fish at risk

There are some slow but steady changes putting fish and especially freshwater fish at risk and these are cause by a combination of climate change and agricultural practices.  Yesterday I listened to fascinating talk by fish vet Matt Landos and I am passing much of this on.

In the Murray River, decreased water is causing an increase in acid sulphate soils which release sulphuric acid into the river when it rains. And the change in pH causes and increase in fungal disease and puts them much more at risk of a range of fish health issues............

Global population needs aquaculture.

The world human population is growing so fast that by 2030 it is predicted that word food production must increase by 50%.  This is not going to happen by growth of plant and animal production.  It is certainly not going to happen from increased wild catch fishing as these stocks are already decreasing.  We must rely on aquaculture.

My comment here is that this is further reason NOT to allow the use of food to produce biofuels.

Rural water use and re-use

Victorian DPI are looking at the potential for aquaculture to become an extra use for the same water on the same farm and also add an extra income stream to that farm.

67% of Australian water is used by agriculture and 70% of that is in the Murray Darling Basin.  At present this water is only used once a the Primary Industries department is looking to use some of the large private water dams for aquaculture, their thinking being that if any nutrients are added to the water, it can be used by crops as the water is re-used........

Recyclable oyster basket from SA

BST Oyster Supplies from Cowell in South Australia is the centre for innovation in this industry.  First they developed the adjustable long-line growing system and now they have a new oyster basket which can be completely recycled, the Eyre Peninsula Tribune reports.

p.s. Most  of my readers tell me this newsletter is a great way of getting up to date information easily but if you are really snowed under by lots of emails from other sources you can chose to keep in touch by emailling jean@enviroaction.com.au and go onto the monthly list.