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Terence Jeyaretnam

Terence Jeyaretnam's Blog (19)

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Zero Carbon Plan for Australia

Did you know that enough sunlight falls on the earth’s surface every hour to meet world energy demand for an entire year? That the average amount of solar energy that falls on Australia is about 15,000 times the nation’s energy use? Then there’s wind, geothermal, wave and hydro to draw on, in vast renewable quantities. Coal is cheap, but that’s because

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Added by Terence Jeyaretnam on August 23, 2010 at 12:00pm — 2 Comments

In search of the elusive Green Shopper

There are two types of people in the world - those who divide people into groups and those who don’t. In marketing, the practice of customer segmentation is important. It helps make sense of the complexity in the way decisions are made, especially in purchasing. Often, dividing people into four or five groups makes… Continue

Added by Terence Jeyaretnam on June 28, 2010 at 5:30pm — No Comments

A Low Carbon Growth Plan for Australia

There’s been a campaign of mind washing Australians, by those most to gain, to believe that a response to global warming through carbon mitigation will be at a significant cost to society that will result in job losses and a lower quality of life. This has virtually made the policy proposition for an emissions trading scheme a back-leaning ladder to climb. What’s more, this has turned the pinhole into a doorway for climate change deniers and skeptics to march into.

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Added by Terence Jeyaretnam on March 22, 2010 at 2:30pm — 1 Comment

Reframing Business for the 21st Century


The evidence is finally in. Business transactions do result in significant externalised environmental impact, which, if monetised, would result in a third of all profits from the world’s largest companies being eroded away. A recent report by Trucost to the United Nations has made this finding after modeling the environmental impact of the world’s largest 3,000 companies.

The report comes amid growing concern that businesses are merely paying… Continue

Added by Terence Jeyaretnam on February 23, 2010 at 9:20am — No Comments

Sustainability of the Commons

With the black clouds of the GFC looming upon us at the start of 2009, we were cornered to ask some big questions. So what of business sustainability? Is it still important? Would businesses still seek to be green, or would the sustainability budget be one of the first to be cut? But, we were optimistic. In 2008 we no… Continue

Added by Terence Jeyaretnam on January 20, 2010 at 10:30am — No Comments

Measuring Growth and Success

Terence Jeyaretnam Eighteen months ago, French President Nicholas Sarkozy established an International Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, owing to his dissatisfaction with the state of statistical information about the economy and society. The report, released on the 14th of September The European Union recommends introducing an index in 2010 to track life qualities such as a… Continue

Added by Terence Jeyaretnam on September 18, 2009 at 12:00pm — No Comments

World Environment Day

World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated every year on 5 June in more than 100 countries. WED was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972. WED is hosted every year by a different city and commemorated with an… Continue

Added by Terence Jeyaretnam on May 21, 2009 at 12:32pm — No Comments

Sustainability: The Social Bottom Line

‘Social capital’ was coined by the American economist Robert Putnam, who famously discovered it wandering around the towns of Emilia-Romagna in Italy, with all their guilds, football clubs, amateur dramatics and local networking – stretching back to the 12th century. Tony Blair describes it slightly differently in his notorious pamphlet The Third Way, as “the foundation of social solidarity on which any successful society depends”. The green economist Hazel Henderson calls it the ‘Love Economy’.… Continue

Added by Terence Jeyaretnam on May 9, 2009 at 1:54pm — No Comments

Scientists deliver key climate messages to Copenhagen summit

Following a successful International Scientific Congress on Climate Change last month - Global Risks, Challenges & Decisions attended by more than 2,500 delegates from nearly 80 countries, preliminary messages from the findings were delivered by the Congress' Scientific Writing Team. The conclusions will be published into a full synthesis report June 2009. The six critical messages are follows: - Climate trends - Recent observations confirm that, given high rates of observed emissions, the… Continue

Added by Terence Jeyaretnam on March 25, 2009 at 1:30pm — No Comments

Sustainable Mobility: Dream or Reality?

You may have heard about hydrogen fuelled vehicles of the future and fuel cell technology. It is all in an effort to reduce what is becoming one of the largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions – vehicular transport. There are more than 740 million cars in the world, likely to be over 1 billion by 2010 contributing to an ever-increasing amount of carbon dioxide from burning of fossil fuels. When you talk to the automotive sector experts, they stress the importance of not simply measuring tailp… Continue

Added by Terence Jeyaretnam on March 9, 2009 at 8:00am — No Comments

Flaws in the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme

I wrote in support of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) when it was first announced, and before the finer details were apparent. Post the lobbying efforts by those industries with most to lose, and the fine print, I’m starting to seriously doubt whether indeed the CPRS will indeed deliver what its name espouses to – pollution reduction. As recently advocated by a group of ten prominent economists, there are three key changes necessary for the CPRS to be effective:
  • Lifting t
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Added by Terence Jeyaretnam on February 26, 2009 at 1:00pm — 11 Comments

Richard Buckminster: a visionary in sustainability

With no job and a new baby to support, he became depressed. One day, he was walking by Lake Michigan, when he found himself suspended several feet above the ground, surrounded by sparkling light. Time seemed to stand still, and a voice spoke to him. “You do not have the right to eliminate yourself,” it said. “You do not belong to you. You belong to Universe.” It was at this point, that he decided to embark on his “lifelong experiment.” The experiment’s aim was nothing less than determining “what… Continue

Added by Terence Jeyaretnam on February 4, 2009 at 3:30pm — No Comments

Book Review: Blessed Unrest

Paul Hawken is one of the best-known environmental authors of our time. With The Ecology of Commerce, he opened the eyes of business its impact on the environment, but most importantly, the opportunities available to manage these impacts from a life-cycle perspective. With Blessed Unrest… Continue

Added by Terence Jeyaretnam on February 3, 2009 at 10:30am — No Comments

Triple Bottom Line

The concept of Triple Bottom Line is widely discussed, but poorly understood. Mostly, the concept is idealistic and somewhat simplistic. This is by no means a criticism of John Elkington, Chairman of SustainAbility in the UK, who coined the phrase almost ten years ago. It’s a notion… Continue

Added by Terence Jeyaretnam on November 25, 2008 at 8:30am — No Comments

A Question of Ethics

In aiming to disentangle the concept of sustainability, let’s focus on what a sustainable company may look like. But, even before a corporate embarks down the fallopian tube of sustainability towards the conception of becoming a more sustainable company, there are several barriers and challenges… Continue

Added by Terence Jeyaretnam on October 30, 2008 at 5:00pm — No Comments

Account-Ability for Sustainability

What is the influence of government and business, in global sustainability? This is a question that often unravels traditional notions of belief held by politicians and management. Does this form part of corporate or public governance issues? Certainly, in terms of dollar profit for business, and votes for public office-bearers, the buck stops with customers and voters, or it would seem. But, Nike ‘just’ did not ‘do it’ when it came to extensive reputational damage as a consequence of allegation… Continue

Added by Terence Jeyaretnam on October 27, 2008 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Greenwash: The Devil is in the Detail

Greenwash is a term that, in the 70s and 80s, was used to describe external corporate communications aimed at painting, perhaps not the complete, but indeed a greener corporate image than what was reality. Common perception is that Greenwash is very much dead, particularly with the introduct… Continue

Added by Terence Jeyaretnam on October 24, 2008 at 5:00pm — No Comments

Sustainable Thinking

Do you sometimes feel that you had left your brain behind in a decision you had made or your thought process? Do you feel that you do it far too often? Well, I do especially when it comes to living an excess lifestyle. We in Australia are only 3rd behind the United States and Canada in our ‘e… Continue

Added by Terence Jeyaretnam on October 20, 2008 at 2:00pm — 1 Comment

Marketing Green Products

Everywhere you turn there are green products and services, and we are increasingly surrounded by green advertising. Some of the notable examples may include large billboards advertising the BP being the largest manufacturer of solar panels in Australia-, Virgin Blue offering carbon offse… Continue

Added by Terence Jeyaretnam on October 20, 2008 at 2:00pm — 1 Comment

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Marta Bioletto commented on Lee Stewart's blog post 'ACT set ambitious emissions targets. A great program or destined to fail?'
I really hope that everybody individually will take seriousely the threat of climate change and acts with consciousness. The ACT Labor Government has set very ambitious targets. 40% gas reduction within 2020, 80% within 2050. Let's see if the 2020 t…
yesterday
Jeff Egan added a blog post
Has anyone done research to establish what the Federal election result means for development of renewable energy sources in Australia? Jeff
yesterday
jardine cody Is surprised nobody has discredited the ideas , giving me nothing to argue for!
yesterday
James Vosper commented on Leon Young's blog post 'A new kind of optimism?'
Leon, This is probably the best outcome that we could have hoped for. This phenomenon has happened around the world and we could be looking at a new kind of government.
on Tuesday

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