‘Easy Being Green’ & Tanya Ha at Network Central

Farts & carbon credits vs energy efficiency: save the planet AND live comfortably?

This topic IS very confusing. At the Sustainable Living Festival I learnt about a Canadian environmental psychologist, Dr Doug McKenzie-Mohr, an international expert in ‘community-based social marketing’ ie he applies social psychology to the task of effectively communicating info about sustainable behaviour.

Doug runs the Fostering Sustainable Behaviour website, www.cbsm.com/ and a ‘listserv’ which is a wonderful communication tool that offers its members the opportunity to post suggestions or questions to a large number of people at the same time. When you submit a question or something that you want to share to the listserv, your submission is distributed to all of the other people on that list. PWF is now on the listserv and it is fascinating!

In The Australian last week, Caroline Overington, wrote provocatively about how Easy Being Green can offset the carbon emissions made when ‘your cat or family member farts’!

Easy Being Green was founded to help people actively tackle climate change by Nic Frances and Paul Gilding. It measures your ecological footprint and estimates the cost of making your lifestyle carbon-neutral, so you can ‘live guilt-free for a year’. It then spends your money on energy-saving light bulbs and water-saving shower heads etc that reduce emissions elsewhere.

I can’t help thinking “What if …..everybody became guilt-stricken and tried to buy their way out?” Not possible, so carbon credit businesses definitely have a secure market. eg One Sydney family with two sets of disposable nappies, a 4WD and three interstate trips each year paid $600 to go carbon-neutral.

Caroline followed her ‘cat fart’ story with ‘Greenies, want to save the world? Stay home’ all about ‘greenie backpackers in Bondi’ who:

• travel the world by plane;
• drive old, leaded-petrol guzzling Kombis across OZ;
• catch jet boats out to the Barrier Reef;
• use computers made by enormous corporations;
• complain about the growing gap between rich and poor.

‘Save the Planet’ & ‘Magic Happens’ stickers on backpacker Kombis are common BUT a sudden change in our lifestyles, Caroline writes, would:

• wreck the economy;
• wouldn’t necessarily save the lives of our children’s grandchildren;
• kill people in parts of Asia and Africa who depend on Western ‘decadence’ for their incomes and survival.

And magic DOESN’T just happen says Caroline. You work and save THEN you travel on planes and in Kombis – not magic but capitalism.

On the green side, also last week, Tanya Ha, model, TV presenter and author of ‘Greeniology: How to live well, be green and make a difference’, spoke at a well-attended Network Central Businesswomen’s Breakfast in Melbourne. Tanya, and ACF climate change campaigner Tony Mohr, who, Caroline says is sceptical of the carbon credit scheme, maintain if people want to help the planet, they should first:

• reduce their emissions;
• second, buy renewable energy, be more energy efficient.

Only after this should you think of offsets! Tanya, recognises how confusing the topic is and the feeling of powerlessness – just what do you do? She spoke, as she writes in Greeniology, about the simple things we can all do, then explained how some of the families in her new TV show Eco House Challenge, have been able to reduce their carbon emissions by up to 65 per cent in just three days. She, as eco-coach, helps them become more energy-efficient.

FYI SBS’s Eco House Challenge, which begins in April, turns off the water tap and pulls the energy plug on two suburban families. Their rubbish bins are locked and their cars clamped. Eco-coach Tanya helps them work it all out!

About www.networkcentral.com.au
Network Central is an holistic business network that ‘creates communities for busy businesspeople’ in all areas impacting their life. Managing director, Kim McGuinness, is widely recognised as the founder of The Businesswomen’s Breakfast Series, which began in March 1999 and is held in Sydney, Parramatta and Melbourne.

Network Central also hosts ‘Thinking Parents Forum’, ‘Dynamic Business Series’ and ‘Working Well Luncheon Series’. Each month guest speakers are chosen for their contribution, inspirational message and advice to the ever-increasing number of businesswomen in Australia and a worthy charity is promoted also.

Kim, mother of two ‘littlies’, is passionate about the world we will pass on to the next generation. This is reflected in the Network Central links:

• Further study
• Small Business
• Corporate
• Wellbeing
• Parenting
• Retirement

Check it out for like-minded networking opportunities at www.networkcentral.com.au.