How a school can save $300 and 1.2 tonnes of CO2 this summer holidays

Schools waste a great deal of energy over the summer school holidays. In 2005 CarbonetiX worked with the Victorian Department of Education and Training to produce a School Energy Shut Down Guide and then promoted its use to schools around Victoria, ...

High mains voltage is causing 15 millions of tonnes of un-necessary greenhouse gas pollution

In Australia electricity codes stipulate that the supply voltage of mains electricity should be 230 volts (phase to neutral). For example in Victoria the Essential Services Commission has mandated in the Electricity Supply Code that the voltage of supply should be ...

Computers Off Australia

Computers Off Australia is a not-for-profit organisation and Green IT labelling initiative designed to educate and recognise organisations that are doing their part to reduce their carbon footprint through the implementation of power management and virtualisation technology. We all agree that ...

What is a comfortable office temperature – and why this is very important when it comes to reducing carbon emissions

Changes to temperature settings are a little known but easy way of getting significant carbon savings in offices. In office buildings the single largest energy user is the heating, cooling and ventilation system. This system will typically account for 40% to ...

“The emperor is only wearing speedos!” – the folly of not urgently pursuing the obvious first step to slow global warming

Unfortunately however the climate change debate is largely centred around costs. The very real threat of dangerous climate change is compared with the cost of responding to it. A lose-lose scenario comes through strongly. Do nothing and planetary climate stability is at risk. Do something to avoid dangerous climate change and the economic system as we know it is at risk.

But this attitude is very dangerous because it causes paralysis. Why do anything if you will only lose no matter what you do?

However for many organisations, the savings from an aggressive carbon conservation approach will pay for the cost of becoming carbon neutral or even carbon positive. I am not saying that in all cases that carbon neutrality can be achieved at no cost, but based on my experience with thousands of buildings, if a choice is made to aggressively conserve carbon in many cases climate neutrality can be achieved and money left on the table.