Green, confused, action!

A confession. We’re not scientists at SmartCompany. Despite a secret passion for Scientific America, fifth form chemistry finished me off.

But we do believe in risk management. So if most of the world’s scientists claim to believe in climate change, the rationalist in you thinks fair enough. We’d better do something. Part of our contribution – and to keep you up-to-date – is to regularly run stories on climate change, government policy, ways to reduce carbon footprints and opportunities in the green sector. And I call it a “contribution” because we know that while the bulk of our readers feel the same (we’ve asked them) these are not our most popular stories.

Not that I blame you. I can rarely remember the communications strategy around a public issue of such importance being so botched. And when you try explaining that to politicians as I have several times, they look at me blankly and tell me they can get me up to speed in five minutes which is kind of the point.

A survey just released by management consultants SansGov, which has a vested interest in this as it has a sustainability arm, reveals just how confused business is. It looked at 692 businesses from small to large and found that 64% of respondents are not clear on what the impacts of an Emissions Trading Scheme or a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will be on them (or their industry). And 78% of respondents believe that not enough is being done to explain the key policies or their potential impacts.

So after all this time, most of us don’t have a clue about an issue that we are all very concerned about. Crazy! Matthew Tutaki, CEO of SansGov, says some of the anecdotal comments coming through feedback shows genuine confusion about what sectors of the economy and industries would be impacted and the scale of the costs. So we actually may fear it is going to cost far more than it will.

Meanwhile the Opposition did not fare any better with 76% of respondents saying they had no idea what “direct action” meant.

So isn’t this amazing? Despite being confused, dazed and switching off, about 59% of organisations are taking matters into their own hands and say they are moving ahead with the implementation of their own carbon reduction programs. These centre around reduction in energy consumption, modifications to travel policies and transportation, increasing interest in green star rated buildings and leases, and a greater interest in the carbon footprint of suppliers.

So what type of communication would work? A carrot and stick approach where the media reports on companies that dump primary producers because of the way they have grown or manufactured raw materials is one way, with the end result being that companies then stipulate in contracts tougher environmental and sustainability requirements.

And we could learn from New Zealand which introduced an ETS on July 1.
“There were the same sorts of sentiments in New Zealand prior to implementation as there are in Australia. For example, consumers, both individual and business, were concerned about likely energy cost hikes,” says Tutaki.

And energy prices did increase which prompted a warning by the regulatory authorities that price gauging would not be tolerated. Maybe before we introduce an ETS we read the riot act to the energy companies. The New Zealand Government also explained the new system by breaking it down by industry and consumer, making it easier to understand.

Tutaki says the challenge for this Government and the Opposition is to accept the challenge: that the debate and public discussion has moved on from the belief of the existence of climate change to the acceptance of the majority in the community that more needs to be done to lower our impact on the environment.

“It is a challenge because the right policies may in fact be a mix of what both parties are proposing. If the key sticking point is, therefore, the percentage target and the date by which it should be achieved, then both sides of politics may just finding that the only way of cutting through is by consensus. Either way, consumers and business alike have no appetite for bad planning, unexpected or planned cost hikes or wishy, washy policy”.

And nor for confusing and time consuming communication strategies either!