Page 444 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 22 March 2022
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this, provided by the federal or state governments; just a lot of different companies offering different services locally and overseas.
It would be great if there was a site for ACT businesses, provided by the ACT Government, to be able to calculate their carbon and sign up to reduce or totally offset their carbon emissions—especially for small and medium sized businesses.
It’s a confusing space and we don’t have the size to engage a consultant to formally organise reducing our carbon. Even calculating our carbon usage in terms of energy is not easy.
If the ACT, as a climate leader, could assist businesses through a platform and suggest private offset providers to commit to reducing their carbon this would make a great difference.
If, as a business owner, you could easily calculate and commit to a range of carbon goals this would get a lot of uptake and be in line with the ACT Government’s commitments.
This got me thinking, and I did some research and fact-checking. The business owner was right. We have an excellent online carbon calculator for households in the ACT, the home energy assessment tool, provided by the ACT government through the Actsmart team within EPSDD. It helps households, particularly renters, to identify the quickest and most effective ways to reduce their energy bills, improve the comfort of their homes and receive a tailored report on how to reduce their energy costs.
Further to this, the Actsmart team also offers a wealth of resources, tips and advice for households about heating, lighting, draught-proofing and more. There are also the Sustainable Home Advice Program; the Sustainable Household Scheme, with a variety of subsidies, rebates and incentives available; and the Actsmart Eco Challenge. I commend everyone involved in these programs across the ACT government. They are a fantastic resource and a critical help for households to contribute to our net zero emissions policy.
For businesses, it seems that individual service providers nationally and globally provide some online calculators to assist businesses in understanding their energy and carbon costs and ideas to help reduce these—and, of course, expert consultancy assistance for a fee.
The ACT government offers a wide range of business support for climate change action, including the community clubs program; the Business Sustainability Awards; a business recycling program; business rebates for energy and water efficiency upgrades; the Solar for Business Program; a lighting efficiency web tool for businesses to check the efficiency of their lighting set-up; and the Straws Suck campaign. This is all great, and an online carbon footprint calculator for local businesses seems the next logical step.
This is why I am calling on the ACT government today, through this motion, to investigate the development of an online portal as a one-stop shop for local businesses to calculate their carbon footprints and help them reduce their energy costs financially
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