Dear Subscriber,
Welcome to this special edition of the Grow Me The Money e-bulletin.
On Tuesday 10th April, the Grow Me The Money Campaign was officially launched at Federation Square. In attendance was the Hon. John Thwaites, MP, Deputy Premier, Minister for Water, Environment and Climate Change and the Hon. John Brumby MP, Treasurer, Minister for Innovation and Minister for Regional and Rural Development.
Left to right: Mick Bourke, The Hon. John Thwaites,
The Hon. John Brumby and
Neil Coulson
The attendance of the two Ministers, representing their different portfolios, signifies the exciting partnership between business and environment. I am proud to announce that Grow Me The Money is now open to all businesses throughout Victoria and I encourage business owners to register and improve their environmental practice, which will result in improved economic sustainability.
Speaking at the launch, Neil Coulson, CEO VECCI and Mick Bourke, Chairman, EPA Victoria, talked about the benefits of Grow Me The Money for business and for the environment and urged business to join this important initiative. Neil revealed survey results (summarised in this e-bulletin) showing Victorian businesses are willing and able to improve their environmental performance and can see the economic benefit in doing so, but have acknowledged they are lagging behind households when it comes to taking action. Now is the time for action.
Special guest speaker Nick Rowley, who is a former Senior Policy Advisor on Sustainability and Climate Change to British Prime Minister, Tony Blair also urged business to get involved. Nick’s speech provided for some interesting insights on climate change and the economic, political and social solutions. Nick acknowledged Grow Me The Money as an innovative program that is taking a huge step in the right direction. A summary of Nick’s speech is provided below.
If your business has signed up to Grow Me The Money, but hasn’t implemented any changes, now is the time to do so. If your business is already making changes or you have a particular expertise that you could share with other businesses, we’d encourage you to join our mentor program. For more information about Grow Me The Money visit www.growmethemoney.com.au or call (03) 8662 5480.
It is an extremely exciting time for us with the advertising campaign underway – look out for the Grow Me The Money advertisement, which will be screening on Channel Nine until 29 April. Please remember - Running your business doesn’t have to cost the earth.
Kate Nicolazzo
Program Director
Grow Me The Money
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A call to action for Victorian business
Launch special guest speaker, Nick Rowley, warned the world cannot afford to wait before tackling the climate change issue. Nick has worked at the centre of government sustainability, climate change and broader policy and political strategy in Australia and the UK.
Urging Victorian businesses to get involved in the Grow Me The Money program, Nick believes that 21st century environmental care is going to be an issue on everyone’s agenda, and taking action now is the answer. Acknowledging the problem was significant, Nick encouraged business to think about solutions, and said that by working together we have a greater chance of controlling the damage that has already been caused.
Nick made references to a report by economist Sir Nicholas Stern released in the UK in October last year, which suggests that global warming could shrink the global economy by 20%. The study is the first major contribution to the global warming debate by an economist, rather than an environmental scientist.
With its obvious links to the Grow Me The Money program, Nick said whilst there is much more to understand – in both science and economics – we know enough now to be clear about the magnitude of the risks, the timescale for action and how to act effectively. Investment now will pay us back many times in the future, not just environmentally but economically as well.
From 2004 to December 2005 Nick worked at 10 Downing Street as Senior Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Tony Blair focusing on sustainability and climate change, contributing to the 2005 Labour Manifesto and attending the G8 Summit at Gleneagles. Nick is currently based in Sydney and is one of three partners at the private practice Kinesis, specialising in environmental advice to corporate and government organisations.
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Business wants to do more to improve their environmental performance
A Victorian survey of more than 90 businesses by VECCI showed small business ranked itself lowly when asked to compare its performance to that of households, but was not daunted by the prospect of becoming more environmentally responsible.
Releasing the results at the launch, VECCI CEO Neil Coulson said small business owners and operators wanted to do more to improve their performance, but needed the tools to help them.
Other key findings from the survey include:
- at least half of the respondents were unaware of the current water and energy usage and waste production of their own business;
- almost half of businesses surveyed believe that making environmental changes will save them money;
- cost and time are the most important barriers to making change;
- over fifty per cent of the businesses surveyed have actively taken measures to reduce their water usage but 40 per cent say that more needs to be done; and
- responding to community expectations and financial benefits are the most important motivators to make changes in business ahead of government regulation and environmental damage.
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