Located in Western Australia’s South West, this business has been built around the use of innovative technologies to achieve a secure and environmentally efficient supply of energy for Western Australia. With existing and prospective projects based south west of Perth, this group is making a significant contribution to the Western Australian energy mix.

Position overview and responsibilities:
•    This position reports to the Station Manager and is a significant, locally based position within the company.
•    This position requires a close working relationship with the Operations and Maintenance Contractor of and is accountable for ensuring environmental management plans and environmentally friendly practices and procedures are implemented through the operator.
•    Commercial management regarding tender and contract documentation, contract administration and stakeholder / relationship management.
•    Support the Station Manager in ensuring contractor obligations, most specifically those relating to environmental management, contained within the Operation and Maintenance Services Agreements are complied with.
•    Oversee and coordinate contractor compliance and reporting outcomes, ensuring all contractors are meeting the requirements that the company has committed to as per established environmental management plans.
•    Review the outcomes from environmental audits with a view, where appropriate, to assessing and implementing alternate strategies into the business, which are both environmentally and commercially responsible.
•    Work with the Station Manager and the Operations and Maintenance Contractor to develop plans to improve the standard and efficiency of environmental management where appropriate and to monitor and report implementation progress to management.
•    Assist in the development of environmental policies and procedures.
•    Ensure environmental management systems are established for all power sites and are consistent with ISO14001.
•    Provide technical advice and develop strategies on environmental and scientific issues, and legislative and regulatory matters.
•    Manage dealings with the EPA and the DEC and establish good working relationships with key influencers and decision makers.
•    Maintain an open dialogue with relevant Federal/State authorities, non-government organisations and community groups regarding environmental performance and plans.
•    Act as a representative of the company on relevant industry bodies.
•    Ensure environmental performance databases are maintained, including those required for the efficient preparation of statutory and management reports.

•    Initiate and where necessary, leading environmental and scientific investigations that may impact on the company.

Desired Experience:
•    Experienced professional with a proven ability to develop strategic programs and activities required to maintain, drive and improve environmental performance across relevant areas of the business.
•    Proven ability to positively influence others and engender buy in to plans and actions.
•    An in depth understanding of both state and national regulatory regimes, processes and requirements as they relate to environmental management and obligations.
•    Exposure to reporting requirements associated with the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Act 2007 and the Australian Government’s Energy Efficiency Opportunities (EEO) program.
•    Possess tertiary qualifications in Environmental Science, Science or Engineering.
•    Postgraduate qualifications in a relevant field are desirable.
•    Significant experience as a leader in environmental compliance preferably in the management of power station assets or a similar environment.

Contact: Ruth Stevens – e: ruth@carbonjobs.com.au  |  p: +61 (0) 424 755 298

Reporting to the National Environmental Manager, your responsibilities will include (but are not limited to):

- Advise and support the National Environmental Manager on sustainability and reporting matters during the development and communication of the National Environmental Plan to all Regions.
- Facilitate the delivery of a system solution to satisfy mandatory national compliance reporting, including  optimising and simplifying where possible Federal GHG and energy reporting.
- Optimise the system for and co-ordinate the collection of monthly environmental compliance and risk, audit and sustainability reporting.
- Report on the implementation progress of the Environmental Action Plan for each Region.
- Assist with the monitoring and reporting of the state of environmental risk nationally, and with ensuring that risks are prioritised and managed accordingly.
- Support the implementation, review and continuous improvement of the Environmental Management System (EMS).
- Advise the National Environmental Manager on matters relating to greenhouse gas emissions reduction achievable by energy efficiency improvement.
- Coordinate the environmental compliance audit program across all regions annually.

To be considered for this role, you must have the following qualifications, experience and attributes:

- Tertiary qualifications in relevant discipline (relevant disciplines include: Environmental Management, Energy Management and Auditing, Engineering, Science, Mining).
- Previous experience with greenhouse gas emission (NGERS) and energy (EEO Act) reporting.
- Previous experience in the construction, property or mining industry or relevant areas of local government and/or consultancy.
- Experience in the implementation and maintenance of Environmental Management Systems based on ISO 14001.
- Energy management and auditing experience.

Contact: John Revie – e: john@carbonjobs.com.au  |  p: +61 (0) 420 970 334

Whilst conscious of political discussion fatigue within our industry network, the topic is raised purely as a key piece of evidence for why a large percentage of newly created roles in recent months fall into the mandatory reporting family of acronyms (NGERS, EEO, NPI, GRI etc) as opposed to more senior strategic openings similar to those created many years ago within comparable listed entities based in Europe and parts of Asia.  This apparent lack of technical and commercial corporate sustainability skills at the top of Australian corporate pyramids should raise more than a few alarm bells and brings us to our water cooler thoughts for March-April.

water cooler thoughts

Corporate Governance in Australia – Board and Non-Executive Directors:  Under representation of genuinely experienced corporate sustainability professionals?

Quoting directly from the ASX Corporate Governance Council – “Effective corporate governance structures encourage companies to create value, through entrepreneurialism, innovation, development and exploration, and provide accountability and control systems commensurate with the risks involved.”  A brief review of just three of the eight key corporate governance principals raises perhaps more questions than answers regarding the preparedness of ASX listed entities for the 1 July start date. The principals include:

Principal 2: Structure the board to add value – “In order to be able to discharge its mandate effectively the board should comprise directors possessing an appropriate range of skills and expertise.”

Principle 3: Promote ethical and responsible decision making – “To make ethical and responsible decisions, companies should not only comply with their legal obligations, but should also consider the reasonable expectations of their stakeholders including: shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, creditors, consumers and the broader community in which they operate.”

Principle 7: Recognise and manage risk – “Risk management is the culture, processes and structures that are directed towards taking advantage of potential opportunities while managing potential adverse effects.”

featured articles  |  web-links

PUMA’s Environmental Profit and Loss Account

Hats off to Puma who have taken an industry leadership position with their publication of an Environmental Profit and Loss (P&L) Account valuing their Impacts at €145 million.
“After publishing an economic valuation of €94 million of GHG emissions and water consumption in May this year, PUMA has now finalised its 2010 E P&L by adding €51 million caused by land use change for the production of raw materials, air pollution and waste along its value chain. Only €8 million of the €145 million total derive from PUMA’s core operations such as offices, warehouses, stores and logistics while the remaining €137 million fall upon PUMA’s supply chain.”

Carbon bubble? What carbon bubble?

Following on from our water cooler thoughts above, RenewEconomy’s Giles Parkinson contemplated the issue of stranded assets associated with the extraction of high-carbon investments and the inherent exposure of major global financial systems to a “carbon bubble”.
“KPMG said climate change was one of 10 mega-forces that investors would need to deal with in the next two decades, while Mercer suggested that asset owners will need to migrate up to 40 per cent of their portfolio towards “climate-sensitive investments” to capture the upside of policy changes. And that their processes for managing carbon and climate risk were completely inadequate.”

Spinning Gold: The Financial Returns to External Stakeholder Engagement

With social licence to operate and stakeholder (mis)management issues featuring heavily of late in relation to major project expansion plans, the carbonjobs team wished to highlight an excellent report penned by a number of Wharton School academics and researchers.
“We provide direct empirical evidence in support of instrumental stakeholder theory‘s argument that increasing cooperation and reducing conflict with stakeholders enhances the financial valuation of a firm holding constant the objective valuation of the physical assets under its control. We undertake this analysis using panel data on 26 gold mines owned by 19 publicly traded firms over the period 1993-2008. We code over 50,000 stakeholder events from media reports to develop an index of the degree of stakeholder cooperation or conflict for these mines.”

MIT Sloan Management Review & The Boston Consulting Group – Sustainability Nears a Tipping Point

The carbonjobs team wished to highlight an excellent sustainability publication which involved the interviewing of some 4,000 managers from 113 different countries.  Responses from 3,000 commercial executives were then compiled into a report illustrating the continuing push of corporate sustainability agenda items into the boardrooms of many of the world’s most successful companies.
“Almost one-third of the executives surveyed by BCG and MIT Sloan Management Review said that sustainability activities were contributing to profitability at their companies.  A research report detailing the survey results and their implications spotlights the characteristics that set these companies apart—and the three critical lessons for managers.”

Carbon Market Institute (CMI): Reporting and accounting requirements for the Australian carbon market

Continuing on with their important work, the CMI team has engaged the services of Ernst and Young and Associate Professor Brad Potter to produce a Business Guide tasked with identifying key issues related to the Clean Energy Future legislation and in doing so assist businesses prepare for these changes.  A roadshow is underway for Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney at present.

Renewables to hit parity with coal and gas sooner than we think

Giles Parkinson’s review of global banking group HSBC’s power generation forecasts continued the trend of independent predictions being made regarding renewable energy prices rivalling traditional fossil-fuel generators regardless of the significant associated benefits once externalities (ie. climate change / human health costs) are factored in.
“The cost of key renewable energy technologies is falling more rapidly than thought, with wind already competitive with fossil fuels in many major energy markets, and solar like to achieve grid parity with conventional fuels on utility or wholesale costs in the second half of the decade.”

Carbon Expo Australasia 2012 – Melbourne

Michael Whitehead and his team are once more set to stage Australasia’s premier carbon trade fair and conference event with Melbourne the successful venue once again from 7-9 November.
“For emissions intensive business and low-carbon economy product & service providers will be this year’s best opportunity to network with key domestic and international carbon business players, and to develop strategies to minimise costs and maximise benefits associated with emissions reductions and carbon pricing.”

RECENT | FUTURE ACTIVITY – the carbonjobs team has been busy of late with a number of consultancy and in-house mandatory reporting roles with practical NGERS experience and chemical engineering academia proving to be popular with our clients.  An increase in the number of “multi-hat” roles spanning corporate sustainability, traditional environmental reporting and stakeholder/community engagement expertise has been witnessed of late with this trend set to continue in the politically uncertain months ahead.  Last but certainly not least, non-executive director and senior sustainability governance-based openings are making it to the recruitment coffee table for discussion albeit a clear disconnect still exists between best intent and tangible interview action.

Position Description:

- Provide high-quality and innovative energy, carbon and sustainability consultancy services to corporate clients
- Manage small to medium-sized carbon, energy and sustainability projects and proposals according to budgets and schedules
- Travel within Australia to undertake projects, business development activities and consulting engagements
- Initiate and undertake business development activities and client liaison

Knowledge, Skills and Experience Required:

- Previous undertaking of energy, carbon and sustainability consulting engagements to a breadth of corporate entities
- Tertiary qualification in Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering, Engineering or equivalent discipline
- Excellent scientific and technical analysis, numerical skills and report writing skills
- A minimum of  2-3 years experience in carbon consulting or working within industry in carbon management, verification and quantification
- Must have experience in NGERS, EEO or a similar compliance-based carbon quantification scheme
- Experience in the development of small and medium scale project budgets, schedules and priorities
- Ability to maintain and analyse budgets, and provide monthly reports to the management group as required
- Well developed understanding of climate change science, carbon management, energy management, together with applicable Australian and international legislation and policy
- Ability to research innovative energy and carbon project delivery and strategy
- Current knowledge of carbon, energy and climate change legislation, policy and developments in Australian and internationally

This is an excellent chance to join a highly successful team of carbon specialists and ensure that your own professional development is accelerated during a period of unprecedented legislative and operational change.  The chance to work alongside some of Australia’s leading carbon and climate change specialists and mentors should not be taken lightly in view of the associated contribution to your own career growth.

Contact: John Revie  –  e: john@carbonjobs.com.au  |  p: +61 (0) 420 970 334

Two good follow-up articles may be found here -

Giles Parkinson - RenewEconomy

Michael Ashley – The Conversation

All the best

the carbonjobs team

The successful applicant will be responsible for a range of project delivery tasks, business development initiatives as well as tender preparations.  S/he will add value to an already established group of Sustainability and Climate Change professionals working on local projects as a coherent national team.

Responsibilities

- Project content: sustainability and climate change (climate adaptation, carbon assessment and policy and life cycle assessment)
- Business development: proposal writing and coordination, development of marketing materials and communicating our service offerings when with clients and prospective clients.
- Research: undertake detailed research tasks in complex areas and stays up to date with the latest
industry, government and scientific information to do with sustainability nationally and internationally.
- Manage multiple tasks – proposals, business development and projects – dealing effectively with
competing priorities and working to tight deadlines.
- Ensures compliance with quality management systems.

Experience and qualifications

- Extensive relevant professional work experience in sustainability field.
- Business development experience.
- Key sector expertise – water, energy, transport and property
- Trained and experience in climate adaptation, carbon assessment and life cycle assessment.
- Academics in environmental management, engineering, science or other relevant field.
This is a great chance to work with some of the industries leading professionals as public and private sector clients alike begin to awaken from their pre-carbon pricing slumber.

Contact: John Revie – e: john@carbonjobs.com.au  |  p: +61 (0) 420 970 334

The role will be of a diverse nature and cover a wide range of issues across the carbon and GHG management spectrum.

Previous consulting responsibilities tasked with technical and project delivery to satisfy existing NGERS legislation will be highly regarded as will an established network in Victoria.

Experience in the development of strategic and risk based scenarios around climate change and energy efficiency strategies, carbon accounting and reporting, carbon trading and the verification of GHG emissions will also be looked upon favourably.

Your technical skills are likely to have been further developed through time spent on-site reviewing engineering and/or mechanical processes from a carbon management perspective.

This is an excellent chance to join a highly successful team of carbon specialists and ensure that your own professional development is accelerated during a period of unprecedented legislative and operational change.

Contact: John Revie  –  e: john@carbonjobs.com.au  |  p: +61 (0) 420 970 334

Queensland’s two-speed economy – who wins and who loses from the mining boom?

Everyone has heard how good the mining industry is for Queensland, but is this actually the case for industries other than mining? Huge new coal mines and vast coal seam gas fields are being approved at a staggering rate across the state. There is no doubt that this will destroy existing jobs in tourism, education and agriculture, and hurt manufacturing across Queensland.

This event will focus on the consequences of the mining boom for the 99 per cent of Queenslanders who don’t work in mining.  New research on the likely impacts of the proposed expansion of mining on the Queensland economy will be discussed.

Speakers include:
Daniel Gschwind – CEO, Queensland Tourism Industry Council
Drew Wagner- Senior Policy Officer, AgForce
Richard Denniss – Executive Director, The Australia Institute

CAIRNS:
When: Tuesday March 13th, 6-7.30pm
Where: Civic Reception Room, Council Administration Building 119-145 Spence Street, Cairns
To register for this free event, click here
BRISBANE:
When: Tuesday March 20th, 6-7.30 pm
Where: Bleeding Heart Gallery, 166 Ann St Brisbane
To register for this free event, click here

Conversations within our network indicate that an interplay is occurring within the major emitters (amongst others) as to which specialist tasks can be brought back in-house vs. continuing to outsource these elements to dedicated consultancy firms. Our experience in recent months is that the business case for internal head count increases is often grounded in anticipated energy efficiency gains (as well as compliance considerations) which ultimately dovetails into the less tangible, by way of explanation to c-suite executives!, carbon, responsible investment and corporate sustainability reasoning.

Highlighted below are a selection of key reports and articles that we wished to highlight to our network.

water cooler thoughts

29th January 2012, Forbes
According to IEA research, 37 governments spent $409bn on artificially lowering the price of fossil fuels in 2010. Critics say the subsidies significantly boost oil and gas consumption and disadvantage renewable energy technologies, which received only $66bn of subsidies in the same year. (Fatih) Birol and the IEA said that a phase-out would avoid 750m tonnes of CO2 a year by 2015, potentially rising to 2.6 gigatonnes by 2035, a level sufficient to provide half the emissions reductions needed to limit global warming to 2C, considered the limit of safety by many scientists. “Fossil fuel subsidies are a hand brake as we drive along the road to a sustainable energy future,” he said. “Removing them would take us half way to a trajectory that would hold us to 2C.”

featured articles | web-links

CEFC: Where they stand and who wants what
Giles Parkinson, in his new journalistic venture Renew Economy (good luck Giles!), looks at the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and the various submissions made by key interest groups to Jillian Broadbent’s team.
“…the submissions that have been made to Jillian Broadbent’s team from individual companies and lobby groups can broadly be summarized in three groups: those pushing for the CEFC to use various mechanisms to get these technologies deployed, and to reap the reward of Australia’s ample resources and excellent R&D; those anxious that it could distort the current market, and displace private finance already committed to technologies such as wind currently favoured by the RET – they want the CEFC to focus on supporting infrastructure that can benefit all technologies; and those who question whether we should be doing anything more than R&D, and avoid, at any cost, anything that could encourage their immediate deployment.”

No easy choices: which way to Australia’s energy future? – A Grattan report
On Sunday 5th February, The Grattan Institute’s Energy Program Director, Tony Wood, released the group’s latest report which has been no doubt already widely read within our specialist network.
“It is now clear that the carbon pricing scheme alone is not enough to make low-emission technologies competitive and effect the change that Australia needs. This report and its companion detailed report assess the prospects for seven technologies — wind, solar PV, concentrating solar thermal, geothermal, carbon capture and storage, bioenergy and nuclear — that generate electricity with near-zero emissions and that have the prospect of deployment at large scale over the next 40 years.”

Draft Energy White Paper 2011 – Strengthening the Foundation for Australia’s Energy Future

13th December 2011 – Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson released the federal government’s draft white paper on energy.
“Large‐scale investment must be delivered to meet the growing demand for energy – particularly peak electricity demand – while at the same time seeking to achieve reductions in our greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy productivity. This must be done in a way that supports continued national competitiveness, economic growth and the aspirations of the Australian people.”

CDP Supply Chain Report 2012

“As climate change begins to exert a larger impact on business operations, reporting on greenhouse-gas emissions has become standard practice in the world’s major corporations. The mission of Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is to accelerate solutions to climate change and water management by putting relevant information at the heart of business, policy and investment decisions.”

Mercer – Leading institutional investors address climate change risk via asset allocation, other initiatives

In February 2011, the carbonjobs team highlighted to our network a ground breaking report by Mercer entitled “Climate Change Scenarios – Implications for Strategic Asset Allocation.”

A follow-up this this report was released in New York on the 11th January 2012.

“Among the 12 investors who participated in the follow-up survey, who represent almost $2 trillion in assets under management, key findings include:
• More than half of project partners have decided to include climate change considerations in future risk management and/or strategic asset allocation processes.
• 50% of project partners have undertaken or plan to make changes to their actual asset allocations.
• 80% of partners have or will increase their engagement on climate change with companies and policy makers.
• One-third of project participants have begun to or plan to allocate more to “climate sensitive assets” (identified in the report as real estate, infrastructure, private equity, sustainable equities (listed and unlisted), efficiency/renewables (listed and unlisted) and commodities (including agricultural land and timberland).
• More than half of participants either have, or plan to review, climate risks within climate-sensitive asset classes identified in the report.”

RECENT | FUTURE ACTIVITY – roles presently being worked on throughout Australia by the carbonjobs team are tending to be a blend of specialist carbon, energy and corporate sustainability skills along with more traditional environmental/corporate expertise. The ability and willingness to wear a number of different hats and speak multiple “languages” (science, engineering, finance etc) remains paramount as the market continues to mature. Other roles gaining final sign-off include in-house and consultancy Energy/Carbon Manager positions with underlying NGERS and/or EEO reporting expertise.
Most notably the social license to operate concept is featuring in more and more newly created roles given an apparent lack and/or effectiveness of community and stakeholder engagement programs across both the fossil fuel and to a lesser extent renewable energy industries in years gone by.

clean energy future update

The carbonjobs team celebrated with clients and job seekers alike on Tuesday 8th November with the passing of the Clean Energy Future package by the Senate. Whilst plenty of hard graft occurred right across the industry in recent years, the real effort begins now as members of our existing and expanding professional network strive to adjust to the challenges encompassed within this new and exciting business environment.

water cooler thoughts

- $23.00 is the price of carbon emissions per tonne from 1st July, 2012

- $10.10 is anticipated to be the average weekly assistance for households

- this assistance will first be delivered to pensioners, allowees, Family Tax Benefit and other eligible recipients through a one-off, tax-exempt, lump sum Clean Energy Advance in May or June 2012

- $9.90 is anticipated to be the extra weekly costs for the average household

- $18,200 is the new tax-free threshold from July 2012

featured articles | web-links

Carbon Market Institute (CMI): Australia’s Clean Energy Legislative Package: A Guide for Business

CMI has teamed up with Baker & McKenzie to provide Australian businesses with an in-depth examination of the Government’s carbon pricing mechanism. “The Carbon Price Mechanism (Scheme) and accompanying legislation establishes a carbon price by way of an emissions trading scheme similar to that in Europe and New Zealand designed to provide price signals to incentivise new behaviours and encourage the adoption and consumption of low carbon energy alternatives. The Scheme imposes obligations on industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the surrender of tradeable permits and undertake projects that generate carbon credits. It is not a “carbon tax” which is simply a fixed impost on emissions.”

Graziers bank their carbon credits

“Tasmanian graziers Peter Downie and Roderic O’Connor were comfortably ahead of the politicians in Canberra in voting for carbon trading. The two major landowners were holders of VCUs (verified carbon credit units) earned for preserving native forests, well before the 10 October House of Representatives vote moved the nation towards a new Carbon Age.”

International Stakeholder Engagement Standard AA1000SES (2011)

The AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard provides a basis for designing, implementing, evaluating and assuring the quality of stakeholder engagement. It has been designed to be multi-purpose, not just for sustainable development, and can be used by businesses, civil society, public bodies and multi-stakeholder networks and partnerships.

The 2011 Global Cleantech 100

Collated by combining proprietary Cleantech Group research data, with over 6,000 nominations and specific input from an expert panel, these companies represent the most innovative and promising ideas in cleantech – the companies that are best positioned to solve tomorrow’s clean technology challenges.

GRI and ISO 26000: How to use the GRI Guidelines in conjunction with ISO 26000 (2011)

“The first ever ISO Guidance Standard on Social Responsibility, ISO 26000, emphasizes the value of public reporting on social responsibility performance to internal and external stakeholders, such as employees, local communities, investors and regulators. This represents an important new level of international attention to the issue of reporting, and is aligned with GRI’s vision that disclosure on economic, environmental, social and governance performance becomes as commonplace and comparable as financial reporting.”

How solar can save Gulf oil exports

The carbonjobs team enjoyed reading Giles Parkinson’s piece from Climate Spectator which examines the notion that parts of the Middle East are fast becoming serious players in renewable energy generation investment. Their motivations may be two-fold of course! “Something rather unexpected is happening in the Middle East. The oil-rich Gulf states, which have earned trillions of dollars in the past few decades exporting crude to the east and west, find they can no longer afford to consume their own oil. They are consuming ever increasing amounts at home, at a huge cost to exports, and are being forced to turn to renewables as a cheaper source of energy.”

RECENT | FUTURE ACTIVITY – roles being worked on throughout Australia at present are largely in respect of clients revisiting somewhat “dusty” job specs that previously failed to gain internal sign-off. Expectations are that the more reactive NGERS and EEO based compliance and reporting opportunities will be replaced by more proactive consultancy based roles undertaken by both in-house and external consultants. The creation of marginal abatement cost curves, investigating supply chain carbon constraints, devising carbon offsetting strategies and better educating senior management and board members as to their newly mandated fiduciary duties are all key elements of opportunities that we are beginning to see gain final sign-off approval….exciting times ahead!