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Be the difference: We have five extraordinary guests and speakers in The Sustainable Hour on 8 August 2018 who each are making a significant difference as innovators, pioneers and leaders in their respective fields – turning eco-loop dreams into reality, saving big on energy, engaging the community, taking action on climate change and wasting close to nothing:

Green dialysis and sustainable healthcare: Professor John Agar, conjoint clinical professor of medicine at University Hospital Geelong and Deakin University School of Medicine, tells us about Barwon Health’s and Geelong Hospital’s extraordinary two decadal journey into ‘green dialysis’ and energy efficiency, creating results as a world-leading eco-innovator – and for the first time bringing his story out into the public arena.

Energy market: Alan Rattray, founder of Energy Umpire, a start-up online energy comparison service which intends to make a massive difference for energy customers, shows us a way through the jungle of greedy energy retailers and green energy price myths.

Community energy revolution: The launch of MACS community-financed solar system was a huge milestone for Geelong Sustainability. We hear project leader Dan Cowdell explain to the guests at the event – which included Victoria’s minister for energy Lily D’Ambrosio MP and Geelong’s member for Geelong Christine Couzens MP – how and why this project came about, and how it could enable the citizens of Geelong to take power generation almost entirely into their own hands.

Zero waste: Erin Rhoads – also known as The Rogue Ginger – from Zero Waste Victoria explains what readers will learn from her new book ‘Waste Not – Make a Big Difference by Throwing Away Less’.

Climate sensibility: We play a clip with New Zealand’s climate minister James Shaw in an interview at Newshub Nation, where he explains why

“Stopping climate change will make us richer than doing nothing.”
~ James Shaw, New Zealand’s climate minister

Listen to The Sustainable Hour no. 228 on 94.7 The Pulse:

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“The main culprit in increasing power prices is really this excessive margin that has blown out in the last ten years. The fact is that now wind and solar are the cheapest sources of supply. Coal may have been the cheapest 20 years ago, but that is just no longer true.”
~ Alan Rattray, Energy Umpire, in The Sustainable Hour on 8 August 2018

LISTENER SERVICE:

Content of this hour

Links, excerpts and more information about what we talked about in this Sustainable Hour

#HEALTHYFUTURES:

John Agar: Closing the eco-loop

Video recording of the first part of the interview

In this live radio interview in The Sustainable Hour, professor John Agar is for the first time bringing his story out into the public arena about Barwon Health’s and Geelong Hospital’s two decadal journey into ‘green dialysis’.

There is little understanding of the vast potential for innovation in resource management across the spectrum of healthcare.
John Agar has been delivering more than 50 abstracts and papers on green dialysis topics at scientific meetings in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, the UK, Denmark, Germany, Malaysia, South Korea, and Hong Kong, and he has been a ‘green dialysis’ advocate and innovator for two decades, but this is the first non-medical, non-scientific toe in the door he has been offered to generate a wider understanding of the potential for better healthcare.

Listen to the full interview:

Two slides from a powerpoint presentation by John Agar

Video recording of the last part of the interview

Green dialysis

Barwon Health offers to help patients with turning their dialysis green. The following is a quote from the John Agar’s website Green Dialysis:

“Dialysis is a resource-hungry medical therapy … in particular, the volumes of water, the demand for power, and the mountains of generated plastic waste that are central to its’ delivery. This applies, whether dialysis is delivered in a facility (= 65% of all ANZ dialysis), or in the home (= 35% of all ANZ dialysis).

The website Green Dialysis attempts to address these issues:

It seeks ways to save water.
It offers options for alternative power.
It considers options in waste management.
It even dreams of building re-design.

While the site originally arose from the ‘green experience’ of the renal service at Barwon Health in Geelong, Victoria, it is now accruing a national flavour with the support of key national renal and dialysis bodies: the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology, the Renal Society of Australasia, Kidney Health Australia, and Kidney Health New Zealand.”

» A list of journal publications are available on www.greendialysis.org

Learn more in John Agar’s 2015-review of the entire topic:

» John W. M. Agar: Green Dialysis: The Environmental Challenges Ahead (PDF)
Published in Seminars in Dialysis, Special Edition: ‘Views, Visions and Vistas in Dialysis’, March-April 2015. 28(2). Page 186–192.

» Barwon Health’s Nocturnal Home Haemodialysis website: www.nocturnaldialysis.org

Professor John Agar: Closing the eco-loop

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#ENERGY #ELECTRICITY:

Alan Rattray: How not to get ripped off by your energy supplier

Alan Rattray is founder of Energy Umpire, a start-up online and fee-based energy comparison service.

This video clip is a recording of the first part of his live radio interview in The Sustainable Hour:

During his 30-year career in literally all areas of the energy sector – generation, network, retail, energy services, wholesale trading, energy markets expert witness, renewable energy, and policy development – Alan Rattray has played key leadership roles as CEO, chairman, company director and senior manager in a range of energy companies and enterprises. For example, he has been:

o Appointed by the Prime Minister to the Energy Reform Implementation Group established by the Council of Australian Governments to report on reform of the electricity and gas markets in Australia.
o Chairman of Southern Hydro
o Managing Director of Alliant Energy Australia
o Chairman of Oakley Greenwood, a consulting group specialising in energy and water
o GM Energy Trading at United Energy
o Director of Energy Brix, Copower and Hydro Systems
o Director, Energy Group for the investment bank, Morrison & Co.

Alan also operated Copower, a consulting company specialising in the energy sector.

In 2006 he advised on the reform of financial markets in energy. Many of the recommendations have since been adopted including the establishment of AEMO with responsibility for gas markets and the abolition of the Snowy region.

As a consultant his clients have included AGL, Origin Energy, GE Energy, Council of Australian Governments, WA Minister of Energy, Hydro Tasmania, Wind Hydrogen, and many more.

Alan has a Bachelor of Engineering with first class honours from the University of Melbourne and Master of Arts from the Australian National University.

Alan Rattray’s recents blogpost on energyumpire.com.au:

Victorian Government and AGL dupe Seniors Card Holders

Dear Mr Premier let us save you $40M

Are Energy Comparison Services worse than Financial Services?

Renewable Energy versus Reliability. Can we have both?

“Developers of the 800-megawatt project expect to provide power and renewable energy credits for 6.5 cents a kilowatt-hour. (…) Offshore wind can be a competitive source of clean energy as costs continue to come down.”

» Bloomberg – 2 August 2018:
First Big U.S. Offshore Wind Farm Offers $1.4 Billion to Customers
“Massachusetts electricity users will save about $1.4 billion over 20 years from the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the U.S. Project expected to cut monthly power bills up to 1.5%. The wind project will be 18% cheaper than alternatives”

» One Step Off The Grid – 9 August 2018:
How business can keep energy costs below 10c/kWh
“New report shows taking part in demand response activities could save businesses up to 33 per cent on their power costs – and for very little effort. Buy wind and solar and use demand response to dodge demand and price peaks.”

» The Australia Institute – 8 August 2018:
What AEMO’S Integrated System Plan Report implies about the National Energy Guarantee
“AEMO believes renewables of about 50% by 2030 is possible with secure reliable power, under some approaches the renewable share could reach nearly 70% without compromising security and reliability, provided that new transmission lines and various other grid upgrades are completed in a timely manner.”

NZ climate minister James Shaw in Newshub Nation

“Stopping climate change will make us richer than doing nothing.”
~ James Shaw, New Zealand’s climate minister

#CLIMATECHANGE #POLICY #NEWZEALAND:

“Cleaner economy, lower health care costs, congestion-free streets…”

Have a listen to how the minister for climate in New Zealand perceives the challenges with addressing climate change – as he explained in a tv interview on the indepth-news program Newshub Nation. He says the new zealanders are collectively committing to address the challenge, and that investments in meeting the country’s climate change goals will create a massive economic boost, rather than a burden.

“What we’re talking about here is a more productive economy, with higher-tech, higher-valued, higher-paid jobs. It’s clearly a cleaner economy where you’ve got lower health care costs, people living in warmer homes, congestion-free streets in Auckland. It’s an upgrade to our economy. It’s an investment, you’ve got to put something in, in order to generate that return. If we don’t, the clean-up costs from the impacts of climate change will well exceed the costs of the investment we’ve got to make to avoid the problem in the first place.”

We broadcasted a clip from this interview in The Sustainable Hour with permission from Newshub Nation. You can see the full 20-minute tv-interview here:

» Newshub Nation – 21 July 2018:
Stopping climate change will make us richer than doing nothing – Shaw

Congratulations from myself and @CCouzensMP to @geelongsustain , a @SustainVic #TAKE2 founding partner, for getting the job done. With a combined $188k VicGovt grant and $150,000 from community investors, they’re installing 520 solar panels at #Geelong’s @AgedCare_MACS . pic.twitter.com/vuNQ8lNqiV

— Lily D'Ambrosio MP (@LilyDAmbrosioMP) July 19, 2018

#COMMUNITYENERGY #RENEWABLES:

Dan Cowdell: First community-owned renewable energy plant in Geelong

The launch event of a 520 solar panel solar system at MACS – Multicultural Aged Care Services in West Geelong – in July 2018 marked the completion of a four-year dream to create a large-scale solar project in Geelong.

The project, titled ‘Geelong CORE 1’ – where CORE stands for Community-Owned Renewable Energy – had been able to raise $150,000 in the community within a week. It also received a $188,000 State Government grant to develop the project’s structure and model properly, so that it can be replicated over and over again.

Geelong Sustainability project co-ordinator Dan Cowdell explained in his speech that his group is now looking at other host sites to start raising funds for and building Core 2, then Core 3, and so on.

Cowdell and his CORE team has done a fantastic job in creating a sense of dynamism and passion around this project and renewal energy in general. Geelong Sustainability currently run a number of ‘lighthouse projects’ and they play a really important role in changing the community narrative about renewables – changing the story.

For instance, in conjunction with ShineHub, the group has rolled out a community solar bulk-buy program where 250 residents across Geelong have signed up to have solar panels installed, with about 75 per cent adding battery storage – creating a virtual power plant in Geelong of over one megawatt.

“This project at MACS highlights the potential for community-owned solar to help drive Victoria’s transition to renewable energy,” said Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio. Member for Geelong Christine Couzens added that Geelong Sustainability Group is part of a broad network of businesses, community groups and individuals which are doing great work to reduce the impact of climate change.

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Community-backed solar delivering for Geelong

“Residents living in Geelong’s Multicultural Aged Care Centre Services (MACS) will soon have access to cheaper energy, thanks to a 520-panel solar project funded by the Andrews Labor Government.”

On 19 July 2018, the Victorian government published this media release about two of Geelong Sustainability’s solar projects:

“Minister for Energy Lily D’Ambrosio joined Member for Geelong Christine Couzens to open the project, which will reduce MACS’s operating costs. The Labor Government provided $188,000 to Geelong Sustainability Group for the project, with more than $150,000 raised by the local community.

The funding was provided through the Labor Government’s New Energy Jobs Fund, which has already awarded more than $12.6 million to 45 projects.

Minister D’Ambrosio also announced that Geelong Sustainability Group will receive $300,000 for its Climate Safe Rooms project.
This initiative will provide 20 vulnerable households in the Geelong area with energy-efficiency upgrades to make their homes comfortable during the temperature extremes of summer and winter.

The rooms will be fully insulated and draught-proofed with high efficiency air-conditioning and a small solar system to offset running costs.

Geelong Sustainability Group will work with the City of Greater Geelong, Kildonan Uniting Care and EcoMaster to create the safe havens in the homes of people most at risk of serious illness or death from climate extremes.

The City of Greater Geelong’s Community Care department will identify 20 of the most vulnerable households to receive the free home energy audit and retrofit package.”

Surf Coast Times published this article about it:

First community-owned renewable energy plant in Geelong

Erin Rhoads - The Rogue Ginger — Erin Rhoads

#ZEROWASTE #BOOK:

Erin Rhoads: Book to to help you tackle your own war on waste

“Make a big difference by throwing away less”

“We need to talk about waste. Shrink-wrapped vegies, disposable coffee cups, clothes and electronics designed to be upgraded every year: we are surrounded by stuff that we often use once and then throw away. Each year Australian households produce enough rubbish to fill a three-bedroom home, including thousands of dollars worth of food and an ever-increasing amount of plastic, which takes hundreds of years to break down and often ends up in our oceans or our food chain.

But what to do about such a huge problem? Is it just the price we pay for the conveniences of modern life? What if it were possible to have it both ways – to live a modern life with less waste?

That’s where Erin Rhoads, aka The Rogue Ginger, comes in. Erin went from eating plastic-packaged takeaway while shopping online for fast fashion, to becoming one of Australia’s most popular eco-bloggers. Erin knows that small changes can have a big impact. In Waste Not she shares everything she’s learnt from her own funny, inspiring – and far-from-perfect – journey to living with less waste, to help you tackle your own war on waste.

Learn how to:
• switch out the disposable plastics from your shopping trolley
• make simple cleaning solutions free from harmful chemicals
• find your favourite beauty products without all the packaging
• give a baby shower present that won’t end up in the charity shop bag
• plan your own zero-waste wedding (and what ‘zero waste’ even means!)”

Erin Rhoads: ‘Waste Not – Make a Big Difference by Throwing Away Less’. A Hardie Grant Books book

» Read more on www.hardiegrant.com

ADDITIONALLY:

In other news

From our notes of this week: news stories and events we didn’t have time to mention but which we think you should know about

#CLIMATECHANGE #POLICY #RECOMMENDATION:

Excellent writing by Ian Dunlop

Former coal executive Ian Dunlop has done it again – and as always: what he writes this time is absolutely spot on. Anyone who wants to understand what is wrong in Australia and in particular in Australian politics and climate policy should read this:

» Ian Dunlop: A parliament without trust or legitimacy must go

SBS The Feed had a short segment on the topic the other day. Watch it as a warm-up to Ian’s piece:

Ian Dunlop also had an article published in RenewEconomy. Different title, same message. Its not primarily about the NEG but about broader political dysfunction regarding climate and energy and a failure to act for the common good:

» RenewEconomy – 8 August 2018:
NEG: An abject failure of principled political leadership

Scrap the NEG

“Several countries are near or at 100% renewable energy while Australia, a gold mine of sunshine, would be locked into rust bucket, damaging technologies and left way behind the rest of the world if the NEG goes through: ‘In fact, independent analysis suggests Australia would have more renewable energy over the next decade if the NEG wasn’t passed!’ ”
~ Fabia Claridge-Chang

#CLIMATECHANGE #ENERGY #PETITION:

Time for Turnbull to take responsibility on climate and energy

“With the drought hitting farmers hard in rural NSW, and the Great Barrier Reef under serious threat from rising temperatures, Australia can’t afford to waste any more time when it comes to acting on climate change.

After successive blunders, Energy and Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg has failed to deliver a positive outcome for climate. Today’s result at the COAG Energy Council meeting is just the latest in a long list of policy failures on Frydenberg’s watch.

That’s why it’s time for PM Malcolm Turnbull to take responsibility for the important area of climate and energy policy.

Here’s what the PM needs to do:

1) Step in and stare down the climate deniers in the federal Coalition.

2) Deliver a real plan for climate action that meets and exceeds Australia’s responsibilities under the Paris Climate Agreement.

3) Extend the national Renewable Energy Target to drive emissions cuts in the electricity sector, create jobs in wind and solar, and put downward pressure on power prices.

4) Create a plan to phase out Australia’s aging coal fired power stations by 2030, with a full plan to support affected workers and communities.

One year ago, CSIRO reminded the Turnbull government that the electricity sector must cut carbon emissions by 52 to 70 percent by 2030 to meet Australia’s commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement.

With bushfires raging in the northern hemisphere, and temperature records being broken around the planet, the need to act on climate change is becoming ever more urgent.

TAKE ACTION: Join us and email Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today, telling him to take personal responsibility for climate and energy policy:

» www.foe.org.au/climate_action_turnbull

Your actions make a difference.

regards
Cam Walker, Friends of the Earth Australia”

Letter to PM Turnbull: Take responsibility on climate and energy

“Dear the Hon. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull,

You have said that you would never lead a party that is not as committed to effective action on climate change as you are.

You reaffirmed your commitment to the Paris climate agreement, even when Donald Trump pulled the United States from the agreement. These are all welcome signs of leadership.

But after successive policy failures the community has lost faith in Energy and Environment Minister Frydenberg’s capacity to deliver a positive outcome for the climate.

If you are serious about protecting the climate you will take responsibility for the important area of climate and energy policy.

I’m asking you to show leadership by taking the following steps:

– Step in and stare down the climate deniers in the federal Coalition.

– Deliver a real plan for climate action that meets and exceeds Australia’s responsibilities under the Paris Climate Agreement.

– Extend the national Renewable Energy Target to drive emissions cuts in the electricity sector, create jobs in wind and solar and put downward pressure on power prices.

– Create a plan to phase out Australia’s aging coal fired power stations by 2030, with a funded transition plan for affected communities.

With wildfires raging in the northern hemisphere, the Great Barrier Reef under threat from coral bleaching, and farmers being hit hard by drought in NSW, Australia cannot waste any more time when it comes to acting on climate change and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

I urge you to act now. The continued policy uncertainty is hurting consumers, businesses and closing off options for us to act decisively to limit our greenhouse emissions.

Thank you, I look forward to your correspondence.

Yours sincerely,
Mik Aidt”

Seize the fire

Did you read Richard Flanagan’s recent piece in The Guardian? In these two excerpts, he could be speaking about climate change just as well as he speaks about the indigenous issue:

“I bring you a warning. The world is being undone before us. History is once more moving, and it is moving to fragmentation on the basis of concocted differences, toward the destruction of democracy using not coups and guns to entrench autocracies and dictators, but the ballot box and social media. My warning is this: if we here in Australia do not reimagine ourselves we will be undone too.”

(…)

“I began with a warning. I spoke of how our story as Australia is no longer holding. We have before us the chance other nations do not.

If white can find themselves in black, as black Australia has through the Uluru statement sought to find itself in white, we can begin a new story – a better, richer, more sustaining and more hopeful story.

To do that though we must choose to become history’s actors, all of us, because no one else will change these things for us.

For Australia lies before us, waiting to be written into the Dreaming and the Dreaming into it. It is far from easy, but I believe that if the Uluru statement is taken to Australia, rather than to Canberra, that Australians are ready for this new story, that there has never been a better time, and that we must dare everything in our telling.

Let us seize the fire.”

~ Richard Flanagan, Australian novelist from Tasmania

Podcasts and posts about climate change

Acknowledgement

We at The Sustainable Hour would like to pay our respect to the traditional custodians of the land on which we are broadcasting, the Wathaurong People, and pay our respect to their elders, past, present and future.

The traditional owners lived in harmony with the environment and with the climate for hundreds of generations. It is not clear – yet – that as European settlers we have demonstrated that we can live in harmony for hundreds of generations, but it is clear that we can learn from the indigenous, traditional owners of this land.

When we talk about the future, it means extending our respect to those children not yet born, the generations of the future – remembering the old saying that…

The decisions currently being made around Australia to ignore climate change are being made by those who won’t be around by the time the worst effects hit home. How utterly disgusting, disrespectful and unfair is that?

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Eco-loop dream a reality: energy saved, waste reduced

Content of this hour

John Agar: Closing the eco-loop

Green dialysis

Alan Rattray: How not to get ripped off by your energy supplier

“Cleaner economy, lower health care costs, congestion-free streets…”

Dan Cowdell: First community-owned renewable energy plant in Geelong

Community-backed solar delivering for Geelong

Erin Rhoads: Book to to help you tackle your own war on waste

In other news

Excellent writing by Ian Dunlop

Scrap the NEG

Time for Turnbull to take responsibility on climate and energy

Letter to PM Turnbull: Take responsibility on climate and energy

Seize the fire

Acknowledgement

Streaming live

Podcast archive

Help us promote sustainable living

Receive our podcast newsletter in your mailbox

The Sustainable Hour on social media

Share on Twitter

Share on Facebook

Share on Pinterest

Like this:

Related

Content of this hour

John Agar: Closing the eco-loop

Green dialysis

Alan Rattray: How not to get ripped off by your energy supplier

“Cleaner economy, lower health care costs, congestion-free streets…”

Dan Cowdell: First community-owned renewable energy plant in Geelong

Community-backed solar delivering for Geelong

Erin Rhoads: Book to to help you tackle your own war on waste

In other news

Excellent writing by Ian Dunlop

Scrap the NEG

Time for Turnbull to take responsibility on climate and energy

Letter to PM Turnbull: Take responsibility on climate and energy

Seize the fire

Acknowledgement

Streaming live

Podcast archive

Help us promote sustainable living

Receive our podcast newsletter in your mailbox

The Sustainable Hour on social media

Share on Twitter

Share on Facebook

Share on Pinterest

Share this:

Like this:

Related