Why reaching Net Zero doesn’t cost the earth.
Well, good morning and welcome everyone.
I can see a number of us joining here for today's webinar.
I'll just give it another minute.
I think sometimes we're just rushing in to attend these events.
We'll just give it another moment and will be underway.
But you're in the right spot.
Okay, So good morning and welcome everyone to today's webinar How to get to net zero without costing the Earth.
My name is John Hagar, the CEO of Energy Action.
My pleasure to welcome today with me.
Barbara Albert, the co CEO of 100% renewables.
Welcome, Barbara.
Thanks, John.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Thank you so much.
And thank you so much for everyone joining us.
We're really excited today.
I know we've got many customers from energy action, many friends of the business or new customers as well for both ourselves and for 100% renewables.
Today our intention is to provide you a webinar that will run to about 45 minutes.
We are expecting our presentation to go for about 30 minutes and then leave plentiful time for your questions and us for and for us to provide answers to you as well, we will be recording this session so we'll make it available to you up this session if there's something you missed or you want to catch up on, and we'll also be providing you additional information after the Webinar as well.
So thank you once again for attending.
So look just to kick us off.
I need to introduce our co host here because for many of our guests, Barbara Albert is the co CEO of 100% renewables.
They are dedicated to developing that zero pathways for their clients.
And Barbara is a speaker and award winning author of her book Energy Unlimited, regularly sharing her experiences on the company's blog, YouTube channel.
And she's also got her own podcast driving that profit with zero emissions, and I have the pleasure to introduce.
John John is an experienced leader and senior executive with a strong energy background.
He's a board member of the Energy Efficiency Council and fell off the Australian CPS.
He's an expert in carbon neutral and renewable energy procurement, precinct generation projects and solar businesses.
You've come to the right place.
We're all passionate and dedicated to this area, so excited to share some of these learnings today and that's why we've got 100% renewables here.
So, Barbara, let us know a little bit about your organisation before we kick off.
Sure.
So at 100% renewables, we see a future where all organisations are powered with renewables and have zero net emissions.
And it's our mission to help business achieve this by driving that profit with zero emissions.
We are experts in delivering that zero strategies that have buy in and are cost effective.
Thank you so much.
And again, for those who are new to energy action, we're really dedicated to making energy simpler, cleaner and lower cost.
We've been around for over 20 years, so launched a famous for our auctions where we can create competitive tension for business spend on energy across Australia and as a result, we're now representing about 10% of that commercial load across Australia were listed on the stock exchange, got teams around Australia dedicated to help customers on their journey with 20 towards net zero.
The reason we're here today and you know, incredible timing.
Last week, the IPCC report came out with his code red.
I guess it was a wake up call again for change.
So today is not so much about informing the requirement change or the need to change.
It is about how do we make change that can meet this collective requirement? So that's the focus of today.
What we do is we go and speak to our clients every six months or so in a survey, and we get some really important feedback.
And what you can see here is that people want to take action on that zero.
It's almost a universal requirement.
Now 85% believe their organisation needs to do something with that zero, but only just over 27% have actually got a plan in place right now.
So there is a disconnect.
Now.
We know there are many leaders in the organisation, including in Australia and globally, who have made a lot of effort.
But we also know there is a large market that is still grappling with these decisions.
How do you put a plan in place and how do you achieve that outcome? Let's talk about net zero.
What does it actually mean? We all have an environmental footprint.
You probably generally familiar with that and Barbara will talk about how to measure it of the boundaries and scopes of that.
But generally as an idea.
We've got a footprint, and we're going to get to net zero.
We're going to reduce that footprint to zero.
How do we do that? First of all, we can reduce that energy efficiency typically or avoidance of energy use were a warmer jacket on a cold a day.
All those type of efforts are required to reduce the energy that you use and the emissions you create.
After that, can you generate energy yourself on the roof through solar? For example, if you are still reliant on grid power, let's buy 100% renewable energy and then finally with your footprint and Barbara will talk about the scope of this.
There will be offtake offset requirements with carbon credits typically required to get you down to that magic zero number.
So, Barbara, now to talk about those methods to get to net zero, Okay, so let's see if I can get uh, control of perfect.
So there are many ways you can achieve that.
Your emissions.
There are no right and wrong approaches, and you can go about this in a way that fits your particular circumstances your size, your engagement with policy and science based responses to climate change, the abatement efforts you've already made in the past and what you can commit to now in terms of resources.
The steps that I'm showing you here probably reflect the ideal way of achieving that zero emissions.
Here, an organisation understands the science and they have to act.
The first step for organisations that follow this particular idealised pathway is to set in at your target year in language science.
So you may have seen the latest IPCC report and to set the boundary of what emission sources you will, including units your target.
Ideally, the boundary of emission sources reflects all your material emissions in your operations and in your value chain, for example, aligned with the Australian climate Active standard.
You then move on to develop your couple footprint.
You analyse how your emissions will grow over time and you project, but the expected future emissions will be.
You'll then develop a plan to achieve net zero emissions.
You develop business cases that are cost effective and staged over time.
Um and then you plan for the for these projects to be delivered to implement the committed actions and then in the target here you achieve your Net zero emissions.
Now that's a deal case.
But of course this happens for some organisations, but not others.
So we find that in many cases you set in a zero target.
But you are unaware that Unit zero target should ideally include a number of emission sources which you may not have previously tracked, or you may not even be aware of them.
So you might start with looking at your electricity emissions your emissions from natural gas use from your fleet.
But as you start working on your footprint and you start liaising with others in the sector and consultants, you uncovered that there are many other emission sources that you may not have considered previously but that you can influence such as, for instance, emissions in the supply chain through products and services you buy or emissions from refrigerant gases in your buildings.
Now this typically leads to an iterative process where you assess and decide on what emission sources you should include based on the significance and also your ability to influence them.
A good guide for businesses in this step is the climate active standard.
So climate active and John, you might be able to talk to that from energy actions.
Experience has requirements and what emission sources must be included in your carbon footprint, even if you're not looking to be certified just yet.
Under the standard, you can still use the standard to guide you in developing your emissions boundary now the boundary and the climate activists usually broader than emission sources that are under your direct control.
So other businesses may not yet be thinking about the supply chain emissions or setting in at zero target at all.
They may have owners and stakeholders who just don't seen at zero as a high priority in the business.
And that's fine.
Too many of our clients start out with a set target or boundary in mind.
They typically want to understand their own emissions, typically from energy transport, perhaps from waste, and are not keen to think of other additional emission sources.
If this is you, then you are mostly interested in opportunities that will save you money and a plan that can help you achieve ambitious renewable energy or carbon reduction goals.
A good way to get thinking about scope three emissions is to change procurement so that both money spent and emissions reduce now going back to John's earliest.
Like most businesses recognise the need to act, but few have set a target.
So the scenario outlet here is, in our experience, the most common.
We come across all the time.
But we believe that as the need to go to Nigeria becomes more normalised and you would have seen that in the news just coming in at zero commitments have come out in the past few months.
This approach that I show you here will apply less and less, and more and more businesses will start out with an overarching goal to have zero emissions as a top down approach, even if they don't know exactly what should be included now.
I mentioned the word emission sources Quite a lot of my previous slides.
Let's have a look at that in greater detail when you commit to an at zero goal, which emission sources will you include in your goal.
And here is my famous graphic.
Most businesses are aware of the scope on carbon footprint, which is emissions that come from burning natural gas or the fuel in company cars, and most of you would be aware of your scope.
Two.
Emissions, which is the use of electricity.
However, there is usually a lack of awareness of scope three emissions, which happen both upstream and downstream of your business.
Examples of your value chain emissions are upstream energy distribution losses, paper consumption, waste or air travel.
But when you look into your value chain emissions, it's hard to stop.
There are many emission sources that you could potentially including your carbon footprint, but of course your resources and endless, so you have to draw the line somewhere.
This line will determine the boundary, which you will take to the starting line of your Net zero journey.
And here is another way of looking at scope three emissions.
So that's your value.
Chain emissions in the middle, you have to scope one and scope two emissions that I showed you earlier.
These are under your control, but to the left of the blue box, you have upstream emissions that come from products and services you by and to the right.
You have downstream activities which happen as a result of your activities.
Now this picture here shows you all the emission sources that occur because your business exists to give you an example.
One of the most important scope three appstream emission sources that you can sometimes overlook is category one, which is purchased goods and services.
Think of all the products and services such as raw material inputs or services you buy in your business.
They were most likely produced by burning fossil fuels, so they contribute to your carbon footprint.
Now here is an example of an extensive carbon footprint.
We develop one of our clients so you've got tonnes of carbon emissions on the vertical axis and the timeline on the horizontal axis.
So here, with the scope on emissions, here are the scope two emissions and you can see the big emission source.
And that's the case for most organisations.
And here are the scope three emissions.
As you can see electricity emissions is by far the biggest emission source.
As I said, it's typical.
Uh and this is, um, in this particular case, this is followed by purchased food and catering, which is a big emissions source for this particular client followed by purchasing professional services.
So given that you have this carbon footprint, let's have a look at how you can reduce this carbon footprint to net zero over time.
So examples are energy efficient air conditioning, energy efficient lighting.
Putting solar panels on roof on roof, but also land where you've got it.
Adding battery storage when that becomes cost effective.
Buying renewables.
That's a very important consideration.
Sustainable transport.
Sustainable design because it affects both your operational emissions but also embedded emissions in the building materials.
Talking about building materials, you could switch to carbon neutral inputs.
An example here of carbon neutral bricks.
You can think about reducing your consumptions or giving an example here of paper, but it applies to anything else as well.
Pageants in carbon neutral products or environment.
Environmentally friendly products.
Looking at circular economy initiatives, switching to carbon neutral flying once we can get back to flying.
Um, and, of course, purchasing carbon offsets as the last resort or, alternatively, you can use to become carbon neutral right away.
So given that we've seen all these solutions, how does this work in a pathway? Here is a net zero pathway.
We developed one of our clients that is based on the footprints I showed you earlier.
Now, in the absence of any carbon reduction activities, emissions will grow as the company grows.
However, because the grid is getting greener, your electricity related emissions will fall automatically without you doing anything, because more renewables are being added to the grid.
Now this happens over time.
Uh, you rarely achieve net zero emissions with a single silver bullet solution.
So there are many opportunities that contribute to a Net zero goal, such as energy efficiency on site, solar and batteries, renewable energy purchasing, waste management, fleet electrification and supply chain initiatives.
Now, as you can see, great decarbonization happens slowly.
You can't wait for great decarbonization to take care of your electricity related emissions.
Businesses and also individuals need to act now themselves with actions like efficiency, solar and buying renewables that reduce emissions and save money with the next one or two decades.
Then, depending on what makes up your value, chain your your scope three Emissions.
You can work with customers, suppliers and your other stakeholders to drive these down while creating new opportunities for your business to prosper over the long term.
Now you can focus on reducing emissions in your supply chain over over time and then eventually buying carbon offsets.
So, um, only use carbon offsets for emissions that are too hard to reduce or remove directly.
But as I said earlier, purchasing carbon offsets is still a great strategy as it shows climate change leaders leadership and it sort of set an internal price on carbon so it makes other projects are more easy to implement.
But over time the goal should be to reduce your carbon offset purchase 20 while reaching natural emissions.
So you can go carbon neutral now and look to go net zero while minimising carbon offset purchases in future.
And with that, I'm handing back over to John.
Thank you so much, Barbara.
And, uh and I really appreciate the update there.
From Melissa.
Well spotted those carbon neutral bricks available from Austral bricks.
So thank you for that comment and congratulations on that initiative as well.
Of how organisations can look through the entire supply chain to create these ambitions.
So I'd like to talk a little bit now about on the price of energy.
This squiggly graph on the screen there demonstrates the data from thousands of procurement events over the past many years, and you can see right now that downward trend that we've enjoyed the best time to ever do you look in your energy contract was March the 21st This year.
There's been a bit of a rally since then.
Uh, and, uh, you know, with the cold winter and some withdrawal of supply, But generally it's been a very good time to buy energy as a result of the supply and demand between renewables on the grid now but by renewable energy is a combination of this grid power, together with the large scale generation certificates that combine into being renewable energy.
Now, on this market that we show here, these large scale generation certificate prices LG see prices are firming.
They're still representing value clearly from today's prices into the future.
But you can see them firming up.
So even over the last six months, some increases there.
So that's just a bit of a guide as to the future.
So we're still seeing by youth, But some increases in the short term.
So what ways can you achieve renewable energy? Well, the first way is to buy green power.
This was a great initiative from the government almost 10 years ago, had so many benefits, and we use it here at energy action.
As a small business, it's flexible, short term, it's coming accredited.
You do now have an opportunity to connect that to a specific renewable source.
But on the other hand, people have really voted against it.
So you've seen a significant drop in the use for businesses of green energy.
And typically, unless you go for the Grand Green Power Connect product, which is more expensive, there's no direct link to a source The other way.
Many of our clients are managing.
Their commitments to renewable energy is through LDCs.
It's certainly a lower cost compared to green power.
It can be short term or long term as well.
It's government accredited.
Still, it's a very transparent market.
It can be actively managed so you can find the right time to trade.
And by on the negative side, there's no direct link to the generation source.
So whilst you're meeting your 100% renewable targets pragmatically, you're not getting the benefit of the link to that specific asset, which can be shown on your annual report or to you, to your shareholders, to your staff.
The alternative, of course, has been the corporate power purchase agreements, which creates a great opportunity to go direct, cut out the middleman, go direct to the source of the renewable energy generation.
Source, Uh, typically is requiring a very long term commitment and contract, which is good because you've got certainty.
On the other hand, there's a number of risks We've certainly called out.
It's certainly something to be aware of the project risks of timing risk.
And we've already seen a number of these agreements that are certainly out of the money and even after a short time with their inception, let alone the fact that it can take two years from commencement two or three years from negotiation to fulfilment.
So a new way of buying is.
What we've introduced more recently is the green auction, which is a renewable backed energy supply agreements.
I think about a traditional energy supply agreement, but through a highly transparent auction process that it creates that competitive tension but still giving you the benefit of that direct link to that generation source.
So that's very exciting innovation for us and we're really excited because our first degree an option has just been completed will make details that known when it's all publicly available.
We've got the second one just about to go under way right now.
If you're considering buying renewable energy, we can.
We can talk to you about how that works and how effective it's been for our clients who have already made that decision the other way.
You can be cost effective in your net.
Zero plans is through effective solar procurement, and we've introduced more recently the solar options.
Now many organisations have now committed through that process, and what it does is create that traditional option process, which has been terrific for the commodity energy supply now being applied to the more complex solar system installation or a power purchase agreement so effectively to rent solar power from your roof without spending the capital.
And the cool thing is, you're getting that maximum tension.
We saw one their recent solar auction.
There was a 42% reduction in the costs from the original bids, so from the initial offers through the final closed price, so typically we have not been able to do options on this in the past because quite a complex thing with solar, right? You know, you've got to deal with roof integrity and switchboard configurations and access requirements.
We now deal with that all up front and get a highly effective auction process to secure a great deal for your organisation.
As Barbara said, we're on our own net zero story, and we've chosen again climate active for our certification.
We're a small business, so we've got a few leased premises in Australia.
We've got teams across the Philippines and in Australia, and we've set our own net zero target.
We're going through that process at the moment, submitting for approval with climate active as we speak.
Now this, uh, this template that we've used in our own plan is publicly available on our website because we want to just share our own story and experiences of how we can get to net zero.
So in summary, Barbara, I'll hand it over to you.
These are the key messages that we wanted to share in today's in today's session and very keen to hear your your questions, and we can respond to those as well no.
So in my opinion, setting a zero target doesn't have to be difficult or expensive.
I reckon you should look at your options and identify the ones that best suit your needs.
What's important is to get started.
Don't delay action.
We only have this decade in which we can change the course of action so everyone has to act, including businesses.
So that's my call to action.
To plan for your Net Zero journey and to start implementing actions right away.
And with that, I'd like to open the floor to questions to both John and I will be available to answer your questions.
So shall we have a look at the first one? Uh huh.
So, um, it has asked whether the recent update to the IPCC.
Report implies that we should be pursuing that by 2030 to restrict global warming to 1.5 degrees.
Whether that flows straight through to the S p t I and should organisations be reassessing the target in light of this report.
So for those that are not aware of SPT is the science based targets initiative, which is a fantastic organisation that allows organisations to set themselves pathways in alignment to 1.5 degree pathway.
Unfortunately, the SPT I only gives us guidance for the next 5 to 15 years.
It doesn't go right down to net zero.
But according to the latest science that's been revealed in the working Group, one report of the latest IPCC report, a net zero target by 2050 is just not good enough.
UH, it will cause catastrophic climate change.
So in all reality, we should be striving to reach Net zero by 2040 but with a focus on deep decarbonization this decade.
So get rid of the of the emissions that you can reduce right now through efficiency on site solar and purchasing Renewables.
Reduce that right now.
It's under your control.
You can can deal with those emissions immediately, and then later on you can deal with supply chain emissions or the next two decades to take you to um, and it's zero target by 2040 is, uh, is a good way of thinking about is the 2050 is is just too late.
Um, and then, uh, also John, what are your What's your opinion regarding the latest IPCC report and science based targets.
Well, I I think I think you've answered that very well.
I might just I think you know, the the urgency is apparent.
I think what I might just addresses a question here on what's driving that LDC pricing increasing.
And look, the answer is there has been a little bit of uncertainty about the renewable energy target.
It closes out in a few years' time, but it is clearly the the the instrument of choice for a number of businesses making decisions either through our A 100 commitments or through their or their net zero commitments.
So that voluntary commitment from large corporate across Australia is really driving that price signal.
Now, I believe that that price signal will stimulate further supply from renewable.
So what we've got is a large large pool of investments are still at financial close, and we believe that this demand will drive additional renewables into the system.
Uh, there's another question here on the SAF certificates.
Barbara, did you want to answer that one at all? What is that? What I say? You have certificates.
Be a question for Barbara.
Who's raised that question, I think in terms of certificates.
Uh, in terms of carbon certificates, most popular ones in Australia, the EU or the aviation fuel certificates.
Okay.
Oh, okay.
That sounds like a great initiatives.
I have to look initiative.
You have to look that up.
Awesome.
Okay, um, we built the northern roof of the angle, correspond to our latitude and then put solar panels on.
Yeah.
Look, that's sustainable.
That's a great example of sustainable environment.
Um, where do I start? Where do I even start with working out emissions across all scopes? Look, that's that's a great question.
And really, for when you do your net zero plan, it's, um it can be quite daunting because, as, uh, as Barbara described the those, uh, the skin.
Uh, it can take some effort.
The first part, of course, it does start with the most measurable, which is typically your energy bill and most energy providers, and certainly under our managed services for our clients, we provide the emissions in respect of your scope, two emissions and your energy procurement from the grid.
We've got gas.
Similarly, we will do that as well, but I think that's a question that just reach out to us.
Uh, speak to our account manager and experts here at energy affection of how we work out those emissions.
Did you want to add to that Barbara as well? Yeah, for sure.
So in in the materials that are being sent to you as well as the recording just after the onion graphic, I'm showing the upstream and downstream emissions that happen upstream and downstream of your organisation.
And it has 15 categories of scope three emissions that you can go through and you can start thinking about those.
For instance.
Uh, do you want to account for the products and the services that you purchase in your organisation? Do you want to account for the emissions that are associated with employees commuting to your place of work? Do you want to take account of all the air travel so it's just broadens your your mind is to put all sorts of emission sources that are happening in the organisation.
But as I mentioned in my Onion graphic somewhere, you've got to draw the line because your resources are constrained and you can't do it all, so you have to focus on the ones that you have the most immediate control over and that you can influence.
There's another question here as well about solar decisions and whether because those LDC prices are coming down should you advance or defer a decision on solar.
So look our advice.
Typically, is there still terrific value on solar installation for business especially, And the reason it's very strong for business is because, typically the businesses absorbing the use of that solar power in their operations rather than being exposed to export.
So they captured the entire value compared to grid supplied energy, including network charges.
So typically, that's still where the value proposition lies in terms of the timing.
In terms of Victoria, if you've got a roof, go for it right now under the scheme, it is the perfect time.
If you're not thinking about solar in Victoria right now, please reach out to us and we'll chat to you about how you can evaluate that quickly and make some real changes broadly across Australia, though, whilst the L G C prices are coming down, that value chain from a long term point of view, certainly represents value, and what you'll see now is organisations willing to provide you the option of installing, supplying and installing at a fixed capital cost or, alternatively, simply reaching an agreement with your with your cells and the use of your roof, and then providing you an alternative to grid power at a lower sustainable price and fixed prices over a long term.
So on both those counts, it's worthwhile evaluating Solar Still mhm.
And another question we had from Sydney Claris is due to the latest covid 19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns.
Is it safe to say that they will have a positive impact on the scope? Three.
Emissions of companies? So this is what happens with most employees working from home.
You can.
You can assume that electricity consumption in the office is reduced, but at the same time there is more electricity consumption happening at home.
From an employee commute perspective, your employee commute emissions reduced because obviously we're not going to our offices sadly so that emission source is reduced.
So in the end it works out to be a positive effect on the carbon footprint, so it's usually a reduction because of the working from home.
But then, of course, if you think about all the other things that happen, there's still purchase products and services.
Um, there's there's still ways that's been generated.
So all these other emission sources are still there.
Um, and so there's a little bit of an effect and definitely a reduction in air travel related emissions.
But that's about it, so there's not a huge effect.
But obviously, if you compare 2019 footprints to 2020 footprints is a huge difference.
Because, yeah, there's less activity.
So there is, uh, there are fewer emissions.
But yeah, we need to see even fewer.
Uh, there's a follow up question, uh, figures from Damon about how our first green auction went.
I didn't give a lot of details on that.
As I say, it's not publicly available information yet.
The cool thing I can say is that this iconic Australian organisation was able to achieve 100% renewable energy through the green auction process, commencing from July next year at a lower total spend than their current energy.
Now that comes from 22 factors.
Obviously, as we talked about earlier, the grid energy prices have come down, so that was a source of value but also comes from the competitive tension.
There was a keenly sought after strong bidding event for many innovative and strong retailers across Australia.
So we invited about it well, retailers to the event who expressed interest and then six actually submitted bids.
This is a new product for them.
So they're still developing these, uh, these solutions by providing this bundled price, including the L.G.C's
and the grid power to provide 100% renewable energy with an identified project as well.
So, as a result, we've got a very, very happy client and a very terrific outcome for the environment as well as then commercially.
So we look forward to sharing that.
I see.
Another note here is well about the opportunity to incorporate renewable backed energy supply agreement against neighbours determination.
So that's a very good, very specific point on commercial buildings that were working through.
At the moment, we feel that success will be will be met there, but it is a process to go through, so I'm not sure if you've got a specific answer to that one, and I know you're very close to that.
Whether you're able to provide a specific answer to that question from James Barbara.
If you want to answer that question from, uh, Graham about the time, yeah, this I get this question all the time because it's so confusing with described threes because with Scope three's, there is double counting.
So there is never going to be double counting for scope one emissions, um, sometimes for scope to.
But for scope three's definitely So, uh, if you take care of embodied emissions of products and services that you purchase, you are taking responsibility for another organisation, scope one and scope two emissions.
So they might be counting it, and you might be counting it in your carbon boundary.
Now, at the moment, this is unavoidable because, uh, we're not living in an ideal world.
And not everyone is accounting for the scope one and scope two emissions, because then we wouldn't have to worry about scope three emissions.
So with the double counting issue, the good thing is that if you are included in your carbon footprint, you have now the ability to influence his emission source so you can talk to your supplier and you can You can influence them to reduce their emissions.
And if others are doing that, too.
There's even more pressure on your supplier to reduce their emissions.
And maybe then, with that pressure, they are going to maybe commit to a science based target.
Maybe they're committing to a long term that zero goal.
Maybe they are going carbon neutral, in which case the input into your business becomes carbon neutral and you don't have to worry about it at all.
So, yes, there is double counting.
But it is a good thing because you want to have that influence over your supply chain.
Thanks, Barbara.
And just coming back to that question about the neighbours certification.
So what we've spoken to about with the retailers now is bundling under the green option the ability to have qualifying green power.
So that's the direct answer.
We have been in those discussions, and we feel confident now that we can bring a competitive tension to achieving that bundled outcome whilst meeting neighbours requirements as well.
So I think that's a terrific innovation and step forward for us.
So you reach out to us after this webinar.
If you like, we can pick up on the details of that.
Uh, there's a couple of other questions here uh, the is a good one for you, Mark Barbara is what's the most common mistake organisations make when preparing a Net zero plan? Probably preparing a plan, uh, in isolation without consulting all key organisational stakeholders because that results in a plan that sits, uh, somewhere gets buried.
Um last draw a kind of thing.
It doesn't get implemented because if you bring your key stakeholders on the journey with you, it ensures buying, which then ensures that your plan gets implemented and that resources are being made available.
So that, I would say, would be the biggest mistake just developing the plan in complete isolation.
Good point.
I've got a question here from Nicholas.
So what will the likely impact timing and financial from the recent New South Wales state budget announcement regarding renewal as well? This is a significant plan and step.
And what the real impact of the New South Wales government approach here is to bring a number of renewable energy projects to financial close because they will have the certainty of government backed investment, with those projects guaranteeing so it's not offtake prices as a CFD.
I'd imagine as a contractor differences to ensure that there is a certainty around the price of that project can achieve.
That will be a financial instrument for the project.
But what it will really mean in broader terms is that there will be increasing supply of renewables in the grid and that as we know right now, I think I looked at the at the market screens this morning at nine o'clock in the price of power in Australia and the name said it was free.
I think it was drifting between 2.6 cents.
It was just extraordinary.
So So, the increase in renewables through that through that initiative from the New South Wales state government will have an impact on reducing prices into the future with increased supplier renewables.
They're doing that, however, in concert with the renewable energy zone, to make sure that infrastructure and support for the management of the grid that from a technical level is supported to enable that and it's really in concert with the large scale battery impact.
Ultimately a snowy hydro 2.0, for example, for that ability to sustain the departure of the coal fired generators in the future right we have two questions from councils one in relation to whether bitumen and concrete should be used in Houston council projects where that should be part of the carbon footprint.
So I've got one thing to say about the council's roads rates and rubbish.
So it definitely Ashfield and bitumen should be included because of fixing the roads is just such an important part of council operations.
So there's no way to navigate around that that should be in your carbon footprint.
But when it comes to capital works, yes, the tendency nowadays is to include more and more emission sources.
So previously, capital works wasn't so much a part of organisations coming for princess a lot of emissions associated with it, but more and more this forms part of the emissions boundaries, so it's being extended.
Every year we see more and more emission sources being added to councils carbon footprint.
So that's definitely happening.
Uh, and in relation to the community, the pathway is pretty similar to the pathways that I've showed for organisations.
So you have to start with um, setting a target set a target year for when the community should be in at zero.
You should be looking at the carbon footprints you could use, For instance, the snapshot that's being provided by busy for the community to see what the community carbon footprint looks like.
Get a mandate from the community by looking at what the community strategic plan says, for instance, undertaking a community survey and then developing a plan and implementing the plan.
So it's a very similar process, I think so.
I think that the key to that, especially for a council and community, becomes communication.
So, uh, that ends up being the key, the key requirement.
Look, we are at time now.
I know that where we promised to end in about 45 minutes.
I think they're meeting that requirement.
I want to thank you all.
I know we haven't answered all your questions, so that's something we can pick up with After that.
All of our contact details are here for both Barbara and myself.
Feel free to reach out to us.
Thank you so much for your interest and attention to the webinar today.
And thank you so much to my co host Barbara, for entertaining.
What do you think has been a very important, uh, and hopefully helpful chat to all of your attendees.
Thanks very much for having me.
Johnny was a great weapon on.
Thanks, everyone for attending.
Yeah, Thanks so much, Barbara.
Thank you, everyone.
We'll close out now and wish you all a good day ahead and all the best for your net zero journey.
