The federal budget was announced on 13 May and includes some green initiatives.

Water for the Future

A national water policy framework is being introduced and called Water for the Future. There is funding of $12.9 billion over the next 10 years.Objectives/projects include:

• $1 billion to attract investment in  major projects such as desalination, recycling and large scale water harvesting
• $255 million for saving water projects
• $250 million towards water tank installations

The Government is also going to accelerate the $400million for water efficiency and entitlements in the Murray-Darling basin.

Green Loans

$300 million over 5 years is being directed to the Green Loans program. This program will help households add solar, water and energy efficient products.

Another $150 million will help insulate rental properties over the next 5 years.

Another $14 million is going to the Energy Efficiency of Electrical Appliances policy over four years to help us all choose the greenest appliances for our needs.

Environmental care

Over the next five years, they will also invest $2.2 billion to “better protect, manage and improve” our natural resources and environmental systems.

The following 6 focus areas will be reviewed each year:

• the national reserve system
• natural icons and biodiversity
• coastal environments and critical aquatic habitats
• sustainable farm practices
• natural resource management in remote and northern Australia
• community capacity, knowledge and engagement

We look forward to a positive change on our environment!

Posted: May 20th, 2008 under general.
Comments: none

Books are a valuable resource we should be treasuring, but the reality is that creating books is not very environmentally friendly. And ebooks will never have the same feel and appeal as holding a new book in your hand and reading it curled up in bed or stretched out on the beach.

One company in the UKis giving us a middle option - probably not half way between an ebook and a traditionally published book, but still an improvement. They use paper prepared from sustainable forests and they recycle 91% of the water they use. Add in a few other sound business practices (e.g. recycling in the office, printing double sided in house, avoiding cars) and they are a better option for book publishing.

So, if you had a choice between a traditional book, an ebook or a hard copy book printed using less resources, which would you take?

Does this give you inspiration and ideas to make changes in your industry for a greener alternative?

Posted: May 6th, 2008 under green products.
Comments: none