Just over a month ago, on the 8th November the Australian Government passed the Clean Energy Future or “carbon tax” legislation. After all the debate and politics that seemed to dominate the news there for a while, the Carbon Tax is now officially on its way, and will become law from July 2012.
Like it or not, the legislation has brought a historical change to the way big business operates in Australia, by putting a price on pollution for the first time in Australia.
Although there is still some debate about the carbon tax, there’s no debate about all the simple, practical actions that we can all make at home and in our workplace to reduce greenhouse emissions.
During the Healthy Home workshop series, dozens of households in the local area began making more small steps to make their lives healthier, more sustainable and even save money at the same time!
Sound like a good deal?
It is.
If fact there are more and more businesses and households making changes to the some of their everyday decisions, like where they go shopping or what to pop on the BBQ at the weekend. We don’t have to wait for big business to change, we’ve already made some big improvements right here in our own backyard!
With all the fancy advertising and green-washing around how do we know what to choose and what’s just fancy packaging?
The Our Living Coast Sustainable Living Guide has been put together with just these things in mind, with the best independent advice on practical emission reductions, so that we can all help out and make real reductions to the amount of carbon dioxide going up every year.
Simple things can really make a difference, like buying an energy efficient car, insulating and shading our homes or switching off the printer at the end of the work day. They may be small steps, but as more people get on board, these steps are adding up to impressive changes.
If you haven’t already had a look, there’s great information in our ‘What you can do‘ section
There’s also heaps of great info for businesses, households and community groups as well at the NSW Government Save Power website.
Also, if you’d like to find out more about the carbon tax legislation, including details on how the carbon pricing system works, all this can be found on the Australian Government website Clean Energy Future.
And importantly, if you want to find out more about how a carbon price will effect your cost of living, you may want to have a look at the Choice, independent carbon price calculator here
