Earth Unplugged Concert to Rock Toowoomba!

Earth Unplugged will be Queensland's first (and one of Australia's first) 'carbon positive' acoustic concerts being held in Queen's Park, Toowoomba on Sunday 11th July, 2010.

Hugh Duffie, event organizer, is aiming to see the concert have a positive effect on the environment through carbon offsetting beyond carbon neutral. This will be achieved by purchasing Federal Government approved carbon offsets (Verified Emission Reduction Certificates) bought with the revenue generated from ticket sales, merchandise sales, sponsorship or grants, and revenue from selling hot food and drinks on the night.

Perth based company, ‘Carbon Neutral’ have been engaged to assess the emissions associated with the event and will produce a final report to ensure that the right amount offsets are purchased to generate the desired carbon positive outcome. Hugh is a passionate, young environmentalist and saw this as an opportunity to bring greater environmental awareness to Toowoomba while giving musicians an opportunity to showcase their talent at what will be considered, a unique and momentous event!

Prior to completing high school last year, Hugh lead the Environment Club at Toowoomba Grammar School and in July 2009, Hugh attended ‘Power Shift', the Australian Youth Climate Coalition's first national youth climate summit in Sydney. In September 2009 he was awarded - Keep Australia Beautiful QLD's "Green and Healthy Schools - Young Legend" Award. WPC Group would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Hugh and the team coordinating Earth Unplugged and would urge Queenslanders to attend.

For more information, or to show your support, check out the group on Facebook by clicking HERE or you can visit the website, www.earthunplugged.com.au which will provide further information regarding event.

MAV National Environment Conference 2010

Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) hosted its inaugural National Environment Conference on Transitioning to a climate resilient future in Melbourne on the 15 – 16 April 2010 at the hotel Sofitel.

WPC Group was in attendance sharing and promoting our GreenSkill initiative by handing out our GreenSkills program brochure, business cards and tree saplings. Our passionate and enthusiastic representatives in attendance, Mr Paul Elliott (Industry consultant), Ms Kristie Cooper and Ms Leah Hawkins (Administration) were kept busy throughout the conference duration answering questions from in excess of 250 guests from both the public and private sector that attended.

MAV was developed and hosted by local government for local government and business’s, at this particular conference attendees considered and discussed climate challenges and opportunities in the areas of mitigation, adaptation and adjustment.

The conference explored a range of current and practical local government climate change responses from across Australia and internationally, as well as advice from leading experts.

Local government transitioning to a climate resilient future will require multidisciplinary action and conference attendees had the opportunity to learn more about innovative and leading climate change examples in the areas of the built environment; distributed water and energy systems; natural resource management; community health and wellbeing; agriculture and farming communities; legislation and insurance; coastal planning and green collar industries.

Reports back were all extremely positive and productive from the team. A shared high light for all was seeing Mr Rob Gell (our very own GreenSkills Director) represent us on the interactive panel for discussion of the topic “Everyone’s a winner! True or False? Rob showed an abundance of knowledge on the topic and enlightened all that attended. Rob is a firm believer that green skills, skills for sustainability and green jobs are everywhere! From an environmentalist to a person who fixes push bikes, to the builder who adapts the way they work to ensure water and energy efficiency – He proudly promotes “we can ALL GO GREEN!

Some other key note speakers that really proved amazing to watch at the event included, Ms Larrisa Brown (Executive Director, Centre of Sustainability Leadership) spoke about and existing of 10 different types of Leaders in Sustainability. Ms Nina Rogers (Manager Climate Change and Environment Policy, MAV) Spoke on her experience from a UK, EU and USA perspective in relation to climate change and Dr Kate Auty (Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability) Spoke about what it takes to become a climate resilient council on a state-wide basis.

WPC Group would like to thank and congratulate MAV for facilitating and letting WPC Group support and participate in such a successful conference and we look forward to part taking in 2011.