Tackling climate change is big business, says SMS Alumnus Bruce Easton

Climate change’? It’s a car crash that’s going to happen!  And most of the victims will be passengers! So we’re being warned. It’s pretty dramatic stuff - maybe overly so - but a powerful analogy nonetheless.

A few years ago I decided to try and do my bit to lessen the impact. What I didn’t realise were the opportunities that are out there to help prevent this disastrous scenario. Imagine Y2K by a factor of 10! Carbon is already worth $30 billion and some of the big players aren’t even at the table yet.

I worked at SMS in the late 90s and remember the stories from the field of consultants delivering all sorts of innovative solutions. We really were the smartest consultants on the block, just as Phil had been telling us! We were unaligned, brave, confident and well regarded by our clients. (Interestingly, one of the projects SMS was involved with at the time was the development of a real-time electricity trading system, which will be an increasingly important tool in the ‘carbon constrained’ future.)

Today, I run a company called ecovantage.

At ecovantage, we’re having fun calculating the carbon associated with climbing Everest, sailing the Nile or walking in Laos. (No site inspections unfortunately!) We have a printing company putting on solar panels, cemetery trusts installing reflective tint and an energy company replacing flights with video conferences. And there are the public talks at Delfin, staff engagement sessions at Nike, training of Bunnings staff and advice to Luna Park management about changing light globes and fridges. We found that a large advertising client is using and paying four times more on electricity than they should be and a large college would save on cooling if the heating was off. Many of our clients want a ‘green’ story to tell and we work with them to deliver it.

With our help our clients will be braking, steadying and maybe reducing the chances of that car crash. We are unaligned, smart and loyal to our clients and maybe even a little brave and confident. Sound familiar??.... Maybe the years at SMS were even more valuable than I thought!

Bruce Easton
www.ecovantage.com.au