Carbon Management Principles Review

Written by: Samantha Mikus, EPA Victoria

Since January 2010 EPA has been undertaking a review of it’s Carbon Management Principles (CMPs).  Originally developed by EPA Victoria in 2007, they have helped inform many businesses’ to develop a suitable carbon management approach.  This has allowed the CMPs to be tested by a broad range of operations, and as a result, we have received feedback on how to improve them to ensure they remain useful and relevant.

Drawing on feedback from businesses that have used the principles, a review paper has been put together that aims to better define the objective and scope of the CMPs.  Contributors to the paper include, Barwon Water, Monash University and VicSuper, as well as a review conducted by Net Balance (working with Ai Group). EPA requests feedback on this discussion paper, follow this link to have your say.

Coinciding with the release of the discussion paper, on the 24^th of February the Carbon Innovators Network (CIN) held a roundtable event with selected members. The aim was to discuss the review paper and to understand how the CMPs can be designed to increase applicability for businesses engaging in carbon management.

This event brought together representatives from business, government and not-for-profit organisations. Attendees heard from EPA on the review process to date and the proposed changes to the CMPs. They also heard from Dr Meg Ralph from Monash University and Amanda Nuttall from Net Balance about their organisations' carbon management experiences and use of the CMPs.  This was followed by a workshop session in which attendees were able to discuss and share their experiences in carbon management and provide feedback on the proposed design of the revised CMPs.

EPA plans to revise the CMPs and associated online resources based on feedback from this discussion paper with the aim of ensuring the Principle’s are more accessible and provide appropriate and useful resource materials. However, the framework and resources will remain a high level process for supporting organisations to begin managing their carbon emissions. The information received from business networks and general public, in the review paper and from the CIN event will be synthesized and used to inform the final version of the revised CMPs. It is expected this will be complete by mid April 2011.