Our quick summary of 10 trends that will affect business in 2010 and beyond appears below and fuller analysis can be found in the attached PDF.

Global recession and major policy failures around the CPRS and Copenhagen were serious setbacks for sustainability in the past year, with many players left discouraged and frustrated. Yet the pressure on governments and businesses to deliver climate and sustainability action will keep rising along with the temperature and energy prices.

The trends in no particular order follow.

Involvement in The Sustainability Card™ project (see www.sustainabilitycard.com.au)has been a natural outgrowth of work on greenwashing and best practice for green marketing over the past few year.

Manufacturers and service providers are being invited to participate in The Sustainability Card™, a new commercial green marketing platform to reward consumers with cash rebates when they buy selected products with proven sustainability credentials.

2010 is going to be a big year for the transition to a greener, low-carbon economy whatever happened by the CPRS and Copenhagen in 2009.

There's surprising momentum in businesses small and large which belies the political failure we've seen.

This link is for a paper produced with the Green Capital program which I was lead author on http://www.greencapital.org.au/images/stories/new_green_economy_discussi...

I've been very quiet on the posts of late, which reflects a lot of focus on helping with the launch of the new national 1 Million Women campaign, led by my wife Natalie Isaacs, an associate of the 3rd degree.

There's so much that could be said about the exciting arrival of the 1 Million Women campaign, but you can see for yourself at www.1millionwomen.com.au.

It's a great example of the campaigns you get when you believe in behaviour change at the level of women and men in the street as a vital precursor to really changing what governments and big business do.

(How lobbying and communications strategies can help to deliver better policy outcomes for business and society - posted at Hawker Britton www.hawkerbritton.com - by Murray Hogarth and Rob Griggs)

(From paper published by Hawker Britton www.hawkerbritton.com - authors Murray Hogarth and Rob Griggs)

This will be a landmark year for policy-making on the environment, climate change and sustainability. Activities at federal and also state/territory level in 2009 have far-reaching implications for the nation’s economy, society and natural environment, and will impact many business interests and communities.

READ MORE AT
http://www.hawkerbritton.com/hawker-britton-media/federal-act/climate-ch...

(From Blog posted at www.openforum.com.au on February 4, 2009)

When I do my personal tax or fill out a BAS statement the environment isn't usually top of mind. While paying our tax is an exercise in short-term financial pain for each of us, it's how we contribute to funding the long-term viability of our society.
But what if we could reform the whole tax system to work for the greener good? Not just discreet environmental taxes, but putting an environmental overlay across the whole system of taxation to make society better.

It's optimistic in the extreme, but not such a crazy idea.

(Below paper published as a Hawker Britton occasional paper: see http://www.hawkerbritton.com/hawker-britton-media/federal-act/carbon-whi... for the whole article)

NOW that the heated first round of responses to the Rudd Government’s carbon trading White Paper is cooling, it is worthwhile looking at how businesses can do two very important things in the face of inevitable climate policy progress.

Here's a link to a piece I wrote for Friends of the Earth and the Chain Reaction publication on the Californian energy and carbon expereince in regard to Australia's path.

http://www.foe.org.au/resources/chain-reaction/editions/104/C104-FINAL-2...

Taking on the topic of 'carbon ethics' was always going to be a challenge, but it came off well for Green Capital's November 2008 events in Melbourne and Sydney. This is an opinion piece written by Jeff Angel and myself.

It’s a question of carbon ethics