It’s no secret that the world is facing a waste crisis. How to reduce it, pay for it, its impact on our public and planet’s health, and where it ends up are just some of the concerns we’re grappling with.
The good news is, Total Utilities can help you identify, monitor, and reduce your waste. Here’s why engaging us as your waste management consultant is so important.
Waste is costly for our planet and business
Our growing waste problem is not only costly to the environment but expensive for businesses. New Zealand faces rising transport and disposal costs, changes to national policy and levies, and uncertainty around where to export our recycling when we don’t have the facilities to handle it here.
The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), our government’s primary climate change response, plays a leading role in how we collectively manage waste and reach our internationally established targets. Our 2030 target, which is New Zealand’s first Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, is as follows:
Waste is a specified activity under the ETS, so those in the waste sector must participate in the scheme. This means disposal facility operators must report their emissions to the government. They need to pay for permits to emit carbon and can offset their emissions. Land disposal facilities have options: they can either decarbonise their activities, face mounting costs, or offset their emissions by supporting climate action projects like forestry and conservation.
The most cost-effective and sustainable path for landfill facilities is to find ways to reduce their emissions. The government incentivises these facilities to find and deliver innovation and efficiencies by becoming eligible to apply for a Unique Emissions Factor. You can read about this here.
Waste levy increases
Growing pressure to address climate change, the uncertainty surrounding recycling commodity returns and stricter separation and hygiene standards are all factors behind the government’s decision to raise waste levies.
The levy increase will be phased in over four years, the first of which happened in July 2021. Levies will increase to a maximum of $60 per tonne by 2024.
These increases are designed to encourage more recycling and to divert waste from landfills. The costs apply regardless of which waste supplier you choose.
Based on the average industry wage, the cost increase would equate to an additional $22 per 4.5m³ front-end load pick up. We’re investigating with each supplier how this cost will be passed on.
The big issue: Spoiled or contaminated recycling
In a 2018 Stuff article, Green Party MP, Eugenie Sage, who was the Associate Environment Minister at the time said, “The co-mingling of waste like glass, paper and plastic was what led China to stop accepting it.”
One solution is to improve the quality of our waste by changing our behaviour – getting better at sorting and separating our waste at the source.
Countries no longer taking some recyclables creates greater uncertainty
Now that the Chinese market doesn’t accept specific categories of recyclables, costs have grown significantly.
The Chinese government also signalled to reduce its annual cardboard recycling quota by six million tonnes (10% of global demand). This means the cardboard price will drop further – it’s a market characterised by extreme pricing uncertainty.
China’s ban had a massive ripple effect on where millions of tonnes of waste ended up. Indonesia bore the substantial brunt of this.
In late 2019, the Indonesian government was looking to pass urgent legislation which would allow them to legally return spoiled recycling back to the port of origin, not the last port of call.
Indonesia has now closed its market to recycling and has indicated it would only re-open if spoiled waste could be sent back to the country of origin.
How the tightening of global spoilage standards will affect us.
Stricter global spoilage standards will affect the ongoing rates for recycling in New Zealand. The market has not priced all these factors in yet. Under the current uncertain climate, suppliers are unable to fix pricing for recycling.
How Total Utilities can help you navigate the costs and changes.
By working closely with our specialist waste consulting partners, suppliers, and customers, you can achieve reduced waste charges and levies, improved monitoring and reporting of your waste systems, and ultimately send less waste to landfill. This is a win for your bottom line and the environment.
Navigating the waste environment alone is complicated – it takes a deep understanding of the political, environmental, and global trends and policies. We expect that what happens to our waste will continue to be complex for many years to come.
Total Utilities has a finger on the pulse of policy, pricing and procurement. We can effectively interpret the changes and identify smart ways for you to contribute towards a more efficient, greener, cleaner planet.
This post follows on from Are you OK? which you might like to read as well.
Covid-19 Confessions
What has occurred to me is just how anxious so many of us have become during Covid-19 lockdown. Simple things like supermarket shopping and big things like keeping business and personal finances on track have all become causes for concern.
A friend admitted to reading his young son’s online homework recently. It was a short essay on life in a bubble. “Dad is getting cross a lot” and “Mum’s acting weird sometimes” leapt off the page. He is a good, kind man and has a loving family. Trouble is, he is no more immune to the stress of this lockdown than any of us.
My beloved and I shared some tears on Saturday. We haven’t seen our adult kids or grandchildren in the flesh for a month! We are a touchy-feely family and the lack of their warm embraces has left us feeling empty.
My experience with anxiety last year does not give me any great right to speak into your lives. I can but share my insights and hope that you gain something from them.
Living in a bubble and yet finding joy
Using tools helps
The “cure” for my high levels of anxiety last year was a combination of admitting to myself and those close to me that I was struggling and acquiring some practical coping skills.
Learning some mindfulness skills and breathing exercises gave me something to fall back on when I found myself chewing on issues or repeatedly waking up in the night and unable to get back to sleep.
www.headspace.com is just one of several applications available that offer training and reminders on how and when to relax and be present in the moment.
A walk each day is an easy answer and yet hard to do when the funk descends. The good news for me is that the dog won’t say no until she gets her daily exercise.
Replace empty chat with real conversations
I have found out so much about my beloved in these last days and she about me. I won’t share the detail but fair to say that she is even more exciting and amazing and wonderful than I already knew.
Zoom can’t replace a hug
My colleague Richard is old school. I, on the other hand, come from the hippy school of peace and love. With that comes uncomfortable (for Richard) embraces when I call into the office and insist on a hug.
We meet every morning for half an hour using Teams and it is great to hear from him, but I do miss making him hug me. Hug the ones you love. It might be just what they need that day.
Meet friends and colleagues regularly
We have an online meal with friends or family several times a week now. It is breakfast with our daughter in Berlin or coffee after Church with a couple who share our spiritual journey. It is a candlelit dinner over a Cote du Rhone with our travel buddies. Tomorrow Euan from work is hosting an online quiz using a cool tool called Kahoot! All these give us connection, a laugh or two and with luck a chance to relax a little.
Forgive and Forget
Can you trust yourself to be completely perfect in every way while locked in a cage not of your own making?
If it’s you who has been a of bit of a plonker then find a way to apologise. If you been offered an apology, then accept it. Love and relationships are a two-way street.
Try Something New
Every day on lock down is time you can innovate, refresh, or learn new things. In professional services we often think about “billable hours” and when they slow down a certain panic sets in. Using “free hours” when there is time available is the source of efficiency, innovation and great product development. Use the time in lockdown wisely – you won’t get it back.
Are You Okay?
I wrote this blog so you can know that you can not only get through this time but can be better and stronger for the experience.
Look around yourself and see the blessings. Take that breath of unpolluted air, listen to the birds and enjoy the company you have.
Above all though ask yourself and those you love “Are you okay?” It may be the most important question you ever ask. The answer may well bless you for the rest of your life.
Only half of new New Zealand businesses survive longer than ten years and even then, only 5 per cent of those ever reach a turnover of $1 million. That is bad news.
The good news is that of the 5 per cent of businesses that reach $1 million turnover, one in four grow to $10 million turnover.
As a start-up, finding the right strategies, tactics and culture to grow profitably and sustainably will put you into an elite group of businesses – the long term winners. Below is some advice to help you get started and survive.
A bird in hand is worth two in the bush
How many times have you heard stories about companies offering special pricing and better products to win new customers, yet they continue to overcharge loyal customers for older products and services? It costs five times as much to win a new client as it does to keep an existing one.
Value your staff
Keeping good people is about respect and values. A friend recently recounted a tale of a boss who took him for granted. One day this boss asked, on a whim, for him to change then redo a job that he had spent weeks working on. This is what the worker had to say: “That was the day I mentally left that company. It was a year before I found the right job to go to, but the decision had been taken twelve months before. They offered me better money and benefits to stay but it was way too late for that.”
Avoid profitless prosperity
Just because a deal is big it doesn’t make it worth doing. It’s okay to walk away from any bad business. Handing these kinds of duds over to your competitor can be good for your business. It frees you up to provide awesome, profitable products and services to clients who value them.
Don’t be a bank
A quarter of all debts that go past ninety days overdue are never paid. This rises to over half at 120 days overdue. Look at this another way. an unpaid debt of $1 means you will need to generate $10 in new revenues just to make up for it if your net profit is 10%.
If you have tried all reasonable ways to collect debts to no avail, then send a final warning in writing. If this fails, then using a reputable debt collection agency is a perfectly valid option. If this seems drastic, then remember it is your money and your company. Only you get to choose who keeps both.
Get good advice
Developing the skills and contacts to ensure you can reach out to the right expert at the right time is an essential craft in helping your business succeed. Getting good advice may seem expensive on occasions but can save you a world of pain in the long run. EMA offers fantastic advice to members in several key areas, at very reasonable or even no charges.
Plan for the Future
Many great businesses end up on the market having reached the stage where age or ill health have forced the owner to sell. Having a mix of ages, skills and personalities within the leadership of your company is a must. The energy, enthusiasm and contemporary relevance of youth is a potent partnership when combined with the hard-won experience of age.
My business partner Richard and I look forward to when we get to sit in the balcony seats of Total Utilities, cantankerously muttering and critiquing our new generation of leaders just as Statler and Waldorf do on the Muppet Show. The trouble is, of course, that no one will be listening.
All the best for 2020. May you live long and prosper.
Why cloud is crucial for a sustainable business, and how to choose the best option.
The Covid-19 outbreak has reinforced two lessons for businesses – the importance of cloud-based services and the need to ensure their model is sustainable. Cloud platforms have really come into their own, providing accessibility for remote workers and customers, while providing the ultimate scalability for businesses facing an uncertain future. But in a world where both the economy and environment are facing unprecedented challenges, it is more vital than ever for business owners and CFOs to make informed business decisions.
Choosing the right cloud option can be daunting, and a truly sustainable business needs a clear understanding of the financial and business case drivers to help make the right decisions.
Review the business model
Changes are happening at a rapid pace in today’s business environment, with many companies looking at downsizing and improving their remote working capabilities. Even beyond the extremes of a pandemic, acquisitions, new ventures, upturns and downturns all provide daily challenges for senior managers.
Nothing illustrates how quickly the business environment can change as the infographic below.
The infographic shows the vast drop in consumption of electricity since Covid-19 hit New Zealand. Many businesses were unable to operate from their normal offices and stores. While most have adapted to working from home, the shutdown had a huge impact on commercial electricity consumption.
While major industry consumes a third of all our energy, the wider commercial sectors consume a further quarter of New Zealand’s electricity demand. It is this quarter that we can reasonably assume to have almost completely evaporated when the lights went off.
Although the future is opening up and consumption is starting to rebound, businesses are now focused on new ways of consuming energy or delivering services.
Many CFOs and CIOs are trying to figure out this new way of working and how it affects their own businesses. The days of the road warrior salesperson may be coming to an end. How we engage with, incentivise and add value to our clients will look very different, as some may prefer a call from the office or a virtual meeting to a corporate lunch. Customers too will be feeling the impact, with online engagement becoming the predominant form of communication, and Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Hangouts becoming an integrated part of working culture.
In addition, Covid-19 has caused a large shift in the global economy and supply chain. Secure production and supply are increasingly of greater importance than the cheapest or most efficient options, which has led to a greater focus on in-house production, multiple suppliers or regional stockpiling.
The result of all this is we can no longer trust the stability of the surrounding environment. While we may see some return to the old ways of working, some business processes will never be the same again. Business managers therefore need to be prepared to constantly review business models and consider whether their technology needs are still being met by their current system. This will help ensure their business remains sustainable in a world that can change drastically in what seems like a second.
Plan for the rebound
Kiwifruit producer Zespri is a classic example of how to approach this kind of situation. In 2010, it was dealing with the PSA Virus, which caused entire crops of kiwifruit to fail. The popular gold kiwifruit was the most affected variety, spurring Zespri scientists to research a resistant strain.
They knew the situation could have gone either way – with the opportunity to double production if the new strain was successful or ultimately halve if the research failed. Zespri was concerned about having enough computing power to cover existing demand while preparing for both the best- and worst-case scenarios.
With support from Total Utilities to assess its existing IT costs and consumption, Zespri was given a list of options that projected the business outcomes and costs for each. It could either continue managing and maintaining its own data centre, outsource its data to another local vendor, or switch to the public cloud so it could replicate the same platforms around the world. Zespri chose the latter, moving its infrastructure and associated platforms onto the Microsoft Azure Cloud.
This decision helped Zespri cover a multitude of potential problems by removing the financial risk of investing in its own tech infrastructure, allowing rapid expansion of a global supply chain and delivering detailed cost control mechanisms. Providing Zespri with financial operations toolsets allowed it to efficiently manage costs and consumption, which was repaid as Zespri’s research gamble paid off and the business grew in scale. Measures such as “cost per tray of kiwifruit shipped” have become an important way of tracking success. Zespri has used subscription cloud services as an effective way to manage, analyse and contain its costs ever since.
Not only does that mean Zespri is able to adapt its model to any scenario, not having a data centre on site reduces both energy consumption and space. The business is therefore more sustainable in every sense of the word – something consumers around the world increasingly expect. Microsoft itself has committed to removing all carbon it has ever emitted directly or by energy consumption from the environment by 2050, reinforced by its pledge to support New Zealand’s sustainability goals through its new datacentre investment. As every organisation on the planet is challenged to review its impact on the environment, choosing greener IT options is a great way to minimise your footprint.
As the adage goes, the only certainty in life is change. While an upfront investment during downturns can be daunting, the best way for any business to safeguard its sustainability long-term is to invest in an IT system that doesn’t become obsolete, that meets modern expectations around environmental impacts and which allows workers the greatest accessibility in an era when many of us are now working remotely. And that means embracing the cloud.
Ensure resilience
A resilient network and good technical support are essential to every modern business. There is an expectation for email, purchasing or sales automation to be working around the clock. Software updates, testing or hardware failures are no longer an excuse for disrupted services, which can instantly see customers go elsewhere.
Just five years ago, businesses were put off moving their platforms and operations to the cloud because they weren’t sure about achieving the level of compliance and technical competence they needed to operate the systems. Every business we consulted felt the skills to manage cloud migration were a barrier to digitising their operations, and that only in-house experts could provide the support needed. That figure is now just 40 per cent. Trust in the cloud and cloud providers to manage their businesses and tailor their services to their needs has skyrocketed.
Likewise, secure and reliable connections are more available than ever. While some thought the demand put on the internet during this period of working from home wouldn’t hold up, the Covid-19 lockdown has proven how resilient the internet can be. It is a credit to our network providers, whether fibre, copper or mobile data-based, that these services have remained largely in place as millions of people have suddenly put tremendous demand on capacity.
This shows that network availability is no longer a constraint holding back businesses from placing their operations and services in the cloud. Those organisations using public cloud services are also better placed to combat the predatory players who sought to take advantage of the situation via scams and cyber-attacks, with regular security upgrades not available to those using an outdated server in the back office.
No longer can you place your trust in simply ‘doing it yourself’. Instead, managed cloud-based services can prove more secure and reliable. Security and connectivity is complex to establish and even more challenging to maintain, especially when scarce, skilled resources are in high demand.
Establish good financial governance
Whichever cloud service you use, make sure to choose a partner or platform that can provide real-time analysis and reporting so you can see exactly how it’s working for your business and change your plan if you need to.
Governance, cost control and resource efficiency have always been top priorities for businesses. Now more than ever, businesses are focused on getting the best value for money from their technological solutions while growing a sustainable business. One thing cloud-based platforms do very well, thanks to their sheer accessibility and ease of use, is enable workers to use a huge range of resources and implement their own changes and updates. However, if unconstrained, this can result in wastage and bill-shock.
While governance and budget setting have provided the framework for cost control and planning for decades, moving to the cloud requires a new level of collaboration between Finance and IT. Ensuring these two teams remain communicative through the cloud integration process is vital to ensuring it runs smoothly and efficiently, that the right functionality is baked in from the beginning and there are no budget surprises.
As well as close co-operation, the key to ensuring total visibility and that cloud services are providing the best value, is using a monitoring service to provide real-time data on how cloud is being consumed across the business. The best services can illustrate exactly how resources are being used – either energy or data – and enable CFOs and other decision-makers to rapidly change to new plans that are better for the environment and the bottom line. Clear and regular reporting is essential and takes a great deal of time and effort out of maintaining good governance.
Cloud is the future of many businesses and in a time of so much change and uncertainty, it is important to know your business has a model it can rely on to save costs and make governance far less onerous. To know that your business is making most of out your cloud service, make sure you have reporting in place so you can accurately reflect usage in real time, limit your expenses and energy consumption and create a business model that’s truly sustainable for many years to come.
I recently spent some time with a group of business leaders who all had concerns about the increasing demands for money and resources that were being made right across their enterprises.
Whether it was investments in new plant and machinery, wage increases, new government regulations or the price of electricity and waste services, they all felt pressure on the bottom line.
Why spend money on social media?!
One area that came up in discussion was justifying our Social Media spend. For many people that I talk to, it feels like a bottomless pit where they pour cash in, only to be told that their search engine optimisation is inadequate, their branding is fluffy and their budget is not in line with industry trends.
My Masters Thesis was on exactly this topic. Finally, an audience after all that work!
My approach had been to interview twenty-five senior executives and business owners. This group included local success story Trade Me and huge global advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi, as well as local retail outlets, businesses and for an expert perspective Justin Flitter, one of New Zealand’s leading Social Media and Emerging Technology commentators.
What are these?!
Last week my eleven-year-old grandson was introduced to a programme on free to air television.
“What are these?” he asked when the ads came on.
Is it any wonder television and print media are on a seemingly terminal decline? When kids do not even recognise a paid TV advertisement, the future is bleak for that industry and of concern to those of us still using their services.
Where in the past many of us saw newspapers, radio and television as our first port of call for our promotional activity, high cost, lack of reach and focus make today’s digital platforms a far more effective use of limited funds.
But how is this value derived? There are five value creators businesses can focus on when evaluating the effectiveness of their internet strategy. These are Commerce, Community, Communication, Connection and Content.
Commerce
You don’t need me to tell you about e-commerce. Anyone not living in a cave will know that online customer interaction is essential.
E-Commerce is not simply about trade though. If we are not doing so already, we should be collecting customer data and leveraging the huge value that this drives.
A simple but powerful example is Amazon. Yes, they will sell you anything from a book to an electric car, but next time you visit, pay attention to their “recommendations”. Their data collection has followed your journey to the site, noted what you buy and where you stop and look. You are their ‘customer of one’.
Algorithms are far more effective at knowing your preferences than the old school face to face service we expect from our local retailer.
We are not all retailers of course. My firm, Total Utilities, is interested in procurement contract expiries and value, leveraging energy and waste consumption trends, carbon footprints and greenhouse gas emissions. Sure, we collect this data ourselves, but often this information is provided by our clients who will willingly contribute this in exchange for superior value, speed and actionable insights.
Data has real, measurable shareholder value and when combined with commercial transactions, inquiries and insights makes your business worth more every day. Once it was the customer list that had value, today it is insights into customer preference.
Community
This year I joined three significant social media communities. One group shares information on growing organic food, another is a professional Financial Operations (FinOps) group specialising in managing the complexity of OPEX-based service contracts, and the third is a group that helps me learn Italian and Norwegian.
None are related and yet all have a key characteristic: they make me feel a part of something as a consumer and as a contributor.
In the past I would have joined an Italian Society or attended meetings of Financial experts or visited organic gardens. Today, if I have a question, I simply type it online and my answer will come from all over the world, or from just down the road. Either way it is instant, usually expert, and relevant to my needs.
What is important is that by participating in, and supporting a ‘Community of Practice’ as these groups are formally known, my knowledge increases, my reputation is enhanced, and the opportunity to communicate, and extract value is created in real time.
I have formed lasting relationships with people I have not met face to face. One data specialist in Tel Aviv has extended an open invitation for me to visit. Just as powerfully, I have received calls from prospective clients, noting my membership of the Fin Ops group and wanting to meet.
Communication and Connection
Most of us recognise Zoom, Skype and Teams and the vital role they played in keeping staff and customers in constant touch during lockdown. The ability to consume face to face meetings, document share and deliver powerful presentations was revealed to us all almost overnight. We took the opportunity with both hands and doing so business changed forever.
Compare these tools to phone systems, emails, letters and faxes and the performance, cost and benefit equation is clear to us all. Consider that video calling services for many of us were delivered at zero or near zero cost to the user. Also consider the ease with which even the most non-technical user engaged with these tools and the internet’s transformational capability within business is brought to light.
Content
If it is normal for us to search the web for our every need it is also quite reasonable to expect that our clients and potential clients are doing the same thing.
Creation and dissemination of web content is proving to be the key to differentiating our products, companies and brands. Where once a website with a logo, a photo of our offices, our contact details and a quick summary of our services was enough, we are now seeing emerging players and current competitors reaching higher by delivering quality, timely insights right to the devices of those who need it.
Content no longer just relies on visitors coming to our websites. Digital content marketing is a powerful tool that directs your carefully crafted content to a specific group of people in a specific geography. For example, I produced some information recently on how cloud computing could be used as a tool to help businesses coming out of the lockdown quickly move into recovery and growth mode.
With the help of a specialist digital content marketer we were able to direct that content to over 20,000 senior managers whose specific interest was marketing and finance. This was achieved using a methodology called “boosting”.
Not only was this content directed to the right people, we were able to measure the level of interest, deal with feedback and react in near real time to requests for more information.
The Simple Things in Life are Often the Most Valuable
When billions of people across the world suddenly started video-calling friends, family and colleagues, the web handled it. When millions of students went online for their school lessons the web handled it. When we all started playing computer games and watching Netflix at once, the web remained working.
The internet is a network of machines designed to transfer information at speed, reliably and efficiently via the shortest available path. It has the capacity to serve five times as much demand as a worst-case scenario produces and is self-healing in almost any event. Secure, scalable and astonishingly cheap to use, we took it for granted until COVID-19.
May I suggest the next time you walk past that IT person crouched under a desk you stop to thank them. These people help keep your computer running and we have all witnessed how essential that is. Without IT departments, the world would have been a much darker place during lockdown.
In the meantime, consider this question. How many people do you know who have found love on the internet? If you are thirty years old or less the answer will likely be “most of my friends at one point or another”.
If you want clients to love your brand understanding the five C’s is a great place to start.
