Part Three of Planet Spratt’s Journey to Sustainability
The tragedy of the commons is an economic problem in which every individual has an incentive to consume a resource, but at the expense of every other individual—with no way to exclude anyone from consuming. Initially it was formulated by asking what would happen if every shepherd, acting in their own self-interest, allowed their flock to graze on the common field. If everybody does act in their apparent own best interest, it results in harmful over-consumption (all the grass is eaten, to the detriment of everyone)
The problem can also result in under investment (since who is going to pay to plant new seed?), and ultimately total depletion of the resource. As the demand for the resource overwhelms the supply, every individual who consumes an additional unit directly harms others—and themselves too—who can no longer enjoy the benefits. Generally, the resource of interest is easily available to all individuals without barriers (i.e. the “commons”). *
*The Investopedia Team – March 2022
As a child I spent my hazy summers at a family bach overlooking a local farmer’s property. His property commanded sole access to a tidal beach and we could only go down to swim, sail and play with his permission. It was permission he gladly granted – it was the asking that was the important thing.
Over the years we got to know this “old man” and he would share information, “secrets” he called them, about the beach and its bounty. First there was the cockle bed well past the low tide mark but easily accessible for adventurous nine-year-olds prepared to get their bottoms wet. We would walk out at low tide, shuffle our feet around in the sand and then fill our little buckets with shellfish. We only took enough for dinner (cockle fritters with a touch of sand) and never wasted them for fear of a stern telling off by mum and dad or the farmer.
Later he showed us how to set a net for the snapper that schooled into the Bay at high tide during their early summer migration. The snapper fed on the cockles and kina, fattening up before moving up into the shallows to spawn among the mangroves in the upper harbour.
When we were a little older he showed us how to live bait off the rocks for the highly territorial kingfish who feasted on the Sprats, Mackerels and baby snapper that returned to our bay in late summer after spawning.
Then came the changes. The farmer died and no one survived him who was willing to run the farm or pay the rates. The local council stepped in to “protect the asset” and turned it into a park for use by all. We watched with interest as roads were built, footpaths laid, public toilets and bus stops installed. Then the people came. First in ones and twos. Then in their dozens. By the height of summer hundreds and sometimes thousands descended onto our once private slice of heaven.
With them came cockle hunters. We didn’t mind the kids and parents with their buckets and squeals of delight. It was the “sack people” who walked up and down the beach in human chains descending on the cockle beds when they discovered them and then filling huge sacks with their prize. They came every weekend taking and taking and taking until even our “secret” bed had been found and pillaged.
After a couple of seasons the cockle beds were almost totally destroyed. The sack people still came, but only very occasionally and for lean pickings. Every sack they took reduced the shellfish stocks even further. The families who took home a hard won bucket of cockles don’t really bother with cockling too much these days. An icecream from the dairy up the road is an easier prize.
The snapper don’t come round the headland much these days either, there isn’t sufficient left for them to eat. The kingfish still hunt mackerels and sprats around the rocks, but their numbers are tiny compared to before and none of them are the 75cm legal size even if you were lucky enough to catch one.
People still swim and laugh and play in the shallows. What they don’t know is that the sack people have denied them the pleasure and privilege of nature’s bounty. Their children will never understand the perfect complexity that once existed here and at many other beaches all up the Coast.
It’s called The Tragedy of the Commons and applies to so many of our supposedly limitless resources. The giant North Island kauri forests are gone, pillaged for export and local housing by the saw millers and gum diggers in the early days of settlement. Before them the Moas were extinguished by fire, weaponry and the fierce folk who wielded them both.
Now it is the streams, lakes and oceans that are being polluted, pillaged and poisoned by a few to their own benefit and to all of society’s great loss. It is an invisible plague that doesn’t even have the courtesy to call “bring out your dead” when passing by in their mega machines.
The Tragedy of the Commons problem that William Forster wrote about nearly two hundred years ago tells us a lot – mainly about ourselves.
One issue is the way we humans so often rationalise our behaviour with cliches like:
“I have my rights you can’t tell me what to do”
“If I don’t take it someone else will”
“There is plenty to go around I am only taking my fair share”
Another issue is that the application of quotas, catch limits, water rights and pollution controls require three main things:
Government Intervention
Willingness by both companies and individuals to pay for the cost of the resources that they consume
A means of measuring and controlling resource exploitation
The true cost of unfettered resource exploitation has occupied my mind recently. I made a trip to Nelson and saw the scallop seeding plant down near the harbour.
The scallop fisheries in Tasman and Golden Bays were fished to extinction back in the 1970’s and an attempt has been made to restore this lost treasure by breeding fledgling scallops in huge tanks and then collecting their “seeds” and distributing them across a range of sites that previously contained large quantities of these wonderful shellfish.
Nature’s resources destroyed forever
This decade-long attempt has been a failure. Dredging was the preferred (and cheapest) way of taking scallops commercially and privately fifty years ago. This method destroyed the sea grasses that covered the sandy bottom. These seemingly unimportant grasses were in fact the source of protection for growing scallops. The sandy bottom has been left a desolated desert and the scallops are gone, forever it seems, despite science’s best efforts to heal the damage done two generations ago.
What makes this, and so many other examples, so important is that there are still many people in New Zealand and around the world who treat our common resources as unlimited and consider the “most economically efficient” method of extraction as being the right way to do things. It’s not just businesses who act this way. Individuals like the sack people will destroy a resource seemingly without a second thought for the consequences.
Many of my generation have grandchildren now. Like me they have been to the beaches of our childhoods and found them depleted and barren – despite the pretty trees, the shiny concrete footpaths and solar powered public toilets.
We Baby Boomers too have seen that we have a role in changing the world around us. We are powerful and rich (so my children tell me) but we are not utterly immune to the pain of the loss of our natural treasures.
My colleagues and I are analysts by training and profession. Our response to sustainability is actively measuring our business’s carbon footprint now. Things like fuel, travel, lighting, heating and freight are all counted. We offset these emissions by paying for the carbon we consume either directly via renewable energy certificates (REC’s) or indirectly via government mandated carbon credits.
We are also doing this same analysis for many of our clients who are recognising that their customers want real answers to the problem of climate change and environmental destruction.
Our customers also see younger talent making employment choices on the basis of a firm’s social responsibility policies.
By measuring our usage, limiting our consumption and paying a fair price for our share of the planet’s prolific treasures there may be light at the end of the tunnel.
Perhaps one day my grandchildren’s grandchildren will see this time as a turning point in history as they fill their tiny buckets with just enough shellfish for a meal of cockle fritters with a touch of sand.
Today’s Earth Hour (Saturday 26 March, 8.30 – 9.30pm NZ time) again puts climate action into the spotlight – but a recent MYOB survey highlights that while there’s strong support for climate action among SMEs, many are confused about how to progress.
Earth Hour, which started in 2007 as a symbolic lights-out event, is now held around the world on the last Saturday of March each year to promote action on climate change and to ensure a brighter future for people and the planet. So, what better time to explore results from the latest MYOB small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) snapshot survey regarding attitudes to climate change?
The survey captured responses from more than 500 local SME business owners and decision makers and results showed 82% of SMEs are concerned about the impact of climate change, with more than 43% very or extremely concerned. Only 18% said climate change was not a concern.
Carbon footprint confusion
The survey also pointed to the fact that more than 69% didn’t know how to measure their carbon footprint – just 21% knew how to measure it and 10% were unsure. Many didn’t know how to begin the process, couldn’t find the best initiatives to fit their business, felt it would be too costly or had a lack of free time and lack of information.
While many SMEs said they need help to map out their plans, the level of willingness to change is positive – though nearly a third (32%) said their business was not currently carbon zero or carbon neutral, they did have plans to be.
Total Utilities can help!
At Total Utilities, we have dramatically pivoted our business model over the past few years from supporting businesses to monitor and reduce their utilities overheads from gas, water, electricity and cloud consumption – to using that data to measure your carbon footprint and support a sustainable transition.
With our comprehensive energy consultancy services that assess, identify, improve and manage your energy usage and efficiency, we can not only help you measure your carbon footprint, but also assist in your journey towards decarbonisation. We have all the knowledge, skills and experience to help you achieve savings, improved efficiency and a more sustainable business model.
Sustainability essential to doing business
Total Utilities Sustainability Director, David Spratt explained that on top of the gains that can be achieved by decarbonisation, businesses also have to consider their employer brand in view of today’s skills shortages. People are looking for employers whose values align with theirs, and in many cases, who are actively demonstrating their progress on sustainability and decarbonisation.
Consumers are also demanding more from companies in terms of sustainable practices. A recent Colmar Brunton poll revealed almost half of New Zealanders say they have switched to brands that are more sustainable. “You have to consider the cost to your business of not transforming,” added David.
Need help measuring your carbon footprint? We’re here to help! Contact us at Total Utilities.
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“If a thousand years were to pass in a second what would be left of us?”
The Dig – Movie
I read somewhere that the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The next best time is today. Autumn is coming and with the rains will come the opportunity to begin planting out the stream on my property that is so in need of a kind and considerate lover.
It is only five weeks but my efforts to bring my stream back to life have been an inspiration. Not in a, “Gee Dave, you are a great green guy,” kind of way, but with the people I have already met and talked to along the way.
Jim
Jim used to live on my land along with all the land around it. He wasn’t an easy conversationalist, preferring his own company unless it was down at the golf club over a few beers. He was, though, inspiring when we moved out from town eleven years ago.
Inspiring because he always helped but never interfered. Inspiring because he seemed capable of turning his hand to any task.
Most of all he was inspiring because he planted, one by one, the trees, bushes and shrubs that became the beautiful wetland and arboretum (a botanical garden dedicated to trees) that borders my place. My stream, when it’s not bone dry, flows into the wetland on Jim’s arboretum. From there it flows down and on to the Manukau Harbour.
Eels, conversely make their way back up from some mysterious place in the Pacific, into the Manukau and eventually find a safe place in amongst the wetland reeds. If I succeed in making it a safer place, they will continue their journey up my stream as they have done in the past.
Each morning I have my tea and toast on the front deck and look across and up at the established kahikateas and ancient totara that inspired him to protect by surrounding them with plantings from a nursery that was closing down and saplings from surrounding farms.
All I see is how many different colours of green there are. All I hear are the hundreds of birds he protected by sustained pest control programmes.
One time the neighbour clear felled a patch of trees on the land nearby. Possums, destroyers of forests and bush and predators to nesting birdlife, fled across to my place and into Jim’s arboretum. We silently went into competition, killing sixty of them in a two week period. Maybe the neighbour did us a favour – he never controlled pests on his land. Possums have never been a major problem since.
“We sure sorted them,” Jim said over a beer one evening.
‘WE’. Jim never said ‘we’. He was far too stoic to say that.
Jim left without really saying goodbye last year. He never liked a fuss. He sold the property and arboretum to Gary. Rumour has it that developers were eyeing up the land and that Jim rejected their offers despite pressure from the agent.
Gary
Gary had been looking for a spot to build a place for a while. He went over Karaka way and all he saw was bare blocks. “By the time I planted it out and the trees grew I’d be dead.”
He had a look at the arboretum and the land behind it that he could build on . He fell in love and made an offer which Jim rejected as ‘too low.’
“How much?”
“Ask the agent.”
“Too much,” said the agent who didn’t know the value of trees except as firewood.
“How much?” asked Gary.
The agent told him and Gary said yes. It was cheaper than the bare blocks in Karaka and he liked the view.
I spoke to Gary about the stream and my plans for it the other day. He lit up and offered me cuttings from the giant flaxes in the wetland.
“I’ll give you a hand planting them if you like. We can have a beer on the porch after and share the view.” ‘WE’. He said we. He never says ‘we’ except to his mates.
Ken
Ken is a horticulturist, gardener and all round ball of muscle and energy that makes this skinny old guy feel more than a little inadequate when he arrives with his chainsaw, weed wacker and hedge trimmer and smashes through work in a day that would take me a week if my back held out.
We have known each other for a while now and when I showed him my stream project I wasn’t sure if he would be as overawed by the enormity of the task as I am prone to be. He was engaged – no excited about the plan. I felt energised just being around him.
“We could clear five metres back from the stream to make it a bit easier to sort out the planting and fencing plan,” he offered after a bit of thought.
WE. He never says ‘we’ – he is too polite to say that.
A day later the stream bank was cleared, the old man’s beard cut back with the contempt this native forest smothering vine deserves and all the existing native shrubs were upright and free of weeds. Ken was on fire and so was I.
Samuel
Samuel minds my sheep for me. These days there are only six older ewes, all a bit fat from over feeding, beautiful and a bit posh. They are the product of a breeding programme that ended when I tired of lambs bleating all day and night because they were separated from their mum by a seven-strand fence and a wide-open gate.
Samuel treats them with a gentle hand. He even whispers to them– mimicking their low bleating and soothing them when he and his dogs work with them. I’ve never seen them cut, not even a nick, when he shears them. That is more than I can say for the ‘expert’ shearer I hired a decade ago whose heavy-handed brutality saw me shoo him off my property.
“Bloody townie,” he called back, not amused that I had held him responsible for the blood stains on my shell shocked animals. He didn’t hear my reply as he left – neither will you see it in print. I am far too polite for that.
Samuel is also a fencer in the off season. We walked the stream and I shared my hippy vision of plants, fish, frogs and eels. “We can fence off this spring,” he said. “The frogs and fish can breed in there away from the kingfishers. Set a couple of rat and stoat traps and it’ll be ideal.” ‘WE’. He never says ‘we’ – he’s far too shy and solitary for that
Please feel free to contact me, Planet Spratt, at [email protected] if you have any feedback, ideas or suggestions
Or you can make business and media enquiries to Total Utilities here.
Staying ahead in business is often about being the first, being the best or doing something that no-one else has thought about.
But being the best demands an ability to gather accurate, independent and reliable information in an increasingly complex world.
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As an independent voice in the market, we strive to deliver holistic insights and advice so that you are better equipped to deal with the changing environment in which we operate.
‘The purpose of information is not knowledge. It is being able to take the right actions.’
Peter F. Drucker
So says founding father of modern business, Peter F. Drucker. Total Utilities Market Commentary helps ensure you have the right information to support the right actions now. We continuously track utility prices in relation to prevailing market conditions so that armed with this knowledge, you can take immediate action to optimise your energy procurement strategy.
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As with all things in life, the right actions are not necessarily the easiest or the most straightforward. But we are passionate about providing you with the knowledge to not only leverage the best deals with your utilities, but also to take action now to assist you with decarbonisation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Cleaner, greener business
Paritutu Rock in New Plymouth, New Zealand
At the COP26 summit in 2021, NZ signed up to an agreement to reduce emissions by 50% at 2030 compared to 2005 levels, meaning decarbonisation is no longer a ‘nice to have’ – but critical to future proofing your business.
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“I am 75, I have Parkinson’s and I am at the wrong end of the telescope of life”
Billy Connolly
I may not be facing my mortality in the same dramatic way as our beloved Billy but last November I became an old age pensioner. My Super Gold Card arrived in the mail and last month I went to the movies for $11, the same price as for a child (were they trying to tell me something?)
I am young at heart but with a dicky heart. I am sound of mind, but with tinnitus ringing in my head. I’m sturdy, but in a podgy kind of way. In my mind I am thirty, except pretty girls don’t notice me anymore and if I notice them, it just seems a bit creepy. All this said, I can’t imagine a life full of free rides on the Waiheke Island ferry and cut-price day time movies.
Recently I worked out that if I follow my family genetic traits, I will live to be eighty-seven just like mum, dad and grandfather Frederick. That’s around 12,000 days left to somehow make a difference.
With that in mind I’ve decided to dedicate my remaining useful days to making the planet a better, cleaner, safer place for current and future generations.
I face this prospect with a combination of excitement, fear and trepidation. After all I am just an old school IT guy, a businessman, an erstwhile politician and a family man. Little of this qualifies me to lecture others on carbon footprints, soil, air and water quality and preserving what’s left of our flora and fauna.
Noting all this I am going to do it anyway. We are all on a journey on this precious, fragile planet and my small steps towards understanding, as unimportant as they may be, might just inspire someone younger and smarter than me.
In the meantime, I am inviting you along for the ride as I write this blog, record a Vlog or two and take a few photos. Feel free to reach out with suggestions. No one is ever too old to learn, least of all me.
My own backyard
In 2010 my beloved and I moved out of our treelined Central Auckland Suburb and onto a lifestyle block that we hoped would bring us a simpler, more authentic life that brought us closer to God.
The vision was a classic hippy dream in many ways. Growing organic vegetables, and meditations at dawn.
Twelve years later we are still on “the farm” as my kids call it but facing the daily realities of living on and with the land. Every year there is a new pest. I’ve admitted defeat and now spray California Thistle because I am too old and the thistle too tenacious for me to do otherwise.
Most disturbing for me is the stream that lies on our lower boundary. It is a testament to wilful ignorance, ineffectiveness, and greed. Wilful ignorance because I can’t see it from my house, so it’s pitiful state is easy to ignore. Ineffectiveness because I have fought a haphazard and ultimately losing battle with noxious water weeds, leprous water rats and stagnant algae. My attempts at native plantings have proved inadequate with hundreds of dollars’ worth of new seedlings dying under the strain of hot dry summers or washed away in flash floods.
Generations of dairy farmers have poured effluent into it. The runoff from nitrogen fertilisers has left any still water burdened with suffocating weeds and toxic algae. On top of dairy pollution there has been a reckless waste of water resources. Commercial vegetable growers have sucked more “free” water than the water table allows. The stream then runs dry in the summer leaving eels desiccating in the sun. There are no longer any more frogs or fish. These have been poisoned by agricultural chemicals and, lacking the protection of rushes, reeds and flaxes, pillaged by predators.
Yet there has been progress. When I talk to the previous owners and old timers around here, they tell me of a time when the stream was used as an open cesspit flowing directly into the Parurehure Inlet and onto the Manukau Harbour.
The polluted stream
It smelt so bad and was so fly blown that the local Franklin Council, despite being dominated by businessmen farmers, were forced to do something about it. Their action was reluctant and cursory but this, when combined with pressure on the dairy industry as a whole, has meant we no longer see the unrestrained ecological vandalism of the 1960’s and 70’s.
What to do?
I have rung the Council and asked for guidance. They were enthusiastic but, in the end, ineffective. Promises of calls back remain unfulfilled. COVID restrictions have led to the cancellations of the planned pest control and native planting seminars. I hope once things open up more that I will see a bit more help and advice from them. In the meantime, I find myself on my own.
Lesson one of “going back to the land and saving the planet” is that it is just plain hard work, a burden on the budget and frankly a bit lonely.
So, I am restarting. I am buying a post hole borer, to reduce the pressure on my back when digging planting holes in concrete hard soil and clay. I’ve been next door to the neighbour and taken a variety of flax cuttings from his wonderful arboretum. In early Autumn I’ll buy a bunch more new plants and trees from the Farrell Family Nursery. Planting trees and plants in better locations will hopefully lead to greater success and less wastage.
Pest control will remain a priority. This year has seen many of the native trees in our area “masting” with huge quantities of seeds and pollen encouraging birds to mate and reproduce at an exciting rate. We have around 50 breeds coming and going on our property and the sound of new life is exciting but sadly can be a false dawn.
Rats and mice are also attracted by the seeds, stoats in turn are attracted by the prolific rodent prey. Until the seeds run out and the rats, mice and stoats all turn their attention to the nests full of eggs and young chicks. The parents are helpless in the face of this invasion and often fall victim to the stoats who kill them for fun. To make matters worse local cat “lovers” have released their unwanted kittens into the wild, unfixed and unfed. This season I have counted seven black and white wild cats cruising around the open paddocks in a group. For now their attention is drawn to the plague of rabbits (this year’s pest) but soon that supply of food will run out and they too will turn their attention to the birds.
Lesson Two of “going back to the land and saving the planet” is that we compete for resources with cunning and relentless predators. Sometimes these are animals.
Please feel free to contact me, Planet Spratt, at [email protected] if you have any feedback, ideas or suggestions
Or you can make business and media enquiries to Total Utilities here.
The COP26 summit brought governments together in Sept 2021 to discuss accelerated actions towards the goals of the Paris Agreement (2015), which is an international treaty signed by 196 participating member states at COP21 in Paris, 2015. It aims to keep the global average temperature at ‘well below’ 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, ideally 1.5 degrees, to strengthen the ability to adapt to climate change, and build resilience; align all finance flows with, ‘a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions, and climate-resilient development’.
New Zealand has signed up to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and as a signatory to the agreement we have to commit Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to climate action. Our first NDC saw us committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 30% below 2005 levels by 2030. However this was refreshed at the summit to increase our commitment to reduce emissions by 50% at 2030, compared to 2005 levels.
One of COP26 objectives is to phase out coal. The current Government has already committed to removing coal as a fuel source from our economy. A ban on new coal boilers used in manufacturing and production will come into effect by 31st December 2021 and phasing out existing coal boilers by 2027.
A further option proposed is to prohibit other new fossil fuel boilers (gas, LPG) where suitable alternative technology exists and is economically viable.
The key instrument that will be used to foster a move to a low carbon economy will be the emissions trading scheme (ETS), and a series of changing emissions budgets. An emissions budget seeks to limit greenhouse gases that can be emitted over a period of time.These changing budgets are spread over three key periods: 2022-2025, 2026-2030 and 2031-2035. This will reduce the quantity of Government-issued New Zealand Carbon Units. As these quantities reduce, the cost of carbon will be increased.
When the emissions trading scheme (ETS) was first introduced, the price of carbon was fixed at $25 per tonne; however, there was a 2 for one surrender ratio meaning that for every tonne emitted, only half a tonne was surrendered, making the effective price $12.50/tonne.
Over time the market caps have been lifted, and emitters have moved to a one for one surrender ratio. In the last two years, the Government introduced a floor and ceiling in the market: $20 floor and $50 ceiling. This year, prices were raised to make the minimum price $30/tonne and ceiling price $70/tonne. The ceiling will be increased by 10% per year plus inflation.
The below table covers current carbon spot pricing and New Zealand Unit (NZU) future pricing with a view on where carbon prices could go out to in 2030. This is the cost that relates to the gas field producing natural gas or the electricity generator producing electricity. For gas customers who are Time of Use (TOU) metered, this cost is passed through as a line item on each invoice. For small commercial gas consumers and all electricity customers, the cost of the ETS is built into the energy tariff. You can see the change from 12 months ago where the carbon price has nearly doubled. In November 2018, it was priced at around $25/tonne.
Energy companies within NZ will have to look at their generational assets and search for alternative solutions in a fast and least disruptive way to avoid shortages and payment of increased ETS costs.
Transitioning the economy’s energy needs to electricity requires much more than just new generation, the national grid operator and local electricity network distributors will need to invest billions to get things moving.
Whatever is done, NZ needs to sort out its energy policy and fast to ensure the security of supply, the ability for manufacturing to thrive in NZ (by avoiding having to outsource our emissions), and keep prices as low as possible.
