Government Initiatives for Environmental Conservation - Assignment Example

The government’s effort to realizing a complete change into production and use of environmentally conserving products and services: A case study of Australia Date: 22nd may, 2012 Abstract Governments worldwide have been forced to adopt the now popular green initiatives. Campaigns and dedication of funds to create awareness to making and use of environmental friendly products is a mandate of the every government. (Harrison, 1995: p 34-48). Australia has developed many initiatives to care for the environment that include; clean technology programs that provide incentives for businesses to reduce emissions and invest in clean energy, another initiative the clean technology program. This study reviews the government initiatives for environmental conservation; the green products and services that are as a result of these initiatives; who are the stakeholders in Australia’s green initiative and the importance one of the websites related to these green initiatives. Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 Background 4 Objectives 4 The Government Initiatives Regarding Environmental Sustainability 5 The clean Energy Future Initiative 5 The clean technology Program 6 Clean technology investment program 6 Clean technology Food and Foundries Investment Program 6 Clean Technology Innovation Program 6 Products that are as a result of the government initiative 6 Water catchment management strategies 7 Management of rivers 7 Urban water 7 The stakeholders as by this website 8 Urban dwellers 8 Communities living along water basins 8 Industries and manufacturers 8 The usability research on the website 8 Sampling criteria and sample group 9 Findings 9 Recommendations 10 List of References. 11 11 Appendix 12 A sample of the questions used for the website evaluation 12 Background Governments have due to pressure from both consumers and environmental bodies been forced to come up with both policies and initiatives to conserve the environment by promoting practices and use of resources in a manner that conserves them and takes care of the environment. The Australian government has in the recent past come up with initiatives where money and other resources are used to conduct campaigns, make advertisements and educate its citizen about the now very popular green initiatives whereby people are encouraged to consume those products that don’t deplete or pollute the natural resources and the environment respectively. Consumers will thus be encouraged to use low fuel consuming cars, energy saving bulbs, low carbon cars and recyclable sources of energy like the solar power instead of hydro generated electricity. Objectives 1. To outline some of the government initiative developed in regard to environmental sustainability 2. To identify some of the green products and services that have been developed as a result of these initiatives 3. To identify the stakeholders of the green initiative products and their concerns 4. To discuss the usability, poor areas and possible ways to improve a website related to these initiatives The Government Initiatives Regarding Environmental Sustainability The Australian government has set aside funds to shape production in a manner to use energy efficiently and reduce environmental pollution. These include the clean energy Future (CEF) and other initiatives. The clean Energy Future Initiative In its clean energy future initiative, the Australian government has set aside more than $ 20 million in grants to improve energy efficiency in future. Small, medium and community groups are a central element in the clean Energy Future (CEF) initiative. This initiative is meant to reduce operating costs of these businesses in future and to also reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants. The grants will help organizations such as Master Grocers Australia to work with small grocery chains and help them assess how to make smarter energy choices to reduce energy costs. The grants would deliver practical information from trusted sources to help small and medium businesses and community groups use energy in the smartest and most efficient way. This initiative was designed to have phases through which the grant was to be availed and in the first round of the release of the grants, there was an overwhelming response from industry associates and non-profit groups coming up with more than 200 high-quality proposals were received. The clean technology Program The clean energy future carries with it the clean technology program. This program is further split into three subsections: the clean technology Investment Program; clean technology food and foundries investment program and clean technology Innovation program (The Australian government initiatives, 2012). Clean technology investment program This is an $ 800 million competitive, merit based grants program to support Australian manufacturers to maintain competitiveness in a carbon constrained economy. Clean technology Food and Foundries Investment Program This one is a governmental program with $200 million grants available for investors to bid for. It is also merit-based competitive initiative where Australian food and foundry manufacturers compete for the grants in a carbon constrained economy. Clean Technology Innovation Program The clean technology Innovation program will support the research, development and commercialization of clean technology products, processes and services. It will fund the development of a range of clean technologies including low emissions and other energy efficient technologies. Products that are as a result of the government initiative Most organizations, groups have as a result of these government initiatives come up with products and services and programs that use energy efficiently and conserve the environment. This section reviews a website that has been developed as a result of the general tendency by every environment conscious society to conserve the environment. The researcher reviewed a Water management website www.ewater.com.au. This site reviews E water outsourcing is a new, ground breaking modeling platform that is the product of Australian government investment and industry collaboration spanning over 20 years. It integrates the whole water cycle with policy and management variables to boost our capability to manage water resources. Water catchment management strategies. The site also deals with the management of rivers Managing urban water Water catchment management strategies Under water management, this site gives guidelines on rainfall, surface water and ground water interactions and hence management. Management of rivers This site also gives clear guidelines on the best practices to manage rivers and any other surface running water. Urban water Urban water is also crucial especially because urban areas are usually highly populated. This site has dedicated this section to educate on how to manage urban water. The stakeholders as by this website Urban dwellers The urban residents are a group that constantly uses urban water. Urban water is limited and therefore has to be used in a conservative manner. Urban dwellers are advised to stop any running tap that is not in use, use showers instead of baths and toilets with efficient flushing systems. Communities living along water basins This group is another important stakeholder. Their activities like farming directly affect the cleanness of the water and its availability for those staying downstream. The sites give clear guidelines on how to efficiently use the water. Industries and manufacturers Clear guidelines are provided for industries to treat the sewage before releasing it into rivers and industries have limitations on the amount of toxics to discharge within a certain period of time. The usability research on the website The researcher interviewed six people about the usability of this site in water conservation. The interviewees were provided with the links to this site with clear guidelines on what was required of them. The researcher informed them that this was a website providing guidelines on water conservation in Australia. They were then asked use the site and evaluate its usability in giving information about the various water sources and its efficiency in explaining the importance of economical and proper use of water and consequently the best way to preserve it for others to use it. Sampling criteria and sample group Information was collected basically through conducting of interviews. A sample of the interview questions is in the appendix. The researcher identified various groups of people and from each of the group chose randomly six representatives. The representatives included a farmer, a student, a college tutor, a health officer, a house wife and a police man. This was in line with representing most professions groups and gender. Each one of the respondents was given the guidelines and was then given some time to review the site. The respondent was then to be interviewed on a later date. Out of the six respondents, five of them completed the exercise successfully. One of them could not be reached for the interview/opinion. Findings The correspondents were able to go through all the guidelines on proper water usage in every one of its forms through the entire water cycle. All of the five respondents were able to understand most of the information passed across by the website and were thus able to explain the guidelines on water management when they were asked to. E water is a ground breaking modeling platform that is the product of Australian government investment and industry collaboration spanning over 20 years. Source integrates the whole water cycle with policy and management variables to boost our capability to manage water resources. ewater CRC has organized a conference on 29th may dubbed the source 2012 to support the adoption of Ewater source as the new national hydrological modeling platform The group will inform about how source has been tried and applied in over 100 projects (Steve, 2011). On the weakness of the site, two of the six respondents identified the process through which you reach the guidelines posted by source on how to conserve water as time consuming. According to them, one has to first download the guidelines and save them in the personal computer in order to read them. There is no direct link on the website to these guidelines. Another correspondent complained that he could not read the guidelines because his mobile phone which he uses as a browser could not support part of the contents of the websites and so he had to miss some of the information and diagrams posted on the website Recommendations From that small evaluation the researcher used the views of the respondents to come up with the following recommendations. Redesigning the website. The website should be redesigned to have features that are supported by every browser including the personal handset browsers which are commonly used by many Australians The site should also incorporate more graphics to be appealing to the browser as well as to be easily understood even to those non-native English speakers in Australia who may find difficulty in understanding much of the information passed The other area to improve is by enabling the website visitors to directly access the guidelines without necessarily having to fist download it into their browsers. This will save time. List of References. The Australian government initiatives, 2012. Government Initiatives. [online] available at: [accessed 21st may 2012] Steve, 2011. Evolving water management. [online] available at: [accessed 21st may 2012]. Harrison, M., 1995. Environnemental conservation Efforts. New York : Panthéon. Appendix A sample of the questions used for the website evaluation 1. In your own opinion what do you think the website is clearly useful in water management? 2. What new information do you get about water management that you did not know before? 3. Do you find any challenges facing or that are going to face the group behind this initiative of water management especially on the forthcoming source conference or do you feel that it is going to have a big impact on water conservation in general. 4. What are the challenges you faced as a user trying to get information through the website Read More