Clean Energy Future

Voice over: Over the next 40 years we will see in Australia the creation of six million jobs in businesses of the future. Many businesses are already changing the way they operate to transition to a clean energy future. The Australian government is committed to keeping the Australian economy strong and supporting business and industry through this transition. One business which has taken steps to improve its efficiencies in production and achieving results in its productivity is Silos Estate Winery situated in the New South Wales south coast town of Berry.

Raj: My name’s Raj Ray I’m the owner of Silos Estate. About five years ago my wife and I, Sophie decided to make like many city-siders a sea change and we came down here, two hours south of Sydney to Berry on the beautiful south coast of New South Wales. When people look at starting down the sustainability journey it can seem somewhat overwhelming that there’s so many things to do and so many steps to take but really it’s quite simple. Even if it’s as simple as recycling your paper and recycling your glass bottles through to the more sexy complicated, perhaps even expensive stuff like generating your own energy. Each step down the path creates a more sustainable business and builds a better future in terms of the environment that we live in. Approximately four years ago we made a decision to try and become carbon neutral. Now that’s actually quite a complex task so we decided to take it bit by bit and the first bit that we decided to do was become carbon neutral for energy needs. Five years after we’ve taken over the business we’ve produced four times as much wine and two to three times as many room nights her at Silos we use exactly the same amount of energy and exactly the same amount of water and we’ve reduced our chemical and pesticide use by 60 to 80 percent. And the way we’ve been able to do that is not just look at the supply side but manage our demand. The personal element to our journey to sustainability really relates to the fact that I have a family now and I have two children under the age of three and I want to leave them a property and a world that’s better than the world and the property that I came to.

Voice over: It is important to note that no small businesses are liable for the carbon price. Small businesses will benefit from tax relief with an increase in the small business instant asset write off threshold to $6,500 and personal income tax cuts for unincorporated businesses. Find more information on how the government is supporting small business at www.cleanenergyfuture.gov.au