The Eco-Fee Imbroglio: Lessons from Ontario’s Troubled Experiment in Charging for Waste Management

Charging for the life cycle cost of waste management is contentious. The recent example of some retailers charging “eco-fees” in Ontario, with respect to sales of household products such as detergent, batteries and fluorescent light bulbs, is a case in point. However, the Ontario program for municipal waste, which the provincial government has partially abandoned, is just one example of the movement known as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which is spreading across the country and to many products. As in numerous other jurisdictions, Canadian provinces have imposed, or are considering, similar EPR programs for products such as tires, electronics and countless other goods. This Commentary uses lessons from Ontario’s waste programs to examine EPR’s potential attractions – when such programs are properly designed.Economic Growth and Innovation, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), Ontario, Canada, eco-fees, waste management life cycle cost

A FRAMEWORK FOR EFFECTIVE INDUSTRY STRATEGIC PLANNING

As agricultural commodity industries strategically plan for their future, they need to consider the systemic and synergistic effects of such factors as changing government regulations, demand expansion or contraction, globalized markets, increased competitive pressures, and greater customer quality requirements. This article discusses a framework developed to help industries strategically plan within the context of these dynamic factors. This framework, based upon relevant theory and an accumulation of experiences with this type of strategic planning, provides one possible approach for addressing the strategic needs of an entire industry. In this way, a commodity industry as a whole can identify and address key industrywide strategic issues to maintain and enhance its competitiveness, profitability, or at the very least, its survival in increasingly global markets.framework, industry, strategic planning, Agribusiness,

A question of confidence: an appraisal of the operation of the Gene Technology Act 2000

[Abstract]: This article examines the Gene Technology Act 2000 and its operation during its short existence. The Act is examined from the perspective that the regulatory regime in the controversial area of gene technology should engender the confidence of the public and industry if the innovative technology is to be accepted, especially in relation to food crops. The provisions of the Act are examined in comparison with Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The article also looks at the nature of some applications to the Regulator, the manner with which these have been dealt and some administrative issues which have arisen. Critical issues in relation to the operation of the Act are the absence of any economic or marketing considerations and the declaration or threatened declaration by some States of moratoriums on the commercial release of GMOs

The stewardship of things: Property and responsibility in the management of manufactured goods

In the context of broad-based concerns about the need to move towards a more sustainable materials economy, particularly as they are expressed in debates around ecological modernisation (EM), we argue that product stewardship has radical potential as a means to promote significant change in the relationship between society and the material world. We focus on two important dimensions that have been neglected in approaches to product stewardship to date. Firstly, we argue that immanent within the basic concept of stewardship is a problematisation of dominant understandings of property ownership in neoliberal market economies. In the space opened up by notions of stewardship, different ways of enacting both rights and responsibilities to products and materials emerge which have potential to advance the sustainability of material economies. Secondly, through exploration of existing expressions of product stewardship, we uncover a neglected scale of action. Both policy and dominant articulations of EM focus primarily on the efficiency of production processes; and secondarily, the attitudes and behaviours of individual consumers. Missing from this is the 'meso-scale' of social collectives including households, neighbourhoods, more distributed communities and small scale social enterprises. Based on a review of existing research from Australia and the UK, including our own, we argue that understanding of embedded practices of material responsibility at the household scale can both reinvigorate the concept of product stewardship as a potentially radical intervention, and reveal the potential of the meso-scale as a challenging but worthwhile realm of policy intervention

A Legal View: Promoting product stewardship and regulation

Recommendations for improving product stewardship and federal regulations

Reef Joint Field Management Program: business strategy summary 2020-2024

[Extract] The Reef Joint Field Management Program plans and delivers field operations within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (WHA).This includes Commonwealth and State marine parks (plus Commonwealth Islands Zones) and island national parks. The Program is delivered jointly by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. There are also established and evolving collaborative arrangements with allied government agencies, First Nations People, research institutions, industry and the community to work together to protect the WHA

Self-directed learning and apprentices: a constructivist grounded study

Developing the capacity of learners to be self-directed is beneficial for both individual workers and economies alike. This study investigates the development of capability for self-directed learning in a group of apprentices in the building and construction industry and suggests that such capability is best developed in the early years of entry into the workforce. For tradespersons this time is during their apprenticeship. The purpose of this study was to develop a deep understanding of how apprentices develop the capacity to be self-directed learners. The aim was to develop a substantive theory that illuminated and provided insight into this phenomenon. The methodology of constructivist grounded theory was used to conduct the study. A sample size of 13 participants in the building and construction industry was recruited. This included apprentices who were employed by a group training organisation (GTO) and a representation of their host employers and vocational teachers located within the southern New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory geographic regions. The substantive theory presented in this dissertation makes a contribution to knowledge of value to apprentices, employers, vocational teachers and others who seek to develop an understanding of the process of learning and development associated with apprenticeships and vocational and professional education more broadly. The substantive theory was achieved through discovering, describing, analyzing abstracting and explaining how apprentices moved through the phases (or categories) of committing effort, experiencing work, confirming value, and heightening motivation towards becoming self-directed learners. The substantive theory reveals that as the apprentices progressed through these phases they were constantly engaged in decision making processes, evaluating and re-evaluating experiences throughout their apprenticeship. The evaluation outcomes could be positive or negative and were dependent upon the expectancies that the apprentices placed on themselves as well as their interpretation of the expectancies placed on them by others. In this study the manner in which the various conceptual elements, processes and categories connect revolves around the apprentices’ experiences of sponsorship. Sponsorship is the term used to describe the more experienced or confident other who has both a personal and professional interest in the apprentice’s development and uses their influence to create a safe learning environment to enable the apprentice to develop expertise. The importance of the management of the learning environment proved critical, as suitable learning contexts do not appear by accident. In this study it emerged that the sponsor was the most important factor determining the quality of the learning environment. Effective sponsors were able to manage the learning context in a manner where the apprentice felt safe to ask questions, make mistakes, develop expertise and eventually accept responsibility, be autonomous and solve complex problems. Indeed, the apprentices became tradespeople who were not only competent but were true self directed learners. By managing this learning context, the sponsor created an environment that enabled the intrinsic motivation of the apprentice to drive their own growth and development towards becoming self-directed learners. When the sponsor creates a workplace where learning thrives, the apprentice begins to develop both competence and confidence. Increasingly, the apprentice begins to consolidate a durable sense of vocational identity. More and more others (both within and outside the immediate workplace)begin to recognise the apprentice as a legitimate member of the trade. Over time, with the development of expertise—as the apprentice begins to accept more and more responsibility for their own learning, and with encouragement and opportunity from the sponsor—they begin to reflect on their own learning. Increasingly and steadily they become self-directed learners

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority submission on MRAG Asia-Pacific Fisheries Review – “Taking Stock: modernising fisheries management in Queensland” Report

Submitted 31 July 2015 by General Manager, Biodiversity, Conservation and Sustainable Use

Coral Stress Response Plan for the Coral and Marine Aquarium Fish Fisheries

This plan outlines a strategy being adopted by fishery/marine resource managers and industry members of the Marine Aquarium Fish Fishery (MAFF) and the Queensland Coral Fishery (QCF) to minimise impacts on coral reef systems showing signs of stress. Stress comes from a range of sources; however, the key driver of this Coral Stress Response Plan has been the occurrence of significant bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) as a result of increased sea temperatures and/or freshwater incursions. The Coral Stress Response Plan represents a collaborative, multi-jurisdictional initiative between managers and industry. The plan helps improve the resilience of reef ecosystems, letting them recover from stress events, while allowing commercial fisheries to operate in some capacity (where possible)