Grass trees aren’t a grass (and they’re not trees

Grass trees (genus Xanthorrhoea) look like they were imagined by Dr Seuss. An unmistakable tuft of wiry, grass-like leaves atop a blackened, fire-charred trunk. Of all the wonderfully unique plants in Australia, surely grass trees rank among the most iconic.

Xanthorrhoea have no real trunk – just tightly packed leaves. 

The common name grass tree is a misnomer: Xanthorrhoea are not grasses, nor are they trees. Actually, they are distantly related to lilies. Xanthorrhoea translates to “yellow flow”, the genus named in reference to the ample resin produced at the bases of their leaves.

All 28 species of grass tree are native only to Australia. Xanthorrhoea started diversifying around 24-35 million years ago – shortly after the Eocene/Oligocene mass extinctions – so they have had quite some time to adapt to Australian conditions.

Read the story from The Conversation by a plant ecologist from Deakin University, John Patykowski - “Grass trees aren’t a grass (and they’re not trees.”

Three cheers to being green

When Hayley Purbrick began working for her family’s winery eight years ago, she could never have imagined it would be the first carbon-neutral winery to be certified in Australia.

Making change: Hayley Purbrick is proud of the sustainability push at Tahbilk .

Purchased by the Purbrick family in 1925, Tahbilk is home to five generations of farmers who realised their environmental responsibility to leave a sustainable legacy.

In 2008, Tahbilk began a journey into understanding its greenhouse gas profile in order to calculate the carbon stored onsite by its native vegetation.

As part of its sustainable business model, Tahbilk invested in onsite revegetation, organic waste treatment and carbon reduction schemes.

The business was able to achieve its objective of becoming carbon neutral for the 2012 financial year.

In 2013-14, Tahbilk continued its sustainability efforts, partnering with environmental certification business Enviro-Mark Solutions.

The winery swiftly became the first winery to be carboNZero certified in Australia and one of eight wineries globally at the time to have achieved full carboNZero certification.

Ms Purbrick, who is Tahbilk’s business improvement, digital and environment manager, is delighted by the winery’s success so far.

‘‘It’s really interesting that this has all become a big showcase now,’’ Ms Purbrick said.

‘‘The community’s appetite is a completely different landscape to four years ago when we achieved this.

‘‘The community is much more interested now, which is great.’’

Tahbilk has reduced its carbon footprint by 25 per cent since 2014.

‘‘We’ve done a lot of environmental work, looking at the National Carbon Offset Standard and being involved in the Carbon Trading Scheme,’’ Ms Purbrick said.

‘‘In a nutshell, the Carbon Trading Scheme was designed to be similar to how we now treat water, a tradeable commodity whereby you pay for the privilege of its use.

‘‘We put a price on water to make people, as individuals or in their businesses, think more about the ways they were using water.’’

Its consistent efforts have only pushed the winery and Ms Purbrick to continue their work towards lower carbon emissions.

‘‘We want to keep pushing to be neutral by 2020, but it is a challenge to reach and maintain as we are also looking at increasing our production by 30 per cent,’’ Ms Purbrick said.

‘‘This could have a big impact on our footprint.’’

Ms Purbrick’s passion and dedication in this field, plus an interest in digital technology has opened up many doors, including speaking at this year’s Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences Outlook 2018 conference in Canberra this week. In her talk Investing in Sustainability for Profit, Ms Purbrick discussed how digital technology could impact farm performance.

She also shared Tahbilk’s story and how it offset its carbon footprint.

‘‘I look forward to speaking to a lot of people that are involved in change, particularly in the agricultural space,’’ Ms Purbrick said.

‘‘It’s important to teach people that thinking with an open mind can lead to changing your perception around what is possible; solving the business and the community’s problems.’’

Story from today’s Shepparton News by Ashlea Witoslawski - “Three cheers to being green.”

How a small town reclaimed its grid and sparked a community revolution

Martin Rühl never imagined this fight would define the rest of his life. Not for a moment did he reckon it would become so epic in length, in scale, in consequences. He just thought his speck of a town should run its own electricity supply.

Wolfhagen, a somnolent town whose biggest previous claim to
fame was that one of the Brothers Grimm had  swtayed there.

A modest proposal, but in the Germany of 2003 it was highly unusual. Gerhard Schröder was still chancellor and, although a social democrat, was pushing through more privatisations of public assets than any other leader in German history. This was in a Europe that had learned from Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan to stop worrying and start loving the private sector. Now here, swimming against history’s current, was one orderly, slightly anxious engineer.

Read the story by Aditya Chakrabortty on The Guardian - “How a small town reclaimed its grid and sparked a community revolution.”