The Direct Action climate change policy being pursued by the new Australian Federal Government has been outlined in a new Green Paper, published last Friday 20th December 2013.

Essentially, it creates a carbon reduction process where funds are provided to organisations for projects that reduce carbon emissions, and thereby help reduce climate change.

This means organisations can save money via energy efficiency or productivity, or both. A part of those savings or revenue increases that are created by the carbon reduction project could go into the “pool” created by gain sharing for partial distribution to staff. (That is, in cases where emissions are reduced and it saves money in the short or longer term, or there is a productivity or revenue enhancing sequel).

This gain sharing “pool” for distribution is shown in the diagram above.

So from 1 July 2014 in Australia, there is a new mechanism that could assist your organisation to create a gain sharing processes, and of course improve your sustainability, competitiveness, and productivity.

There will also be provision for organisations to act as “Aggregators”. For example, a supplier of services to households could aggregate the individual savings made by households and then both parties could gain by the process.

If you live in another country, there are some broadly similar carbon reduction funds around the world. They are also mentioned in the Green Paper at the above link. If the new policy is successful in Australia, there are likely to be more.

There is a diagram on page 13 of the Climate Change Green Paper that summarises some of the many types of projects that organisations could look at implementing. Using the type of staff discussions that gain sharing can facilitate, your organisation is likely to have many ideas as to how some of these or other projects could help improve your sustainability, carbon footprint, productivity etc.

You should of course note that the projects that are likely to be funded are those that are the most efficient ways to reduce carbon. Again, some staff input in your organisation, via an e-Group on Facebook, LinkedIn or Yammer, is a likely way to help identify this for you all.

The Australian Government Green Paper to help deal with global warming is here: http://environment.gov.au/topics/cleaner-environment/clean-air/emissions-reduction-fund/green-paper

(The above diagram of the gain sharing "pool" that can be shared between management and employees in any type of organisation is adapted from Robert Masternak, at http://www.masternak.com/   Robert is a highly experienced gain sharing expert who also advises ProfitSharz).