How Will Your Company Respond to the Challenge?
Like many other developed nations, Australia has imposed complicated environmental regulations on businesses across the country. The fact of the matter is, though these laws are absolutely necessary, they can be very difficult to adapt to for those with a traditional commercial business model.
At the moment, we can safely put Australian businesses into two categories:
1) Those that see these forced regulations as an opportunity, adapt and then thrive in the new conditions
2) Companies that keep doing business as they always have until finally facing the new reality
Unfortunately, for many of these businesses, it will be already too late.
This is just the way it is, and across the country we see companies in both manufacturing and non-manufacturing industries making a choice to either grasp the opportunity and stay ahead of the competition, or resist change and eventually become obsolete.
I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this article you own, or work for a company that’s interested in changing your operating practices and succeeding in the new business environment. Well, if that’s true, I have some good news. Firstly, you’re not alone. Like almost every piece of government legislation, environmental regulations are quite complex. The good news is, you can find people who are well versed in both the theory and practice of helping companies successfully adapt to these regulations. By retaining an expert to help review your current operations and recommend achievable and realistic changes, your company has the chance to not only maintain profitability but actually improve financially.
Complying with Australia’s environmental regulations and achieving financial growth are not mutually exclusive.
The second piece of good news is that the Australian government understands both the difficulty in complying with these unfamiliar regulations and the associated cost of changing your business practices. So, you can actually receive financial support from the government to help you during you company’s period of transition.
Currently, an Australian Small Business (less than 20 employees) or Medium Sized Business (less than 200 employees), is eligible to apply for funding up to $1125 to retrain each worker in environmental best practices. Though the business must also contribute on a 75/25 ratio. Therefore your company would only pay only $375 per worker.
This is an incredible opportunity for companies that plan on adapting successfully to environmental regulations. When you consider the money that can be saved by adjusting some of your potentially wasteful practices it’s actually a smart investment. By embracing these changes as an opportunity rather than a threat, your company has a wonderful chance of thriving under new and necessary business conditions while your competitors fall further and further behind.