The world population is set to reach seven billion people on October 31 this year. The increase in human population of this planet has accelerated greatly over the past 100 years.

I have stumbled across a few developments in the sustainability world recently that should provide Australian start-ups with food for thought.

It will be interesting to see how much the current downward trending in retail and other sectors affects the amount of money and time organisations invest in sustainability.

Today I want to talk about something that is set to usher in some drastic changes in the commercial property industry, for properties over 2,000sqm anyway.

I apologise to those who are getting sick of hearing about carbon every morning with regularity approaching that of breakfast cereal. But it is the biggest sustainability issue we have ever faced and in relation to other environmental and social issues, we are finding they are all inextricably linked. If we can significantly reduce carbon pollution the benefits will also flow onto other environmental and social problems.

On Monday I attended Green Capital's The Long Carbon Journey where the Prime Minister Julia Gillard, addressed an audience of over 400 high level people about the proposed carbon tax and what it means “moving forward”.

Throughout the world research and development on energy is all about providing renewable base load power –something traditional solar photovoltaic and solar thermal generation has been unsuccessful at achieving. That is until now.

Many SMEs, consumers and large organisations are trying to reduce their environmental impacts through the products they sell and purchase.

Sticking with the theme currently dominating the media at the moment I thought this post would be a good opportunity to actually do some calculations showing just how much prices will increase for high GHG emitting products such as fuel and electricity.

With decisions about how to divvy up the carbon tax dollars happening right now I thought I'd better stay on topic with the never ending saga that climate change has become and will be for the rest of our lives.

The smart and opportunistic business operators can capitalise on changes in sustainability while maximising profits, environmental and social benefits all at the same time. Clever, huh?

Many benefits arise from making your organisation more sustainable. There are lower running costs from having less waste, using less energy and using less water.

A lot of companies struggle with marketing themselves as a green organisation. There are a number of reasons for this, but most often it comes down to a poor understanding of what an organisation is trying to say in a marketing campaign and how they say it.

In businesses of all sizes, reputation is a crucial aspect in the level of success you can expect to achieve. A good reputation generally takes a long time to build but can be ruined very quickly.

There is currently a furore over the Gillard Government’s plan to put in place a carbon tax from July 2012.

The cost of electricity rose significantly in 2010 and it is predicted to increase by up to 64% in NSW over three years from July this year, and with the possibility of a carbon price looming that increase could end up being far greater.

Although sustainability has been around for a long time, only recently has business become focused on its application.