Optus and GreenCollar helping to regenerate Australia

Many of us want to look after the environment and help combat climate change but don’t always know how our individual actions can make a difference

Optus recently launched Optus Eco, a new network feature, designed to make it easy for customers to help the environment.

What is Optus Eco?

Optus Eco makes it easy for customers to take everyday actions that can help rewrite our environmental future in a few ways:

• Make simple changes to how you connect, manage your services and upgrade devices to be more ecofriendly.
• Help offset some of your mobile's environmental impact and support Australian carbon reduction projects including two regeneration projects from our partner, GreenCollar – Tallering Station in WA and Boonora Downs in NSW.

And soon Optus will also provide an additional carbon-offset bonus, once customers have ticked off everything on their Optus Eco checklist.

Who is GreenCollar?

GreenCollar is Australia’s leading environmental markets investor and project developer. The company aims to achieve lasting environmental outcomes by placing a value on the environment and enabling markets to provide incentives and payment for sustainable land management practices and measurable environmental outcomes.

It helps farmers, graziers, traditional owners and other land managers to identify and create commercial opportunities through nature-based projects that enhance their productive agricultural enterprise while caring for the environment and delivering tangible social and economic benefits.

Some of the benefits include:

• Sequestration of carbon to mitigate climate change
• Regeneration and protection of native habitat
• Improved biodiversity
• Supporting native species
• Investment in sustainable agriculture including infrastructure upgrades and improved land management
• Healthier landscapes with improved drought resilience
• Investment to remote and regional Australian communities

According to Helen Maisano, Director, Group Sustainability at Optus, “We are delighted to be working with GreenCollar who are one of our partners in Optus Eco. GreenCollar is an experienced provider of ecosystem services which benefit all of us through the regeneration of depleted environments which can then support a healthy on-farm ecosystem which supports a healthy food supply.”

According to Neil Hereford, Chief Investment Officer at GreenCollar, the company works alongside some of Australia’s leading corporates, land managers, researchers and environmental organisations to accelerate the transition to a net-zero world and drive positive impact at scale.

“We specialise in embedding sustainability within agricultural businesses to deliver real and measurable environmental outcomes while supporting productivity. The environmental outcomes translate into financial products like Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) and other environmental assets which organisations can invest in to meet their ESG goals.

“We collaborate with farmers to develop the project and underwrite the risks and the associated costs. Landholders undertake the land management changes and we manage all the project administration including monitoring, auditing and verification. We sell the resulting credits to our large institutional clients like Optus and share the revenue with the landholders. It’s a partnership model where we work closely with our landholders over a 25-year period.

“Optus is at the forefront of developing these new environmentally sustainable products and services,” Neil says.

“Our research show that consumers want to take action, but they don’t know how to go about it. Optus Eco has an amazing interface that is simple and transparent in terms of the benefits to the environment. And most importantly the projects it supports are local, based here in Australia - that’s a key differentiator from work done by some others whose projects are often based overseas.

“The majority of our landholders reinvest the income from the sale of carbon credits back into their agriculture business. Investment in farm infrastructure such as fencing and waterpoints usually requires contractors and always requires materials. Materials are usually sourced from local suppliers, and local contractors are often hired to complete works. Some landholders are able to take on new employees as a result of the additional income they get from carbon farming, so a lot of money flows back into regional communities.

“Many landholders also report improved land condition and productivity as a benefit of regeneration projects, however, the main source of additional and diversified income is the sale of ACCUs awarded to the project by the Clean Energy Regulator.

“For Optus we’re working with the landholders at Tallering Station and Boonora Downs on land management plans that will help regenerate native vegetation across the properties,” Neils says.

Tallering Station - WA

Water pumping windmills are a traditional method of managing livestock grazing.

Tallering Station is an historic working sheep station in Western Australia that is also home to a number of endangered species. After close to 150 years of intense grazing the soil health had dropped and native bushland was dwindling.​

Partnering with GreenCollar has delivered considerable benefit to landholder, Alan Hamilton, who took over the Station in 2017. The pastures on the property were quite degraded before the project started, mainly due to feral goats, but also grazing by sheep.

“In the beginning, we were seeing mature trees and bushlands starting to die out, which was a real concern. We’re in the Australian Rangelands here, and it’s a pretty delicate ecosystem that was really run down, so we decided to look at how we could be doing things differently,” Alan says.

“Bringing a carbon project into the mix to regenerate native vegetation has meant that we’ve had to change how we are managing the land. We have to make sure that we’re rotating our stock and not overgrazing, and we have to control the feral grazing pressure better.

“It’s been fantastic to see the positive impact these changes have had on the land. Now, a lot of the palatable plants that had been almost wiped out by grazing are coming back, and as a result, the trees and bushlands are much healthier. We really see the benefits to the land, and compared to other properties in the region, Tallering is now home to a vast number of maturing trees.

“The carrying capacity of the land hasn’t changed, but the improvements in ground cover means we’re able to rely on the country to feed our stock and don’t have to worry so much about trucking in extra feed or reducing numbers in dry periods. Since the project began, we have reduced stock numbers a bit, but that was a conscious decision we made to keep the vegetation in good health.

“The project has been crucial in enabling us to make improvements to infrastructure across the property, particularly watering points. The rainfall in the region can be low, so fencing around watering points and between paddocks helps us to rotate the livestock we have on the property and encourage regrowth. We’ve also been installing solar watering pumps to replace old windmills. Having extra watering points helps to spread the grazing pressures from feral animals and livestock more evenly. They all gravitate towards the water eventually, so extra water points give them more places to go and stops them overgrazing one or two areas.

“Before the project began, we could see the clear impact of rangeland goats and feral livestock coming onto the property. They would wander in from nearby areas because our boundary fencing wasn’t great, and the numbers of rangeland goats meant that we had a feed shortage for our own stock. In fact, we estimated that goats contributed to over 30% of grazing across the station. As part of our carbon project, we’ve had a large-scale fencing improvement program that has significantly improved our fencing and reduced the numbers of goats and feral animals coming onto the property.

Creeks flowing after recent rains on Tallering Station.

“Before the project, the land had been heavily grazed and that had taken a toll. You would have seen a fair number of feral grazing animals and a lot of aged fencing. The soil health wasn’t great, which reduced plant health, and that has a knock-on effect to productivity – especially when you are in the business of grazing.

“Since we started our project, the land has started retaining water more readily, and soil health is improving. You can tell because we’ve just had a really good wildflower season. It’s great to see the property alive and colourful again. If you put a drone up, you can really see the difference in the health of the country on Tallering compared to other places. It’s like chalk and cheese.

“We now have two carbon projects with GreenCollar, and they make a significant contribution to the resilience of our business and our ability to reinvest back into the land. It is great to see the property benefit from the improvement in vegetation condition,” Alan says.

Boonora Downs - NSW

Clouds roll in across Boonora Downs Station.

Boonora Downs, in the Cobar local government area of NSW. Drought and intensive grazing had damaged native vegetation and degraded the soil. With the help of Optus and GreenCollar, the landholders of Boonora Station are turning this around through the regeneration of native acacia and eucalypt forest, and important work to improve the flow of water across the land.

According to Heath and Nardine Cull of Boonora Downs, there have been massive improvements in the health of the environment since they’ve starting to work with GreenCollar.

“When we took over the property, it was in a fair run-down state. Having a carbon project has enabled us to fast-track our plans to improve the property and achieve our vision for the place earlier than we would have expected. We both come from a background in sustainability and conservation, so being able to achieve such obvious outcomes for the environment really aligns with our purpose as stewards of the land. The place would not be looking nearly as beautiful as it does now without the additional income our project has given us to put back into the care of the land.

“When we moved onto the property, it had only two ground tanks for water, and the infrastructure, like fencing, needed improvement. A lot of feral animals were wandering onto the property to feed on the vegetation. To my mind, the numbers of livestock being run were a bit high, and also contributing to the poor condition of the vegetation, and the deteriorating infrastructure didn’t really support the numbers,” Heath says.

“Since we started our project, we’ve been able to upgrade that infrastructure, to reduce the impact of grazing livestock and control feral animal populations. This has led to substantial improvements on the palatable ground cover as well as the condition of shrubs and trees.

“The improvement in vegetation means that we’ve seen more native wildlife coming onto the property. The ground tanks we have established are trapping water really well, and with healthier topsoil and the recent rains, the grasses and forbs are the greenest they have been in a long time. The foliage on the eucalypts and other trees is thick and dense, making the contrast between green trees and red soil exceptionally beautiful.

Grasses are thriving after a great start to the season.

“We now run a relatively small number of sheep on the property to ensure that the vegetation stays healthy. Last year the maximum number of sheep we ran was around 400.  Some of our enterprise is now focused on harvesting feral goats. They are prolific in the region and cause a lot of damage if we don’t stay on top of the numbers and put the infrastructure in place to protect the regenerating vegetation.

“Although carrying capacity is prescribed by Western Lands, we choose to run lower numbers to make sure we’re protecting the regeneration and improving land health, Health says.

Let’s reduce our eco-impact, together

We’re finding new ways to help create a more sustainable future for Australians. With our latest network feature  Optus Eco, you can take simple steps to reduce your environmental impact and help offset your carbon footprint.