Bank Chief's Green Passion Helps Businesses Get Wind Of Switch-off

The Age

Monday February 25, 2008

Marc Moncrief, Financial Services Reporter

CHANGE is in the wind, and it's the wind that gave Macquarie Bank's Melbourne executive chairman, Simon McKeon, his personal climate change experience - as a yachtsman.

Mr McKeon recalls a rainy wind that blew regularly from the south-west across Waratah Bay, next to Wilsons Promontory.

In the 1980s and '90s, the wind was so consistent Mr McKeon and a syndicate of like-minded sailing fans developed a yacht tailored to it so they could break the world speed-sailing record - the group held the record for 11 years.

In 2004, they lost the title to the French, and have tried to regain it ever since.

"In the last few years, that wind has . . . evaporated," Mr McKeon says.

This observation helped convince him to begin minimising carbon emissions. A meter at his home tells his family their real-time power usage. And his conviction has led him to become a business community ambassador for Earth Hour, advocating to businesses the value of switching off their lights for one hour at 8pm on March 29.

His job entitles him to the typical executive benefits, but Mr McKeon chooses instead to take public transport. The car he does own is a hybrid. At home the energy is solar. Mr McKeon's employer is Australia's largest investment bank. It is a major global investor in toll roads, airports, bridges and energy generation. It has pioneered a model for infrastructure investment that has been copied worldwide.

That experience has given Mr McKeon a unique insight, and a conviction that businesses need to embrace the opportunities offered as the world goes green.

"I was talking to a bunch of schoolkids a while ago," he says. "One of them said, 'Mr McKeon, who is going to be the richest person in the world in the next 10 years?'

"I said, 'I don't know his name, or her name, but I have a feeling that I know how they will have made their money . . . We actually need to, in fairly short order, convert the world from one energy-producing system to another. The people who are responsible, who actually make that happen, I think will end up being the wealthiest people in the world.' The class seemed to accept that answer."

EARTH HOUR

www.earthhour.org

At 8pm on Saturday, March 29, Melburnians are being asked to switch off their lights for one hour as a sign of their commitment to reduce global warming and to deliver a message about the need for action on climate change.

CORPORATE BREAKFAST

Melbourne businesses can take a lead by supporting the Earth Hour Corporate breakfast on Tuesday March 4 at 7.30am

VENUE: Melbourne Town Hall

COST: $1500 for four people (tax deductible)

HOSTS: Lord Mayor John So and Don Churchill, Chief Executive and Publisher of The Age

FOR MORE INFORMATION: events@melbourne.org.au or telephone Annette Brook 9650 8800