Sustainability Report 2006/07Encouraging sustainable behaviour
LivingSmart
Melbourne Water’s LivingSmart program is designed to educate and involve our people in living and working sustainably. Participation was strong in each of the modules undertaken and there was a high response rate to surveys carried out about the program and its effectiveness. The three modules delivered so far have covered water, energy and greenhouse, and resource use and waste.
A review of the program carried out this year found that 89% of employees interviewed believed their personal sustainability performance had improved through Melbourne Water’s education and influence, and 75% of these employees had implemented suggestions from LivingSmart in the office and at home.
We also developed new corporate targets for reducing our office-based environmental impacts in future years, including:
- Cumulative reduction in office water consumption per full time equivalent
- Cumulative reduction in office paper use per full time equivalent
- Cumulative reduction in office waste to landfill per full time equivalent
- Cumulative reduction in office energy use per full time equivalent
These targets will form the basis of the 2007/08 program, which will include greater emphasis on the office environment with clear identification and removal of barriers to behaviour change and better integration with the preferred culture program.
Our employees’ ecological footprint
More than 200 people completed their ecological footprint for the second year – a response rate of 33%. The average ecological footprint was recorded at 6.3 global hectares. This compares with 6.9 global hectares for the 27% of employees who completed the footprint in 2006. The ecological footprint measures humanity’s demand on the biosphere in terms of the area of biologically productive land and sea required to provide the resources we use and to absorb our waste.
Office-based environmental impacts
Melbourne Water’s office-based environmental impacts were assessed differently this year. Calculations for Full Time Equivalents (FTEs) now include all Melbourne Water employees plus all contractors, consultants, trainees, secondees and any other individual who utilises the resources on a Melbourne Water site. For this reason, limited comparisons will be undertaken with results from previous years. Throughout the year, all Melbourne Water office sites were visited and assessed under sustainability criteria as part of a Sustainable Sites Initiative. The assessment will prioritise any works to be delivered over the coming years. This is also now supported by the new corporate office based Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Energy use
Units of energy used at our East Melbourne offices is equivalent to 14,722.5 megajoules per FTE.
This equates to 902.7 megajoules per square metre per unit of office space. (See Melbourne Water’s total energy use and greenhouse emissions)
As part of the LivingSmart module on energy and greenhouse, a number of initiatives to reduce energy use in the office were undertaken, including:
- Switching off computers, monitors and lights when not in use
- Encouraging employees to take the stairs instead of the lift
- Reducing lighting in low use areas, and changing over others to more efficient products.
Fom 2007/08, 100% of all greenhouse gas emissions from office energy use and travel will be offset.
Waste production
A comprehensive office waste audit was undertaken at four of our major sites during the year with the following results:
- 55kg of waste was produced per FTE for the year (allowing 250 days)
- Of the total waste produced in the one day 109kg was recycled through paper, co-mingled and organic streams, with the remaining
39.28 kilograms sent to landfill.
The report noted that while Melbourne Water offices have effective systems in place to divert most of the waste generated onsite from landfill, it could be improved to more than 90% rather than the 73% recorded for the year. A LivingSmart module on waste encouraged all employees to follow the waste hierarchy of Avoid, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Dispose.
Paper use
Melbourne Water employees, plus contractors and consultants used a total of 8248 reams of A4 and A3 paper throughout the year, equating to a total of 10.7 reams per FTE for 2006/07.
Water consumption
Melbourne Water has water efficient appliances in our head office at 100 Wellington Parade, including dual flush toilets and waterless urinals. During the year a LivingSmart module on water concentrated on water conservation in the office and at home.
Determining water use figures for other Melbourne Water sites is more complex as consumption includes operational as well as office-related use, and separate metering is generally not available. For the purpose of recording water consumption, the total figure for all known metered Melbourne Water sites is 633,191 kilolitres per year, of which an estimated 99% was for facilities and the remaining 1% was for offices.
Transportation
This calculation is the only one that includes just Melbourne Water employees for the FTE figure as the information collected is for Melbourne Water vehicles only and not those of contractors and consultants.
In 2006/07, Melbourne Water used a total of 1.15 million litres of unleaded, LPG and diesel fuels, equivalent to 40,358.8 gigajoules or 3,108.4 tonnes of Co2e. When calculated per Melbourne Water FTE this equals 62.6 gigajoules or 4.8 tonnes of Co2e.
Melbourne Water employees travelled a total of 9.67 million kilometres over the year, equalling about 15,000 kilometres per FTE per year. This has increased from the 2005/06 figure, which was 8.15 million kilometres, equivalent to 13,267 kilometres per FTE per year.
The increase in kilometres travelled is explained by the following factors:
- The fleet size increased from 312 vehicles in 2005/06 to 321 vehicles in 2006/07
- Due to the expansion in Melbourne Water’s responsibilities and operating area, especially for our waterways activities, vehicles are both being used more frequently and travelling further distances to perform work activities.
Other initiatives taken during the year to reduce energy use in the vehicle fleet includes:
- Increasing the number of environmentally sustainable Toyota Prius vehicles
- Ensuring that all commercial vehicles are ordered as diesels rather than petrol models
- Replacing full size 4WD Mitsubishi Pajeros with more sustainable compact models
- Wherever possible ordering dedicated gas utility vehicles rather than petrol variants.
A TravelSmart survey conducted in 2006/07 showed a marked change in the way staff commute compared to the previous assessment in 2005. The largest group of staff (35.5%) caught the train followed by walking (5.6%) and cycling (6.1%). Nearly a quarter of staff at Melbourne Water (22.3%) had changed their commute mode in the previous 12 months.
Purchasing
Melbourne Water became a member of the ECO-Buy program, a government funded organisation established to encourage the purchasing of green products.
A Sustainable Procurement Policy was also approved and refers to all products, materials and services purchased by Melbourne Water, and items procured on Melbourne Water’s behalf by third parties such as contractors. Wherever possible, when purchasing products, materials and services, Melbourne Water employees and contractors are encouraged to pursue goals such as minimising waste and greenhouse gas emissions, and using fair traded goods. Suppliers should also be aligned with Melbourne Water’s sustainability principles.