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The EPA has initiatives in place to monitor its own environmental performance. We aim to reduce our energy and travel use, and minimise waste.
In March 2009, the EPA relocated staff from premises at 77 Grenfell St, Adelaide, Kent Town and Stirling to 250 Victoria Square, a six-star energy efficient rated building with a five-star fit-out.
Energy reductions
- Move to new 6-star building, consolidating three worksites to one and reducing the floor space occupied.
- Timers installed on photocopiers to ensure they power down after business hours.
- Low energy lighting tubes.
- Light sensors control lighting throughout the building, with automatic dimming as natural light takes over.
- Central atrium reduces need for lights.
- Higher ambient air temperature for air conditioning.
- Blinds to reduce glare and heat on windows, reducing strain on air conditioning
- Low energy use fridges, microwaves and dishwashers.
- Computer monitor screens replaced with thin film transistor screens, resulting in a 37% energy reduction from this source.
- Automatic power down and sleep modes installed on all computer monitors.
- Faxes and printers reduced in number (60%) by replacing them with multi-function devices.
- 50% reduction in kitchen fridges and only two fridges have freezers.
The centralisation of staff following closures of Kent Town, Stirling and Grenfell Street offices, to 250 Victoria Square, a six-star building with a five-star fitout, resulted in a reduction of occupied space from 5,280 m2 in 2007-08 to 4,762.5 m2. The impact of the shift was demonstrated with a marked reduction in energy consumed for office accommodation from 396 tonnes of greenhouse emissions in 2007-08 to 239 tonnes.
Vehicles
The EPA needs to maintain a fleet of vehicles in order to undertake site visits and inspections, and other EPA business.
The number of vehicles has been progressively reduced since 2004, from 37 to 24 at June 2011.
The current make-up of the fleet exceeds the government’s requirement to have 50% of the state government vehicles utilising lower emission fuels.
CO2 emissions from EPA vehicles has been reduced from 194 tonnes in 2002-03 to 126 tonnes in 2010-11.
Travel
In April 2007, the EPA introduced a TravelSmart Workplace Plan (TWP), an initiative that provides a variety of measures making it easier for staff to participate in sustainable transport for both commuting and business-related travel.
Year 2 of the TWP saw a continuation of a variety of initiatives, established since the inception of the plan, including:
- the sale of discounted public transport tickets for staff and their families
- a 10,000-step program encouraging staff to increase the distance they walk everyday
- a Bicycle User Group to encourage the uptake of cycling and improve cycling conditions
- a sustainable transport induction pack for new employees.
One particular highlight of Year 2 of the plan was winning the national prize for the largest percentage of staff riding to work on National Ride to Work Day on Friday 15 October 2008, for worksites with 100-249 employees.
Findings from the latest evaluation confirm that initiatives implemented as part of the TWP have influenced staff travel behaviour, with overall reductions in car journeys of 5% and increases in sustainable modes such as public transport and cycling for commuting travel since 2006.
Purchasing
- Recycled paper purchased for use in photocopiers and printers.
- Printers have double-sided printing options.
- Electrical products to have green star and energy efficient ratings.
- Packaging returned or recycled.
Waste management
One of EPA's environmental goals for is for 'the sustainable use of resources - reducing costs to business and environmental impacts by promoting the efficient use of resources and waste minimisation'.
In support of this concept within the office environment in 250 Victoria Square, all waste management and recycling is managed in partnership with the lessors building management. Containers for all waste are provided within utilities rooms and kitchens, and collected regularly by cleaning staff, recording quantities and contents recycled where possible. Streams of waste collected include:
- co-mingled recyclable waste
- organic food waste
- white paper and confidential paper destruction
- general dry waste.
As a means of encouraging staff to consider recycling and appropriate disposal of waste, only paper recycling bins are provided at work stations. Regular waste audits were conducted to ascertain staff understanding of waste streams.
All toner cartridges from photocopying machines and printers were also collected and recycled. This year 377 cartridges (0.219 tonnes) were diverted from landfill for a total 1.904 tonnes since the initiative began in April 2002.
Last modified: 17/01/2012 04:35 pm
