Sustainability Report 2005-2006

Department of the Environment and Water Resources, 2007

Economic performance

Procurement

PA13: Public policy and procurement practices links

Goals 2005-06

Complete top 100 suppliers environmental performance survey.
Continue to better the Australian Government’s goal of agencies allocating a minimum of 10% of their Sydney-Canberra air travel to smaller airlines.
Continue to better the Australian Government’s goal of agencies allocating a minimum of 10% of their domestic air travel to smaller airlines.

Performance 2005-06 and trends

Environmental performance of our supply chain

DEH undertook a supply chain environmental performance survey in September 2005. The purpose of the supply chain survey was to determine the extent to which organisations that provide goods or services to DEH employ environmentally responsible practices in the production and delivery of those products and services. The survey, comprising 24 questions about management, energy and greenhouse, transport, water, waste and purchasing was circulated to some 120 private and public sector organisations. 31 completed surveys were received (26% response rate).

The conclusions were that there is a high level of awareness among respondents of the issues canvassed and evidence that policies have been put in place; staff awareness has been raised and steps have been taken to make better choices and improve environmental performance. Conversely, too little attention was being given to measuring performance and establishing benchmarks. As a consequence, many respondents do not know whether the measures they are taking result in improvements in environmental performance.

Small airline travel

Due to Virgin Blue and Regional Express ceasing to service the Sydney-Canberra route in 2004, DEH were unable to achieve the goal set in the 2004-05 financial year report of more than 20% of travel within this sector being with smaller airlines.

DEH has bettered the Australian Government goal of agencies allocating a minimum of 10% of their domestic air travel to smaller airlines. The overall yearly average of smaller airline usage in all domestic flight routes for DEH in 2005-06 was 15.8%. This compares to 14.4% in 2004-05 and 23.1% in 2003-04.

Commentary

Under Australian Government policy, agencies are required to allocate a minimum of 10% of their domestic air travel to smaller airlines. In the past particular attention has been given to the achievement of this goal for the Sydney-Canberra route.

In 2004 the two smaller airline providers, Virgin Blue and Regional Express, ceased providing the

Sydney-Canberra service. This left agencies with only one supplier for the route but the goal of 10% still applied for all domestic travel. DEH has successfully met and exceeded the Australian Government’s goal of 10% of all air fares for smaller airlines.

Goals 2006-07

Continue to better the Australian Government’s goal of agencies allocating a minimum of 10% of their domestic air travel to smaller airlines.

Environmental performance reporting