Sustainability Report 2005-2006
Department of the Environment and Water Resources, 2007
Canberra environmental performance
Introduction
This section of the Sustainability Report details our environmental performance in Canberra, where DEH head office is located. This covers our main site, the John Gorton Building (JGB) and a smaller tenancy in the Edmund Barton Building (EBB), as well as a small amount of data from our warehouse.
Out of 37 environmental performance goals set for our Canberra sites for 2005-06, 24 (65%) were met. See our performance at a glance.
Key aspects of performance in 2005-06 include:
- achieved certification of our environmental management system (EMS) against the new version of the ISO14001 standard
- implemented a new software system for the EMS
- tenant light and power use in the JGB and EBB increased by 6%
- continued to purchase 100% accredited green power for tenant use in the JGB
- 7% less fuel was used in our vehicle fleet
- used Greenfleet and BP’s Global Choice to offset greenhouse gas emissions from our vehicles.
JGB/EBB environmental performance improvement goals for 2006-07 include:
- maintain ISO14001 certification of our EMS
- reduce tenant light and power intensity to 5000MJ per person per year (1/3rd below the new government energy use target)
- negotiate a new whole-of-DEH Greenhouse Challenge Plus agreement
- reduce Canberra-based greenhouse gas emissions to 5% below 2005-06 levels
- conduct a new water audit
- reduce paper consumption per person.
Case study: DEH Canberra environmental management system (EMS)
DEH has had an ISO14001 certified EMS for Canberra since 1999. With over five years of certification, a key challenge is how to revitalise the system, keeping people, processes and system documentation fresh and effective. In 2005-06, a detailed review of our entire EMS was conducted. As a result, major changes have been made that will improve our management of risk, continue to minimise our environmental footprint, and allow us to set a leading example for responsible environmental management in the public sector.
Note
Long-term contractors working within the DEH tenancies are not included in the staff numbers used to normalise statistics in this report. In practice this results in over-reporting of per-person resource usage; however, the department considers it important to report performance conservatively when robust or reliable data may not be available.
Indicators
Contents
- Sustainability Report 05-06
- Executive summary
- Vision and strategy
- Our organisation
- Governance
- Policy and influence
- Environmental performance
- Social performance
- Economic performance
- Report assurance statement
- Case studies
- GRI index
Key
Links to another web site
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