Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities

Departmental environmental performance

The department continues its commitment to ensuring that corporate operations reflect environmental best practice in a Public Service agency for urban office environments and remote/regional areas that the department is responsible for managing.

The department does this by:

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  fostering a culture of environmental responsibility at work, including mandatory online environmental training for new staff, departmental instructions for all staff on their environmental responsibilities and online Green at Work information for all staff
  
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  providing environmental training for regional and remote area field staff, scientists and support staff in sound environmental management practices in Antarctica, World Heritage areas, national parks and reserves
  
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  promoting efficient use of energy, water, paper and other natural resources
  
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  preventing or minimising pollution, waste-to-landfill and greenhouse gas emissions
  
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  favouring the purchase of more sustainable goods and services in line with the Commonwealth Procurement Rules ‘whole-of-life costing’ requirements
  
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  fulfilling our local, national and international legal and other obligations relating to environmental management
  
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  developing and implementing environmental management plans that identify and address significant environmental risks and opportunities for environmental improvement at all major sites
  
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  monitoring and reporting on our environmental performance, both internally and externally.
  

Due to the diverse nature of the department’s operations across Australia, the Southern Ocean and its territories, day-to-day operational environmental performance is managed at a local level. However, where relevant, whole-of-department policies, initiatives and reporting are coordinated. These include:

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  a Departmental Environmental Performance Committee representing different regional and interest areas
  
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  enhanced sustainability reporting and benchmarking under the Departmental Operations Environmental Policy by combining environmental reporting data from the three main office locations of the department
  
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  participation by all state/territory offices and all four stations located in the Antarctic and Macquarie Island in Earth Hour 2013.
  

The local area management approach is also supported by a number of local environmental performance committees, environmental policies and environmental performance action plans, including climate change plans for all national parks and the botanic gardens and action plans with targets for the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) and the main Canberra offices.

The department has Environmental Management Systems (EMS) for the operations of the main Canberra offices and the AAD. These systems continue to be certified to the international standard for Environmental Management Systems (ISO14001:2004).

The department has an active environmental contact officer network (ECONet). These staff volunteer in conjunction with the local environmental performance managers/teams, continue to provide leadership, ideas and initiatives such as tours of recycling facilities and tree planting to support and promote a culture of environmental responsibility.

The department is continuing to improve its sustainability reporting and is participating for the second year in an Australian Government sustainability reporting pilot using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework as a base for reporting. One of the key aims of this initiative is to improve the comparability of government agencies’ reporting about organisational sustainability. The indicators used in last year’s report have been used again in this year’s report and should be directly comparable, giving a three-year trend.

This chapter presents a comprehensive overview of the environmental impacts resulting from the department’s office-based operations including energy use in our buildings and for travel; water use and resource efficiency; and waste. Summaries are provided for the activities of around 1765 full time equivalent (FTE) staff in our three main offices in Canberra; 326 staff (FTE) in our Kingston Office, Tasmania; and 64 staff (FTE) in our offices in Darwin and Jabiru. The department undertakes a considerable amount of work in non-office-based environments. Environmental impacts from these operations are also reported on later in this chapter. A supplementary environmental report will be published online.

Canberra offices

Sites and staffing

The department’s Canberra office operations includes major office tenancies in the John Gorton Building in Parkes and 33 Allara Street in Civic, an office sublease at Lovett Tower in Woden and a warehouse in Queanbeyan. The total number of staff (FTE) located in these offices increased by nine per cent from 2011–12.

Environmental management framework

The department’s Canberra office EMS provides a framework and methodical approach to planning, implementing and reviewing efforts to reduce negative environmental impacts. The Canberra office EMS has maintained certification to the international standard for Environmental Management Systems (ISO14001:2004) since 1999.

During 2012–13 the department continued to improve the environmental management of the office operations in the Canberra offices. The Canberra Environmental Performance Committee made significant progress towards new targets for the reduction of office electricity and paper use, greenhouse gas emissions associated with business travel, waste sent to landfill and procurement processes.

Energy

Office electricity use in 2012–13 decreased by 14 per cent overall due to a major lighting upgrade in one of the offices. Tenant light and power energy use was 4407 megajoules per person, well below the government target of 7500 megajoules per person per year. The department continued to purchase 100 per cent GreenPower for its sites in Canberra, resulting in an offset of 2324 tonnes CO₂-e in 2012–13.

The distances travelled by departmental staff in fleet cars decreased by 29 per cent. The Canberra pool car fleet was reduced over the year and continued to be comprised of predominantly fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles and one electric vehicle. Since 2002 all greenhouse gas emissions from fleet fuel use have been offset through GreenFleet - 67 tonnes CO₂-e were offset in 2012–13. The department also continued to provide a fleet of bicycles for staff to use in Canberra.

Resource efficiency and waste

The Canberra offices continued to participate in the ACT Smart Office Recycling Program. Improved waste management practices and extensive staff engagement continued to result in a reduction in the waste sent to landfill. In 2012–13, 85 per cent of all office waste was diverted from landfill.

The department continued to purchase 100 per cent post consumer recycled copy paper. There was a reduction of 14 per cent per person in the amount of copy paper ordered from 2011–12 to 2012–13.

Water

Although the Canberra offices used 1293 kilolitres more potable water in 2012–13 than in 2011–12, due to the larger staff numbers this still represents a reduction of two per cent water use per person. The department continues to implement water-saving measures in all of its Canberra Offices including grey water recycling and the use of non-potable water for the water feature at the John Gorton Building.

Table 4: Summary of environmental indicators—Canberra offices

Indicator	2010–11 Result	2011–12 Result	2012–13 Result	% Change
Staffing
Average staffing levels (full time equivalent)	1460	1614	1765	9%
Office/building energy use
Total office tenant light and power	9 521 863 MJ	9 055 480 MJ	7 777 019 MJ	-14%
Tenant light and power per person	6524 MJ/FTE	5610 MJ/FTE	4407 MJ/FTE	-21%
Tenant light and power per square metre	253 MJ/m^2	240 MJ/m^2	206 MJ/m^2	-14%
Total base building energy use	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Base building energy use by area	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Building energy use (electricity and gas): Laboratories Public Buildings Accommodation Warehouse	n/a n/a n/a 128 873 MJ	n/a n/a n/a 52 005 MJ	n/a n/a n/a 115 276 MJ	n/a n/a n/a 122%
GreenPower purchased as a proportion of total electricity purchased	100%	100%	100%	0%
Renewable energy generated	0 MJ	0 MJ	0 MJ	0%
Transport
Total number of fleet vehicles by location: Canberra pool cars Other fleet cars	15 10	15 11	9 11	-40% 0%
Total number of operational vehicles	n/a	2	2	0%
Average green vehicle guide (GVG) rating of fleet vehicles by location (score out of 20): Canberra pool cars Other fleet cars	17.0 10.6	16.7 9.8	16.9 9.4	1% -4%
Average fuel consumption of fleet vehicles by location: Canberra pool cars Other fleet cars	6.8 L/100 km 10.4 L/100 km	6.0 L/100 km 10.6 L/100 km	7.6 L/100 km 10.8 L/100 km	27% 2%
Fleet vehicle fuel consumption by type: Unleaded petrol E10 petrol Diesel LPG	6799 L 6013 L 20 430 L 498 L	8297 L 6758 L 19 246 L 0 L	8552 L 3623 L 13 086 L 0 L	3% -46% -32% 0%
Total distance travelled by vehicle fleet	366 870 km	361 047 km	257 599 km	-29%
Greenhouse gas emissions
Greenhouse gas emissions (after offsets) attributed to office tenant light and power	0 t CO2-e	0 t CO2-e	0 t CO2-e	0%
Greenhouse gas emissions attributed to base building energy use	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Greenhouse gas emissions (after offsets) attributed to energy used by: Laboratories Public buildings Accommodation Other—warehouse	n/a n/a n/a 0 t CO2-e	n/a n/a n/a 0 t CO2-e	n/a n/a n/a 0 t CO2-e	n/a n/a n/a 0%
Greenhouse gas emissions (after offsets) attributed to fleet vehicles	0 t CO2-e	0 t CO2-e	0 t CO2-e	0%
Greenhouse gas emissions attributed to operational aircraft use	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Total greenhouse gas emissions after offsets (not including commercial flights and waste)	0 t CO2-e	0 t CO2-e	0 t CO2-e	0%
Total greenhouse gas emissions after offsets (not including commercial flights and waste) per person	0 t CO2-e/FTE	0 t CO2-e/FTE	0 t CO2-e/FTE	0%
Water consumption
Total metered potable office water use	18 514 kL	17 991 kL	19 284 kL	9%
Total metered potable office water use per person	13 kL/FTE	11 kL/FTE	11 kL/FTE	-2%
Total metered potable office water use by area	0.48 kL/m^2	0.48 kL/m^2	0.51 kL/m^2	7%
Resource efficiency and waste
Internal copy paper per person	13.4 reams/FTE	10.9 reams/FTE	9.3 reams/FTE	-14%
Percentage of paper purchased with post consumer recycled content	100%	100%	100%	0%
Office paper recycled	119.0 t	111.7 t	137.4 t	23%
Other waste sent to recycling facilities (excluding office paper): Cardboard Co-mingled office waste Organic waste	12.4 t 35.3 t 30.0 t	14.2 t 34.1 t 23.7 t	16.0 t 25.3 t 27.7 t	12% -26% 17%
Waste sent to landfill	53.3 t	44.7 t	35.8 t	-20%
Total waste production	250.0 t	228.5 t	242.2 t	6%
Total waste produced per person	n/a	n/a	23.3 kg/FTE	n/a
Total waste recycled per person	n/a	n/a	134.1 kg/FTE	n/a
Proportion of waste diverted from landfill	79%	80%	85%	6%

Notes:

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  For work health and safety reasons, the department’s waste provider changed the pickup, weighing and reporting arrangements for the waste to landfill, cardboard and co-mingled recycling streams during the reporting period. This data is not directly comparable to previous year’s data.
  
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  Fuel quality testing vans have been separated from the passenger fleet and reported as operational vehicles resulting in a minor update to the vehicle indicators.