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Appendix 9 Ecologically Sustainable Development and Environmental Performance
The Department has continued its commitment to ecologically sustainable development and environmental performance aimed at minimising the effect that the Department’s daily activities have on the environment by promoting:
- reusing and recycling waste and materials consumed by its activities
- complying with relevant legislation, Government initiatives and policies
- effectively communicating environmental responsibilities, initiatives and programs
- encouraging participation in the workplace and promoting awareness of environmental opportunities
- applying the principles of ecologically sustainable development to capital works projects.
Specific initiatives undertaken during the year to assist in reducing our environmental footprint at work included:
- switch off the lights in function rooms at the end of meetings
- turn off your computer and other machines each evening
- report leaking taps or toilets, installation of flow restrictors to taps and showerheads
- avoid printing emails and other documents if they can be stored electronically, or print only as much as is necessary and print doubled-sided documents as default setting
- print less often to save toner and use the toner recycling bins for empty toner cartridges
- buy recycled packaging and then make sure it is recycled
- put waste in the appropriate bins—paper, commingled and organic—and toner recycling facilities
- organic recycling of kitchen food waste
- reuse envelopes and stationery and plastic bottles where possible
- flatten and store cardboard packaging for future use or recycling
- promotion and monitoring of E10 (ethanol blend) fuel usage in the Department’s vehicle fleet
- participation in the Mobile Muster mobile phone recycling scheme
- purchase of 10 per cent green energy.
These initiatives have enabled the Department to significantly reduce its use of paper and water. For example, in 2008–09 the Department used 6.5 per cent less water per person than in 2007–08.
Monitoring of the Environmental Management System continued to be a focus during the year via the energy consumption monitoring through the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts OSCAR online reporting system.