Environmental sustainability
The journey towards a more sustainable Mater began in 2007 when a range of legislations were introduced. Legislations included The National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007, the state legislation of Clean Energy Act 2008 and the associated Smart Energy Savings Program.
Mater Board members became aware of these requirements in late 2007 and identified areas to be addressed in the 2011-2015 strategic plan. The plan states:
“Mater will increase its activities to ensure we optimise our position as responsible corporate citizens. Initially we will work to reduce our water usage before increasing the scope of our activities to other areas such as energy, recycling and the effective use of products.”
The original focus was water, which was a requirement of the Water Efficiency Management Plan (WEMP), which was set by the Brisbane City Council—now Queensland Water Commission—in 2005. The plan stated that water use needed to be reduced by 25%. Mater’s Engineering Department commenced a retro fit of fixtures throughout the campus. Since implementation, Mater has successfully completed two audits and continues to report on a yearly basis as per the requirements of the WEMP.
In 2008 further work was commenced with the creation of a Sustainability Committee and then the full time appointment of a Sustainability Manager in March 2010.
The Sustainability Committee is made up of senior leaders across the different staffing disciplines. Currently, there is also two sub committees—Procurement and IT and Waste. In the future there is an intention to establish an Energy subcommittee to work through the findings of the Level 2 Energy Audit and subsequent lighting audits that are planned.
To accurately identify environmental improvements, Mater’s carbon footprint was measured in 2008/2009 and 2009/2010. It was predicted at this point that in 2010/2011 Mater would need to officially report its carbon footprint, in line with the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007.
In an effort to promote sustainability throughout the campus Griffith University and The University of Queensland were invited to assist in behavioural research and also assist in producing an Environmental Management System to comply with ISO14001 standards.
In all, 68 initiatives have been identified of which 30 have been completed, 23 are currently being addressed, 6 are not viable and 9 are on hold.
Some of the activities investigated and implemented include:
Energy
- Level 2 Energy Audits to establish how and where electricity is being utilised.
- Replacement program for air conditioning chillers across the South Brisbane campus.
- An electricity contract has been negotiated to lock in a set price for five years.
Water
- Mater has been successfully audited twice for compliance under the Water Efficiency Management Plan administered by Queensland Urban Utilities. As part of this plan a number of water saving initiatives were identified and implemented.
- Mater now has the capacity to store 315 500 litres of rain water in 24 water tanks across the Mater complex. The largest of these is located in the Mater Mothers' Hospital and has a capacity of 120 000 litres. It is used for toilet flushing.
Waste
Three different waste reports, (Kassulke, 2009; Hill, 2009; Mater Leaders Program, 2009), identified that segregation and waste generation were two areas where improvements could be made. In order to address these concerns a new waste management contract was put to tender in January 2011.
The new waste contract is due to commence in October 2011 with SteriHealth who have over 20 years of waste management experience As part of the new contract a widespread training program for all staff will be implemented over six months.
The program will involve new recycling streams for:
- Cardboard
- Paper
- Polystyrene
- Plastic Wrap
- Kimguard
- Comix
- Batteries and water bottles
Procurement and Information Technology
- Dual printing—Mater saved over 1.5 million sheets of paper by changing the printer setting to print on both sides.
- More fuel efficient car fleet—cars available are those that have lower emissions.
- Increase in the range of recycled and ‘green’ alternatives to stationery.
- Roll out of Virtual Desktop devices in place of tradition personal computers which will reduce power consumption.
Sustainability
- Carbon footprints completed for 2008/2009, 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 expected to be completed by September 2011.
- Environmental policy signed off by the CEO in March 2011.
- Staff behaviour change campaigns implemented to educate staff about ways they can reduce their impact on the environment while at work.
- Sustainability Committee launched the sale of reusable Keep Cups in July 2011 to reduce waste and highlight sustainability initiatives. The response to the Keep Cups was positive with nearly 1000 sold in four weeks.