Introduction

In 2017–18, the ABS continued its commitment to the principles of ecologically sustainable development as outlined in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).

In accordance with the EPBC Act, the ABS has two key roles relating to ecologically sustainable development. The first is the ABS’s responsibility for providing statistics on the environment and environmental issues to enable informed decision making. The second is the impact of the ABS’s operations on the environment and the action being taken by the ABS to minimise that impact.

In accordance with sub-section 516A (6), of the EPBC Act, the ABS’s performance is outlined below.

Statement of how the activities of the entity were in accord with principles of ecologically sustainable development (ESD)

516A (6) (a) How do the activities of the organisation, and the administration of legislation by the organisation, accord with the principles of ecologically sustainable development?

In accordance with the principles of ecologically sustainable development, the ABS pursues environmentally positive practices by:

• seeking to minimise adverse environmental impacts from its operations
• complying with relevant Commonwealth and territory environment legislation and the Australian Government’s environmental policies and initiatives
• working towards continuously improving our environmental performance.

The ongoing environmental considerations for the ABS are:

• targeting reductions in energy usage and the generation of waste
• complying with relevant Commonwealth and territory environment legislation and the Australian Government’s environmental policies and initiatives
• encouraging and promoting environmentally sound procurement practices in compliance with Commonwealth Procurement Rules
• providing for an environmentally sound workplace and implementing environmentally sound work practices
• monitoring our energy performance and green lease commitments and implementing processes of continuous improvement
• supporting and promoting an environmentally responsible culture.

Statement of how the outcomes Appropriations Act relating to the period contribute technologically sustainable development (ESD)

516A (6) (b) How do the outcomes specified in a relevant Appropriations Act contribute to ecologically sustainable development?

The ABS receives appropriation for the purpose of producing statistics that inform decision making on a wide range of social and economic matters.

The ABS works closely with the community and governments to further build information on environmental statistics, to complement the more established information bases on population, society and the economy. The focus of this development work is the integration of environmental statistics with Australia’s economic and social statistics.

For more information on ABS statistical publications and developments, please refer to the ABS website link

• Agriculture
• Rural and Regional Statistics
• Environment
• Energy
• Water
• Land
• Ecosystems.

Statement of how the activities of the entity effect the environment

516A (6) (c) What is the effect of the organisation’s activities on the environment?

ABS’s activities are predominately office based and have the potential to affect the environment through consumption of energy and water, waste production and waste sent to landfill. The ABS seeks to improve its performance by measuring and managing:

• energy consumption and greenhouse gas pollution across its offices
• paper consumption
• carbon emissions in transportation
• water usage
• waste sent to landfill, whilst increasing recycling of packaging and waste
• the procurement of environmentally friendly products.

In 2017–18, the ABS completed its cycle of lease renewals on ABS properties, with the exception of our warehouse property, and all have Green Lease Schedules designed to build a collaborative approach with landlords to managing environmental impacts of the ABS and the buildings it occupies.

The joint whole-of-building and new fitout refurbishment at our Geelong office is an example of this collaborative effort. The National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) rating for our tenancy is 5.5 stars. This is even more impressive considering the building was originally constructed in the 1950s to store wool.

Details of measures taken to minimise environmental impact (inc. mechanism for reviewing and improving)

516A (6) (d) What measures are taken by the organisation to minimise the impact of its activities on the environment?

The ABS has sought to minimise its impact on the environment through a number of measures, including:

Targeting reductions in energy usage and the generation of waste by:

• introducing activity-based work fitouts across all ABS offices to decrease office footprints by an additional 20%. In 2017–18, all ten of the ABS offices have been completed. This has reduced the environmental impact of fitout, furniture production, and the necessary operational services, particularly electricity
• reducing energy consumption and waste in fitouts where possible by including energy efficient LED lights and smart lighting technologies in all tenanted areas. New office fitouts include T5 lighting systems, incorporating daylight harvesting, to reduce consumption nationally
• the recent refit and base building works of the ABS Canberra Office is achieving an 86% recycling of building waste against a targeted 80%
• maximising the amount of furniture and equipment reused for all property fitout projects and where this is not possible, recyclable materials from damaged and non-resalable furniture have been harvested. The Canberra Project has recovered approximately 700 meeting chairs, 48 arm chairs/lounges, 15 ottomans for collaborative areas, and refurbished or reused meeting room tables, task chairs (1,250), tambours (300), monitor arms and lockers
• reducing the demand for paper and hard copies. ABS publications are available on the ABS website, and computer-assisted interviewing is used in place of paper forms where possible. We have also reduced the number of multi-functional devices (MFDs) in our tenancies to further reduce paper usage
• reducing the impact of travel on the environment. Improvements in video conferencing equipment and software, and increasing the number of video conferencing facilities, support virtual teams across offices and reduce the requirement to travel
• providing recycling services to all office based staff, including:
  • recycling paper, bottles, aluminium cans, steel cans, plastic and cardboard products in all offices
  • recycling mobile phones, batteries, polystyrene in all sites where contractor packaging removal was not part of the contracts or service agreements
  • maintaining organic recycling of kitchen waste at ABS House Canberra

Complying with relevant Commonwealth and Territory environment legislation and the Australian Government’s environmental policies and initiatives

The ABS has maintained its Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Energy Management Plan initiatives, developed in accordance with the ICT Sustainability Plan 2010–2015, which included for 2017–18:

• continually refreshing programs for desktops, servers and storage, utilising the latest available technology
• utilising “Print on Demand” functionality on all printers and MFDs
• utilising duplex printing and copying
• utilising reduced standby–timeout period on MFDs of 60 minutes
• promoting use of100% recycled content copy paper.

Encouraging and promoting environmentally sound procurement practices in compliance with Commonwealth Procurement Rules by:

• maintaining procurement of 10% green energy as part of the whole-of-government energy contract for ABS House and 10% green energy for the Sydney, Melbourne, Geelong, Dandenong and Adelaide Offices
• including environmental and whole-of-life-cycle clauses as part of the tender and evaluation process in most procurement activities
• leasing vehicles with 10.5 GVG rating in accordance with the Green Vehicle Guide and the further reduction of the fleet over the past twelve months from thirteen to nine vehicles
• procuring 100% recycled paper for general office use
• purchasing office equipment with a high energy efficiency rating.

Providing an environmentally sound workplace and implementing environmentally sound work practices

All staff have access to flexible working arrangements, which has reduced the need for staff to work at ABS offices full-time. This has reduced staff travel to and from offices, decreased the office footprint by an additional 20% and reduced associated office resources use, such as electricity, paper and furniture.

A knowledge framework, incorporating digital recordkeeping rather than paper records, has been implemented, with automatic recordkeeping facilities for ABS workgroup databases.

Environmental efficiency measures have been incorporated into the market testing process for new leases with the integration of Green Lease Schedules for each new tenancy.

Building management systems control lighting and reduce energy use.

Re-manufactured and recycled cartridges for photocopiers, faxes and printers are used wherever possible, and used printer cartridges are recycled.

Technological solutions are used to allow collaboration and sharing of information virtually rather than by hardcopy.

Monitoring our energy performance and green lease commitments, and implementing processes of continuous improvement

The ABS monitors its:

• office energy consumption for all sites
• Canberra office waste, including organic waste
• Canberra office water consumption
• national staff numbers
• office attendance
• national paper consumption
• national fleet operations.

Supporting and promoting an environmentally responsible culture

An environmentally responsible culture is fostered by supporting local Green Teams to raise environmental awareness and develop local initiatives.