Environmental performance
This section describes the Department's environmental performance, its management of the non-Defence domestic property portfolio in line with environmental legislation, and other cross-government environmental activities. The Department activated its business continuity plans in response to COVID-19 in March 2020. Throughout 2020–21, Finance advanced its COVID-19 Recovery Plan in accordance with health directives and related guidelines to return to normal work practices. The continued disruption to normal business operations is reflected in the Department's environmental performance indicators.
Departmental activities
During 2020–21, Finance undertook environmental initiatives in areas such as office energy use, transport, resource efficiency and waste management. Table 2 summarises the Department's environmental performance in 2020–21 as compared with 2019–20.
Office energy use
The Department minimises consumption of office energy wherever possible, including by using automated light switching and the power management features of ICT equipment. The Department’s primary tenancy, One Canberra Avenue, and our facility at Faulding Street, Symonston, use 10 per cent GreenPower, sourced through a cooperative government arrangement.
Transport
Finance employees are authorised to travel only when there is a demonstrated business need and when alternative communication tools, such as teleconferencing and videoconferencing, are an ineffective option. The Finance vehicle fleet is made up of departmental pool vehicles and executive vehicles. A subscription to Greenfleet offsets the associated vehicle emissions.
Resource efficiency and waste
Finance provides a number of recycling streams (including co-mingled, cardboard and paper) in all of its tenancies.
Organic waste bins were introduced to Finance’s ACT tenancies in November 2016. This initiative has diverted almost 19.7 tonnes of general waste from landfill. The organic waste is collected by a worm-farming company to be recycled into organic fertiliser.
The Finance printing system is designed to purge print jobs that are not completed within a set timeframe. Print jobs totalling more than 222,029 pages of paper were automatically purged in 2020–21, reducing CO2-e emissions by 1,732 kilograms. The default settings of Finance's printers are set to print in grayscale on both sides of the page and all spent printer cartridges are recycled.
Depending on site requirements, Finance uses a mix of different types of flow restriction and water-efficient dual-flush toilets to minimise water use across its tenancies.
Cross-government activities
Finance contributes to environmental outcomes in a number of additional areas in line with government policy and relevant legislation. This includes managing the COMCAR vehicle fleet and providing electorate office accommodation for parliamentarians. These activities are additional to those listed in Table 2.
COMCAR
In 2020–21, COMCAR continued to deliver on its strategy of ensuring an environmentally responsible fleet of vehicles. As at 30 June 2021, COMCAR has 84 diesel-powered sedans, 45 petrol/hybrid-powered sedans, 17 diesel-powered people movers/vans and two, zero emission, electric sedans in its fleet of 150 vehicles.
The diesel and petrol/hybrid-powered vehicles provide significant improvements in fuel economy and reduced CO2 outputs, with CO2 emissions reducing by approximately 60 per cent as compared to COMCAR’s previous petrol-powered fleet.
In February 2021, COMCAR began a two-year trial of electric vehicle technology and associated charging infrastructure for consideration in a future fleet strategy.
More than 60 per cent of the COMCAR fleet is regularly washed using harvested rainwater, which helps minimise potable water use.
Table 2: Environmental performance summary, 2019–20 and 2020–21
Indicator | 2019–20 | 2020–21 |
Office energy use a, b | ||
Total office tenant light and power energy consumption (kWh) | 1,660,992 | 1,739,629 |
Total office tenant light and power energy consumption (MJ) | 5,979,571 | 6,262,664 |
Office tenant light and power energy use per full-time equivalent (MJ/FTE) | 4,143 | 4,165 |
Office tenant light and power use per square metre (MJ/m2) | 239 | 246 |
Base/central building energy consumption (MJ) | 101,265,207 | 101,247,931 |
Base/central building energy consumption per square metre (MJ/m2) | 512 | 512 |
Greenhouse emissions attributed to office tenant light and power and base/central building energy use (tonnes CO2-e) | 19,552 | 18,731 |
GreenPower purchased (kWh) | 664,786 | 705,493 |
Non-office energy use | ||
Greenhouse emissions attributed to non-office energy use (computer centres, other properties and uses) (tonnes CO2-e) | 952 | 274 |
Vehicle fleet c, d | ||
Total number of fleet vehicles | 24 | 18 |
Total fuel purchased (litres) | 16,655 | 11,269 |
Total distance travelled (kilometres) | 163,332 | 104,662 |
Average fuel consumption of fleet vehicles (litres/100 kilometres) | 10.20 | 10.77 |
Total direct greenhouse emissions of fleet (tonnes CO2-e) | 38.81 | 26.94 |
Greenhouse emissions | ||
Total greenhouse emissions (tonnes CO2-e) | 20,513 | 19,032 |
Total greenhouse emissions per full-time equivalent (tonnes CO2-e/FTE) | 14.21 | 12.66 |
Air travel c | ||
Total number of flights | 3,287 | 425 |
Total distance of flights (kilometres) | 2,939,100 | 388,762 |
Potable water consumption b, e | ||
Total potable water use (kilolitres) Finance tenancies | 9,004 | 6,673 |
Potable water use per full-time equivalent (kilolitres/FTE) Finance tenancies | 6.24 | 4.44 |
Potable water use per square metre (kilolitres/m2) Finance tenancies | 0.34 | 0.25 |
Potable water use (kilolitres) Finance Owned Estate | 97,024 | 64,775 |
Potable water use per square metre (kilolitres/m2) Finance Owned Estate | 0.49 | 0.33 |
Resource efficiency and waste f | ||
Total office paper purchased per full-time equivalent (A4 reams/FTE) | 3.04 | 2.57 |
Percentage of office paper purchased with recycled content (%) | 88% | 89% |
Office paper recycled (tonnes) | 33.28 | 13.41 |
Total waste produced (tonnes) | 149.26 | 108.06 |
Total waste produced per full-time equivalent (kilograms/FTE) | 103.42 | 71.87 |
Percentage of waste diverted from landfill (%) | 47.90% | 46.90% |
kWh = kilowatt hour; MJ = megajoule; CO2-e = carbon dioxide equivalent.
a In 2020–21, Finance's leased estate property footprint remained unchanged. Where Finance had a sub-tenant, that sub-tenant's energy usage was excluded from the figures above.
b Finance is the landlord for 17 properties (Finance Owned Estate) and responsible for certain base building energy usage. In the 2020–21 reporting period, an additional eight Commonwealth Law Courts were added to the reporting data. The 2019–20 figure has been updated reflecting this change.
c The fleet and air travel data are for the period 1 April to 31 March in each year.
d 18 vehicles were recorded in annual FBT reporting between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021. The Finance fleet totals 18 vehicles (excludes the COMCAR fleet).
e Tenancy-specific water metering is not available in shared buildings, resulting in the use of estimates based on pro-rata calculations. The water data is also subject to adjustments for shortfalls in billing information where not yet available from the supplier at the time of reporting.
f Reporting of office copy paper includes A4 80gsm white paper only, with the 2019–20 figure updated reflecting this change in the methodology.
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https://www.transparency.gov.au/annual-reports/department-finance/reporting-year/2020-21-22