Appendix C Ecologically sustainable development and environmental performance
Section 516A of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 requires Commonwealth agencies to report against two core criteria:
- how the agency accords with and contributes to the principles of ecologically sustainable development
- the environmental performance of the agency, including the impact of its activities on the natural environment, how these are mitigated and how they will be further mitigated.
How the department accords with and contributes to environmentally sustainable development
We do not administer any legislation that has a direct impact on ecologically sustainable development. The principles relating to scientific certainty and biological diversity are generally of limited application to our activities.
Our operations fall into five categories of environmental impact:
- electricity/gas consumption
- water use
- waste generation
- paper use
- transportation.
We continue to improve our collection and monitoring of data on energy use, water consumption, and waste management in all National Office buildings. We also assess the effectiveness of current processes through our procurement policy and the Green Lease Schedule to property leases.
Measures taken to minimise the effect of activities on the environment
The following tables provide quantitative information on measures taken to minimise the effect of activities on the environment and environmental performance data on our energy and waste production.
Table C-1 Energy, waste and water efficiency measures and monitoring mechanisms
Measures taken | Mechanisms for monitoring and review |
Energy | |
The following departmental offices have Green Lease Schedules in place:
| Conduct annual National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) assessments to ensure energy consumption is minimised. |
Building Management Committee meetings are conducted as required under the Green Lease Schedule. | Continue to conduct Building Management Committee meetings. |
Continue to reduce electricity through use of efficient lighting solutions, including sensor lighting and fit-out designs that take advantage of natural light. | Careful consideration of fit-out design. |
We participated in Earth Hour 2020. | Continue to participate in Earth Hour each year. |
Waste | |
Some initiatives promoted throughout our leased office portfolio include:
| Regularly monitor the amount of waste removed from Canberra based sites. Continue to examine new ways of reducing waste to landfill. |
Table C–2 Environmental performance indicators
Performance measure | Indicator | 2019–20 | 2018–19 |
Energy efficiency | |||
Total consumption of energy in buildings | Electricity consumption (kWh) | 2,510,556 | 2,993,150 |
Total consumption of energy in vehicles | Diesel (L) | 9,855 | 16,258 |
E10 (Biofuel) (L) | 2,848 | 3,524 | |
Unleaded petrol (L) | 9,369 | 10,082 | |
Total vehicle distance travelled | Motor vehicle distance travelled (km) | 270,408 | 389,042 |
Total air travel distance | Air travel distance (km) | 6,159,048 | 10,125,387 |
Waste | |||
Office paper waste production (National) | Waste-paper to recycling facilities (tonnes) | 149 | 165.8 |
Commingled recycling (including cardboard but excluding office paper) | Commingled waste to recycling facilities (tonnes) | 21 | 16.82 |
Landfill (Canberra Sites – sole tenant) | Landfill waste to ACT landfill (tonnes) | 65 | 82 |
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https://www.transparency.gov.au/annual-reports/department-social-services/reporting-year/2019-20-25