Sustainability Indicator:
Sustainability Covenant with EPA Victoria
Commitment:
To continue to achieve zero net greenhouse gas emissions from operations under City West Water’s control.
How we’ve performed:
This year our programs resulted in –10,364.29 tonnes CO2-e (net ‘negative’ emissions).
Our greenhouse consumption for 2007-08 totalled 9,153.74 t CO2-e, which is 709 tonnes less than in 2006-07. This is the result of the new IDEA plant at Altona not emitting any methane or nitrous oxide gases from the wastewater process. All other areas in the inventory reported a decrease in Greenhouse Gas Emissions in 2007-08, with the exception of ATP electricity use (Scope 2), City West Water fleet – diesel use (Scope 3) and staff public transport – train only (Scope 3). Furthermore, our head office emissions (from electricity, for example) did not increase.
We included a new measurement this year: Greenhouse Gas Emissions associated with recycling showerhead scrap from Community Showerhead Program.
Looking ahead:
We plan to continue to achieve zero net greenhouse gas emissions and are investigating several projects and programs to help us achieve this. By implementing programs such as increasing staff awareness, setting minimum standards for fleet cars and investigating the generation of renewable energy in our own systems, we aim to reduce the amount of offsets we need to purchase in order for our emissions to remain net zero.