The 2009 ECO-Buy Awards for Excellence in Green Purchasing were held at the National Gallery of Victoria on Thursday, May 20.
Following a key note speech from Bill McHarg, ECO-Buy chair Mike Hill presented the winners with their awards at a ceremony hosted by Rob Gell.
“Our winners are excellent examples of green purchasing in action. They are demonstrating strong leadership by reducing the environmental impact of their activities and setting the standard for the broader community”, said Mr Hill.
The awards highlighted that "state and local governments and businesses are reducing their impacts in environmental areas of most concern to Victorians – climate change, water scarcity and waste reduction”, said ECO-Buy Chief Executive Officer Hugh Wareham.
THE WINNERS ARE:
Victorian State Government Award – DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY AND FINANCE
The Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF) establish and manage state purchase contracts for the Victorian Government. Recognising that it’s important to engage with existing suppliers around green procurement, DTF worked with their sole supplier of stationery and office products to develop an environmentally preferable product range. This was undertaken in conjunction with ECO-Buy to ensure clear environmental criteria apply to the range.
DTF then promoted the new range not only to their own staff but to all state government by hosting a launch, presentation and supplier expo. This was attended by over one hundred staff from across Victorian state government.
To green Government tenders, environmental requirements and evaluation criteria were developed for the Desktop and Notebook Computer Request For Tender. This was a large and complex tender and included requirements for tenderers to demonstrate their environmental responsibility and respond against specifications covering the environmental performance of the product across materials use, end-of-life considerations, energy conservation and packaging.
DTF also reviewed the whole-of-Victorian-Government Request for Tender Procurement templates, and updated them to include stronger environmental criteria.
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Business Award – TOYOTA AUSTRALIA
Since joining ECO-Buy in 2005, Toyota Australia has implemented a wide range of green purchasing initiatives, including:
- Introducing an Environmental Purchasing Policy to provide a purchasing framework
- Modifying tender and contract documents to ensure that suppliers conform to Toyota’s environmental policies
- The inclusion of green purchasing into the TMCA Purchasing Environmental Strategy Report and Toyota’s 5yr Environment Plan
- Toyota Green Purchasing Guidelines rolled out to suppliers and made available through the supplier partner website
Key green purchasing achievements by Toyota in 2008 were:
- 100% of all key suppliers targeted were certified to ISO 14001
- The elimination of 99% of chemical ‘Substances of Concern’ from the supply chain
- The introduction of 65 new green products into Toyota’s internal purchasing list against a target for the year of 10 new products
- Toyota Australia Green IT Policy which stipulates that all future IT sourcing decisions consider the Life Cycle and include an environmental impact assessment
- The purchase of a single Regenerative Thermal Oxidiser for the ‘paint shop’ at the Altona plant has reduced CO2 emissions by 1212 tonnes per year
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Metropolitan Council Award – CASEY CITY COUNCIL
Casey City Council spent $4.3 million on green products in the 2007/2008 financial year. They are a first time award winner, and have achieved great progress over the last few years, particularly in the areas of greening council’s fleet vehicles, selecting high energy rated appliances, and using recycled paper, printing and stationery, as well as recycled plastic outdoor furniture, bollards and signage.
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Regional Council Award – Mildura Rural City Council
Mildura City Council spent $3.7 million on green products last financial year. This included purchasing a wide range of greenhouse friendly and water saving products, and over $2.7 million of recycled content products.
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Small Rural Council Award – Hepburn Shire Council
While they don’t have as great a budget available, Hepburn Shire Council’s $890,000 expenditure on green products is impressive, representing 4.7% of their total budget compared to the average 2.4% for all reporting Councils.
Per rateable property, Hepburn spent $94 on green products compared to the average $45 per rateable property for all local government members.
Hepburn Shire has made good progress in installing efficient lighting, purchasing 100% Green Power, and using recycled materials such as crushed rock, concrete aggregate and recycled content asphalt in infrastructure projects.
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Recycled Product Purchasing Award – Mildura Rural City Council
The winning council has purchased over $2.7 million on recycled content products, which accounts for 4.7% of their total council budget.
In 2007/2008 Mildura Rural City Council purchased impressive quantities of mulch and compost, rubber surfacing, and a wide range of products such as mobile garbage bins, outdoor furniture, animal shelters, decking and bollards made from recycled plastic. For their offices, Mildura purchase remanufactured toners and cartridges, recycled paper and publications on recycled paper, and a wide range of stationery items.
But it is in the infrastructure area that Mildura Rural City Council is really leading the way, using large quantities of recycled materials in road and footpath construction, such as crushed concrete and rock, asphalt with recycled bitumen, cleanfill, recycled road base and crushed glass.
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Water Saving Champion Council Award – Greater Bendigo City Council
Greater Bendigo City Council spent 1.4% of their total budget on water saving products such as water tanks, drought resistant plants and warm season grasses for sports fields, recycled water and irrigation systems.
Last year Greater Bendigo’s Environmental Task Force, made up of Directors, Councillors and the Environmental Policy Unit, made a special effort to deliver spending on water and energy saving upgrades in Council facilities, including toilets, child care centres and sports facilities.
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Greenhouse Friendly Purchasing Award – Buloke Shire Council
Despite their relative small size, Buloke Shire Council directed 3.5% of their total revenue towards greenhouse friendly products in 2007/2008.
Included in their greenhouse friendly purchasing was a 3 kilowatt solar system, downsized 4 cylinder cars and LPG vehicles, and over 100,000 litres of Greenhouse Friendly Certified BP Autogas.
It’s great to see a small rural Victorian Council punching above their weight in the fight against climate change.
Although it’s not included in their expenditure, Buloke Shire is also undertaking some great initiatives such as recycling sump oil for use in heating their local swimming pool. This is oil that was used as a lubricant in engines, and has been cleaned of contaminants so it can be used again, preventing the use of more non-renewable fuels to heat their swimming pool.
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Green Powered Champion Council Award – Hepburn Shire Council
In 2007/2008 Hepburn Shire Council purchased $45,000 of accredited 100% Green Power to power their 4 main Council buildings. This represented 0.24% of Hepburn total available budget – a higher percentage of budget going towards emissions-free electricity than at any other reporting member Council.
In 2001 Hepburn Shire Council audited their energy use and found that their main Council office, administration centre and the Daylesford Visitor Information Centre and Town Hall accounted for just over 20% of Council’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Switching over to Green Power was an action Council could undertake immediately to reduce their emissions, as well as demonstrate their leadership on climate change to staff and the wider community.
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