As part of Northeast Health Wangaratta’s commitment to improving our environmental performance, our Environmental Sustainability Plan 2019 – 2021 has been updated and an Environmental Sustainability Committee established to support the initiatives to meet our key objectives and targets.
Within this plan we aim to:
- Conserve energy
- Conserve water and minimise wastewater disposal
- Minimise and, where possible, eliminate the use of harmful substances
- Ensure the correct and safe disposal of all substances
- Minimise waste generation through reduction, reuse and recycling
- Minimise pollution – noise, visual electromagnetic radiation, and odour
- Address environmental concerns in all our planning and landscaping decisions
- Encourage procurement procedures that adhere to the principles of our environmental policy
Completed initiatives- Energy, water and waste:
- Continued upgrade of lighting fittings to LEDs in Exit lighting over whole site (including Illoura residential aged care (RAC)) with additional installation of LED lighting in Kerferd unit/Pharmacy/Medical Records/Boiler house buildings
- Installation of two new Geoclima chillers completed. One chiller installed at Pathology/Outpatients Clinic and the other for Main Ward Block. New chillers consume significantly less power than previous
- Installation of a new Condenser Heating Hot Water Boiler and 6 pumps with variable speed drives at main Boiler house
- Run Site Generator on peak demand days and high grid demand days (5 days in total) as per energy payback agreement
- Installation of 359 solar panels to supply 140 KWs of power to Main site, Community Care Centre and Illoura RAC sites
- HPV statewide waste contract approved enabling a full complement of general and recycling streams available onsite from 1 July 2020
Future projects include- Energy, water and waste:
- Reducing water use of the main dishwasher in the kitchen
- More variable speed drives on pumps and supply air fans
- Regular features relating to sustainability to be included in the CEO Newsletter
- Clear signage throughout the organisation to guide staff on the correct way to dispose of waste
- An additional energy efficient chiller tender process currently underway to be installed in 2020/2021 as part of redevelopment early works package
- Closed switch transition project in design stage to increase sites electrical redundancy capability in event of supply distribution failure
- The NHW Environmental Sustainability Committee has been planning to host a week dedicated to raising staff awareness, providing education and showcasing all the improvements across the health service in 2021.
Energy, Water and Waste Performance (Presented to the NHW Board of Directors – October 2020)
