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.