Environmental Procedures Report: Queensland Business Analysis

This report analyzes a small Queensland business's current environmental procedures, focusing on electricity, water, paper, and waste management. It identifies excessive resource consumption and proposes a series of practical solutions, including energy monitoring, water conservation techniques, paper reduction strategies, and improved recycling practices. The report also sets target goals for reduced resource usage and suggests implementing a team-based approach with rewards to encourage employee participation. Furthermore, it addresses relevant Queensland environmental regulations, specifically the Environmental Protection Act 1994, emphasizing the importance of minimizing environmental harm and adopting best practice environmental management. The report concludes by highlighting the benefits of these changes, including cost savings and a reduced environmental footprint.

Environmental Procedures Assignment
Part 1:
The resources used daily are electricity, water, paper, water filters and recycling.
Electricity – Last electricity quarterly bill came in at $1000. 3200kwh for the quarter, 35kwh
per day.
Water – Last water quarterly bill came in at $650. 250 Litres daily water usage.
Paper – A ream of paper is being used every two days.
Water filters – Water osmosis filters are constantly being used to test steriliser equipment.
Rubbish and Recycling – Whole machines are being thrown away at the dump
The current issue with the above resources:
 Electricity needs to be used daily, this is used with computers, lights, air-conditioning
and equipment testing. Most of the time lights are left on, air-conditioning is left on
overnight or its temperature usage is either too high or too low for ergonomic reasons.
 Water is constantly being used from flushing of toilets, watering plants, and testing
equipment. Freshly filtered water needs to be used in sterilisers, however when
emptying the clean water tanks, the filter water is disposed of. This can be reused.
 Paper is being used for timesheets and other printable material. A ream of paper every
two days is a lot for a small business. Most printable material doesn’t need to be
printed and can be digital instead.
 Water filters have a life expectancy of twelve months (depending on usage). Currently
they are being replaced every six months.
 Rubbish and Recycling can be improved. Currently machines that need to be disposed
of aren’t being stripped for parts that can be reused for repairs.

Part 2:
I have reviewed the last electricity bill from the last quarter. We have been billed at $1000
this quarter, we have used 3200KWh this quarter, this is 35KWh per day. That is the
equivalent of a seven-person household constantly using electricity constantly all day. For a
small business, when there is usually only two people in the office on the daily basis. We
have produced 2.92 Tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions (according to
www.switchon.vic.gov.au). This is extraordinarily high for a small business. At this rate our
daily usage will never decrease and we will continue to have a negative impact on the
environment.
Reviewing our water bill hasn’t proven to be much better as well. Currently our daily usage is
650 Litres per day. This is the equivalent of a three to four-person household. Again, this is
still quite high for a small business when there is only two people in the office at a time.
While this is going on, we are currently going through our water filters very quickly and they
are needing to be changed quite regularly.
We a currently using a ream of paper every two days. Not only the paper is being used, but
also the printer toner and the parts that are being worn within the printer. There are a lot of
documents I believe can be converted to digital format, rather than physical paper.
Machines are being disposed of as a whole. Most machines still have working parts, these
parts need to be stripped. While machines are being stripped, plastic, metals and electronics
need to be sorted as well.
We all need to do our part in improving our current environmental impact.
By improving our environmental impact, I suggest we implement the following policy for the
organisation:
 Installing an energy monitor and checking on a daily basis on how much energy we
are using. This will show how many kilowatts we are using.
https://reductionrevolution.com.au/collections/wireless-energy-monitors
 Checking the water meter at the beginning of the day and the end of the day.
Checking this daily will show if we are reducing our daily usage.
 Air-conditioning is left on approximately 24 Degrees Celsius throughout the year.
This temperature is the most energy efficient an air-conditioner can use.
 A check list is created for the last person to lock up. This check list includes, turning
light off in each room, turning the air-conditioner off, powering down computers and
devices and powering down equipment.
 To save on watering plants, transferring plants outside when it is raining will save
filling up watering cans from the tap and using the rain for the plants.
 Clean water that is being drained from a clean tank of a steriliser is now recycle to be
used in the next steriliser that needs testing/repairs. This will also cut usage of the
water osmosis filters.
 Any water leaks are to be reported to management and resolved immediately. This not
only causes a slip hazard. But a constant drip everyday adds up to the quarterly bill.

 Paper is only to be printed only when needed. By converting timesheets and other
unnecessary printed documents to digital means, this will stop the over usage of
paper.
 Machines that need to be disposed of, need to be stripped of all reusable parts. By
stripping parts, this also saves using brand new parts and spending money on parts.
Once all parts have been stripped, what is left can then be disposed at the resource
centre.
Target Goals:
 35KWh per day to 17.5KWh.
 650 Litres of water per day to 325 Litres Per day.
 1 Ream of paper every two days to 1 Ream of paper a week or more.
I believe these target goals are very achievable. With these current goals in place, this will
give everyone an idea on what we are trying achieve for the day, week or quarter.
To get everyone involved, we can assign different team members different tasks. By
assigning individual jobs to each person such as, recording and monitoring daily usage of
electricity and water. By recording our usage into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, we can all
review the results and monitor if there is an increase or decrease in our usage.
Administration will be able to review documents that don’t need to be printed and determine
which documents can be converted to a digital format.
As a reward for everyone getting involved in these new policies. I would suggest with the
money saved from what would be spent if these changes are not implemented. A Lunch or
Dinner or Activity to be rewarded to everyone that helped achieve our targets for the new
quarter. This will show everyone that they are appreciated and they will continue to do their
part if there is a reward in place.
With all of this in mind, meetings will be held that will show how everyone has participated
in the improvement of resource usage and if any changes need to be made. If team members
have any suggestions to the current changes or any issues regarding to the current changes,
they are able to report to the supervisor.

Part 3:
The business resides in Queensland and is governed by the Environmental Protection Act
1992 – As at 25 May 2020 – Act 62 of 1994 –
http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdb/au/legis/qld/consol_act/epa1994295/
https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/pdf/inforce/current/act-1994-062
The Environmental Protection Act 1994 lists obligations and duties to prevent environmental
harm, nuisances and contamination. The Environmental Protection Act 1994 also sets out
enforcement tools that can be used when offences or acts of non-compliance are identified.
The two primary duties that apply to everyone in Queensland are:
 general environmental duty – which means a person must not carry out any activity
that causes or is likely to cause environmental harm, unless measures to prevent or
minimise the harm have been taken; and
 duty to notify of environmental harm – to inform the administering authority and
landowner or occupier when an incident has occurred that may have caused or
threatens serious or material environmental harm.
The best practice environmental management of an activity is the management of the activity
to achieve an ongoing minimisation of the activity’s environmental harm through cost-
effective measures assessed against the measures currently used nationally and internationally
for the activity.
By following the best practice management, the business is able to propose and strategically
plan activities that will reduce any impact it may have on the environment. Continuing to
monitor resource usage and recycling habits. We are able to not only provide a more
environmentally friendly business, but also save money for these resources used.
When everyone complies by following the new rules and guidelines with the business, we are
able to achieve our goal by reducing usage of electricity, water, paper and provide better and
efficient recycling techniques.

References:
https://www.hunterwater.com.au/documents/assets/src/uploads/documents/Fact-Sheets/
Saving-Water/Saving-Water-in-Business/Fact-Sheet-Monitoring-Water-Use.pdf
https://reductionrevolution.com.au/collections/wireless-energy-monitors