Ecological Footprint
For the past two years we have calculated
the ecological footprint (EF) of our full year’s operations. We were the
first in the Australian waste industry to use this technique to gain a
better understanding of the cumulative environmental impacts arising from
our business activities, and to measure our progress towards more environmentally
sustainable waste services.
The EF measurement, expressed in hectares (ha) includes:
- the area occupied by our operational sites
- land that has been disturbed by the harvesting, manufacture and supply of materials
- energy and services used in our operations
- potential future land disturbance due to climate change arising from the emission of greenhouse gases
Our EF for 2005–2006 showed a reduction of 15.6% ha on our 2004–2005 EF. This shows that we are effectively reducing the environmental impacts of waste management.
If we didn’t capture methane, our footprint would have been 182,398 ha or 110% more. Generation of green electricity helped to offset our footprint by a further 13,275ha.
