Reducing the environmental impact of government offices is a key direction of the government’s Sustainability Action Statement and VicRoads is the first government agency to volunteer to be part of this wider government initiative to show leadership to the community.
VicRoads, an employer of approximately 2500 staff across 80 office locations, has significant potential to contribute to the overall reduction of the environmental impact of government offices. VicRoads Eco-Office Challenge — a key commitment of VicRoads Environment Strategy — was launched on 8th December 2006 by Gary Liddle, Acting Chief Executive. VicRoads Eco-Office Challenge aims to reduce to environmental impact of VicRoads offices. Initial targets for 2006/07 are:
- Ensuring that 80 per cent of A4 paper purchased contains at least 10 per ent recycled content by June 2007
- Reducing paper consumption by 10 per cent per full-time equivalent per year on 2005/06 baseline
- Introducing and promoting waste separation across all buildings by 30th June 2007
- Investigating and identifying water initiatives that reduce water consumption Reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with VicRoads metropolitan vehicle fleet by 5 per cent by 30th June 2007
- Having at least 100 environmentally preferable products in the Stationary Catalogue by June 2007.
- Adopting the Australian Building Greenhouse Four Star environmental rating for new buildings and fit outs where feasible
VicRoads progress in reducing the environmental impact of its offices is available on the Reporting on the Environment page of this website. The Eco-Office Challenge builds on existing initiatives to reduce the environmental impact of VicRoads offices, including:
- Using recycled paper in photocopiers and printers
- Recycling paper in our offices Installing solar hot water heating at our offices in Kew
- Trialling rainwater collection tanks at some project offices e.g. Pakenham
- Committing to having 25 per cent of our 4-cylinder metropolitan fleet as low emission vehicles
- Offering discounted annual public transport tickets for metropolitan staff to encourage use of public transport
- Ongoing training of our staff in environmental awareness and management
VicRoads Eco-Office Challenge is initially being implemented in the four metropolitan offices, Burwood East, Camberwell, Kew and Sunshine. From mid-2007, VicRoads Eco-Office Challenge will be gradually rolled-out to all regional and project offices and depots. VicRoads initiatives to reduce resource use and conserve natural resources in our works programs are available on the Better use of Resources page of this website.
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