FOOTPRINT

At Sustainable IT, we practice what we preach. Our strategy to reduce the carbon and environmental footprints of work and home:

• where possible; avoid use and the generation greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions;

• where use must continue; reduce consumption (though use reduction and improving appliance efficiencies)

• switch to a renewable, lower carbon or more sustainable source, which creates less GHGs;

• offset remaining GHG emissions with a Gold Standard offset scheme;

• at the end of useful life, recycle or dispose of the item responsibly.

 
The following measures have been taken:

Energy

• Electricity
  Our electrical power is 100% wind generated and Accredited Green Power supplied by Origin Energy. This ensures we have no electricity related GHG emissions.

• Gas
  It's not possible to consume gas without creating GHG emissions. But Origin Energy offer Green Gas solution to offset emissions through landfill methane capture. We subscribe to this scheme.

• Standby power
  Items using standby power are switched off when not in use. Careful analysis of our home systems revealed the air con system consumed 130W on standby, this was switched of at the mains to save an annual 1.5 tonnes of CO2 emissions and $239!

• Heating and cooling
  General space heating is provided by gas. Air-conditioning and supplementary heating is rarely used but provided high efficiency (5.5 star), reverse cycle, split air conditioners located in strategic areas. Use of electricity reduces emissions to zero through Green power use. We'd prefer the low power evaporative cooling, but not possible to retrofit in our property.

• Shade and ventilation
  We use window shades to reduce heating of the office area by the sun and use windows and fans to create cooling airflow rather than use air conditioning.

• Water heating
  Instantaneous gas heating (5.5 star) is used for water, this heats, on demand, only the water we need. It so efficient and cheap to run that the cost of adding solar panels is not easily justified.

• Computers and peripherals
  Using the Energy Star features built into all modern PCs, we set our equipment to switch to low power modes (usually Hibernation) when they are not used for more than 20 minutes.

• Web site & email
  We buy quality carbon credits to offset the electricity consumed by servers hosting this website and our email system. See the green tick at the bottom of each page.

• Energy management
  We measure all new devices for consumption with a PowerMate and monitor household consumption using an efergy meter. The efergy is good for managing power consumption in real time and for monitoring hidden consumption from hardwired standby items, like home alarms, air conditioning and heating systems, ovens etc.

  Water

• Rainwater
  Water is captured from the roof and stored in external and hidden bladder tanks. Using a pressure pump it is supplied to laundry and toilets, the irrigation system and the hose for car washing.

• Garden watering
  A drip irrigation system waters the garden from the water tanks - and from the mains when the tanks are dry.

Transport

• Cycles
  Cycling is the preferred form of local transport.

• Public transport
  For longer distances, public transport is taken.

• Car
  We own one car for the family, drive it efficiently as possible and offset the GHG emissions through GreenFleet.

• Air travel
  We avoid air travel for anything other than essential need and offset the emissions through the operators' schemes. We are researching robust and reliable quality offsets for our transport related emissions..

Paper

• Paper
  We purchase recycled paper (Evolve Office or similar, 100% recycled made from 100% post consumer waste), print only what we must, print on both sides, reuse single sided paper for notepaper and recycle all paper once we've finished.

• Recycled products
  We buy recycled paper products for the home and bathroom.

Garden

• Plants
  We are converting to a drought tolerant garden this winter, to reduce the need for garden watering from spring 2008.

• Raingarden
  We won a prize of a Raingarden from Melbourne Water. This will be installed in 2008 as part of our garden redesign.

Waste

• Print cartridges
  We recycle the used cartridges via a local kindergarten collection point.

• Organic waste
  Plant related food waste is processed through our worm farm.

• Recycling
  Aside from those items specifically mentioned above, we recycle all of materials through the local council kerbside waste collection.

• Cleaning
  We use environmentally friendly products where available.

We continue to look for new ways we can reduce our environmental impact. Natural Strategies is a good source of information.

These are simple steps we can all take at home or work to reduce our costs and our impact on the environment. We encourage you to try these measures for yourself.