GOING GREEN ON A BUDGET

VCOSS CONFERENCE – AUGUST 2009

About Hanover• Founded in Hanover Street in Fitzroy in 1964.• Not for profit organisation founded to be

independent of Government or religious organisations

• Hanover was one of the first specialist homeless services in Melbourne.

• Provide accommodation and support services across 7 sites in metropolitan Melbourne

• $13 mill operating income (88% government) • 200 staff

Hanover’s Mission• To empower people who are

homeless, or at imminent risk of becoming so, to enable them to take greater control over their lives.

• To stimulate and encourage change in Australian society to bring benefits to people experiencing homelessness.

Context that Hanover operates

• Tight budgets with little capacity for discretionary expenditure

• Dedicated and hard-working staff, but time-poor to take on additional responsibilities

• Increased accountability and compliance requirements that drives a lot of organisational effort

Going Green - Question is not Why

• Few arguments about why we should if we want to be a responsible corporate citizen, but some of the whys for us include:

Board has included environmental sustainability as a KPI (with the % reduction of our carbon footprint p.a. as a measure)

Staff want us to do more as an organisation (77% of staff said it is important or very important for Hanover to reduce our environmental footprint)

There is growing expectation from government and the public that organisations take their environmental responsibilities seriously.

Need to identify ways to offset rising utility costs over coming years

The How is the challenge

• Hanover had a number of initiatives that were driven by staff at some sites e.g. energy audits, paper recycling.

• What became clear was the need to establish an organisational wide approach that would tap into the staff desire, but approach it from a strategic perspective.

What has been done to date?

Development of an Environmental & Social Responsibility (ESR) Strategy. This is a 2 page document that sets out aims and process. Focus is on environmental, but will include social responsibility initiatives.

Establishment of ESR Working Group to develop organisation ESR Action Plan

Held workshop at organisation-wide staff meeting that produced a lot of excellent ideas by posing the following:

Staff meeting workshop

Considering the constraints that exist (e.g. budgetary, time availability), what environmental measures could be implemented within Hanover that:

1) Would have the greatest impact, &2) Could be implemented with the greatest ease?

Some specific initiatives

• Office energy audits – free audits were obtained through energy supplier (AGL - used Carbonetix for audits). Resulted in a lot of easy to implement actions (e.g. remove florescent globes, switching off electrical appliances). In one office this led to a 20% reduction in electricity usage.

Some specific initiatives (cont)

• Energy/Water saving initiatives in residential properties that we manage- free audits are accessed through Envirosaver Home Health Check program (www.envirosaver.com.au) which recommends and fits a range of free products. Initiatives implemented include energy saving lighting, use of skylights, timers on hallway lights, insulation and water saving fittings.

Some specific initiatives (cont)

• Review of motor vehicle fleet – led to requirement for most program vehicles to have minimum 4 star Aust Green Vehicle Guide Rating (www.greenvehicleguide.gov.au). Also policy of vehicle changeover after 5 years for vehicles that have travelled low kms. Has minimal impact on resale value for small vehicles.

Some specific initiatives (cont)

• Acquired new multi-function printers: these had good energy ratings and has enabled us to reduce number of printers across the organisation. We have set all default printing to double-sided and plan to implement e-faxing.

Some specific initiatives (cont)

• Reuse of old equipment – some of our obsolete computer equipment has been provided to Green PC (www.greenpc.com.au) to be refurbished and provided to low-income users. Also old mobile phones dropped off through Mobile Muster program.

Some other tips Check with any consultancy firms that you use

to see if they are willing to provide any environmental reviews pro bono.

For those organisations that can access the DHS Whole of Government Contract arrangements for purchase of equipment, the approved suppliers would generally have had to meet strict environmental criteria.

Some other tips (cont)• It is important to get support from at least some

members of senior management, and if a working group is established, inclusion of a management rep may make the process easier internally.

• Access the many resources available on the internet e.g. Sustainability Victoria (www.sustainability.vic.gov.au).

• Greencollect.org. is also a good contact for reducing, re-using & recycling services.

Conclusion

• All that we have done to date has been with no additional staffing or consultancy cost.

• There is a lot of commitment to this issue, so it’s relatively easy to harness support

• At times we feel like there’s so much more we should be doing – just need to take it one step at a time and do what is managable.

Any Questions

• Please feel free to contact Wayne Gorst, General Manager Corporate Services on wgorst@hanover.org.au or 9695 8359.