Greening the Games, Australia Creating Sustainable

Transcription

GREENING THE GAMES
Australia Creating Sustainable Solutions
for a New Millennium
Environment Australia
June 2000
Feature Stories
Table of contents
Building Green Venues
Building the Olympic Village –
Mirvac Lend Lease Village Consortium
Planning and Staging the Green Games
Making Contamination Disappear –
Enterra Pty. Ltd.
Foreword
Section 1: Australia – Home of the ‘Green Games’ . . . . . .1
Australia’s Greenhouse Challenge
Frog Count
The Green Games Torch
The natural green business nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Landcare joins the Green Games
Business Club Australia – Showcasing
Australian Industry at the Green Games
Delivering the Green Games: at a glance
Environment Management Industry
Association of Australia
The greening of the Olympic movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Section 2: Environmental innovation at the Sydney 2000
Olympic and Paralympic Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Sponsor Stories
Sydney’s green dream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Greener Power – EnergyAustralia
Closing the Loop – Visy
The Environmental Guidelines for the Summer Olympic Games . . . . . . . . . . .5
Hybrid Car – Holden
Land of Milk and Sustainability –
Bonlac Foods
‘Triple Bottom Line’ Accountability –
Shell Australia
Highlights of the Green Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
The green team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Bottle to Bottle – Coca-Cola Amatil
Cleaning Up – Cleanevent
Shining Steel – BHP
Environmental highlights of Homebush Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Eco-Manufacturing – Fuji Xerox
Recycling in Action – Ramler Furniture
The Olympic spotlight falls on waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
Measuring and passing on Green Games knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
Case Studies
Sun and wind – Solar Sailor
Section 3: Highlights of Australian green innovation
Sunny side up – Solahart
Chasing global markets – Geo2 Ltd
beyond the games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
Water quality rescue – Taronga Zoo
Waste to energy –
Landfill Management Systems
Seeking scientific solutions for sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
The innovation incubator –
Australian Technology Park
More innovation through cooperative research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38
Big-time worm farms – Vermitech
Reusing waste –
Brightstar Environmental
Smart science shines through –
University of UNSW Photovoltaics
Water management for life –
Atlantis Corporation
Micro hydro electric system – APACE
and the Rainbow Power Company
Tackling stormwater –
CDS Technologies
The biodiversity business –
Earth Sanctuaries
The world’s natural theme park –
Ecotourism
Green business case studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39
Contacting Australian green businesses and industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56
Section 4: The Green Games legacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57
Australia – 2000 and beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57
Section 5: Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59
Minister's foreword
Sydney promised to deliver the world’s first truly Green Games. Using
Australian innovation and effective partnerships this promise has been
successfully fulfilled and the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games
will achieve the highest environmental standards in the history of these events.
Never before has such an extensive environmental commitment for the Games
been put into action.
SENATOR THE HONOURABLE ROBERT HILL
Leader of the Government in the Senate
Minister for the Environment and Heritage
This report gives an overview of the substantial contribution made by many of
those involved in the construction, staging and environmental monitoring of
the Games. It also identifies and describes many of the major environmental
achievements at the Games and profiles some of the Olympic sponsors and
other Australian companies that are demonstrating a practical commitment to
protecting the environment through their innovation and enterprise.
In addition to providing a model for similar future events, the Green Games are
an excellent working showcase of many of Australia’s environmental
technologies and services. Our world-leading environmental capabilities
include site rehabilitation, waste minimisation and transformation, wastewater
treatment and re-use, energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, transport
planning and event management.
As governments, businesses and communities throughout the world intensify
their efforts to address the range of environmental challenges that they face at
the start of the new millennium, it is hoped that the type of practical and
sustainable solutions described in the following pages will become increasingly
important and useful.
Robert Hill
Minister for the Environment and Heritage
1
Section
IMAGINE a 60-tonne whale frolicking in a magnificent natural harbour at the
centre of one of the world’s most beautiful cities. It happened last year in
Sydney, Australia. This metropolis of four million people is
hosting the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games
in September and October, the Southern Hemisphere
spring. With a peak television audience for the Games
estimated at four billion people, Sydney’s deep blue
harbour is set to become the most-recognised waterway in
the world.
© News Limited 1999
Australia – Home of the ‘Green Games’
‘Alex’ the whale in Sydney Harbour
© Australian Tourist Commission
Sydney promised the world a ‘Green Games’ in 1993, helping it to win the
right to host the coveted ‘Games of the New Millennium’. Now the city, the
State of New South Wales, the Australian Government, and the whole of the
nation are ready to deliver the Green Games. This partnership will set new
environmental standards for both the Olympics, the greatest peacetime event in
the world, and the Paralympics, a parallel sporting extravaganza for athletes
with disabilities. Inspired in part by the Green Games, a dynamic new
environmental repair and protection industry is taking shape across the
continent of Australia. Green business is becoming big business.
Whales, dolphins, sharks, fish and other marine life have
all been returning to the harbour in recent years as pollution
and toxic contamination from two centuries of Sydney’s
growth is cleaned up. This precious and remarkable marine comeback is one of
many inspiring environmental stories that Australia has to tell.
At the heart of Australia’s rapidly emerging green industry is the global quest
for sustainability, which demands a new balance between economic, social
and environmental priorities. The aim is that each generation leaves a
healthy and productive planet for the next generation. Sustainability is the
ultimate challenge for nations everywhere, particularly as the global threat
from human-induced climate change mounts. At stake is nothing less than
the future for much of the life on Earth, including more than 6 billion
people.
1
The Natural Green Business
Nation
What is perhaps most remarkable is that Australia is diverse in its
uniqueness. From coral reefs to tropical forest to desert, Australia contains a
diversity of eco-systems and is rich in mineral and biological resources. This
endowment makes it an environmental superpower …
– Maurice Strong, ‘father’ of the Rio Earth Summit, Chairman of the Earth Council
and international champion of the Green Games concept.
Australia controls a vast swathe of the Earth’s surface, including 16 million
square kilometres of ocean. It occupies its own entire continent, and lays claim
to 42 percent of another, Antarctica. Along with the United States, it shares the
distinction of having the most natural World Heritage sites of any nation,
including the biggest of all, the Great Barrier Reef.
There is great wealth buried under Australia’s soils, with a treasure
trove of minerals ranging from precious diamonds to ubiquitous
coal. On the surface, landholders farm everything from traditional
sheep, cattle and wheat to exotic new crops like native crayfish,
‘bush tucker’ food, spectacular wildflowers and therapeutic teatree. Many potentially valuable biological resources are still to be
discovered, both on land and in the sea.
Great Barrier Reef
Kangaroo Island, SA
In keeping with its character of diversity, however, Australia lacks
many of the natural resources that help to sustain far more people
in much smaller countries. Fresh water is in scarce supply. Though
vast, the oceans are often nutrient poor and almost devoid of life when
compared with rich traditional fishing grounds in other nations. The soils are
fragile. Much of the wildlife is vulnerable.
Australia also is exposed to the impacts of most, if not all, of the world’s major
environmental challenges, and is aggressively pursuing sustainable solutions.
That means solutions that balance economic, social and environmental factors.
The challenges we face are key drivers for innovation and enterprise – and
Australians are an innovative people. One of the country’s leading educators,
Dr Ian Paterson, says that Australians hold more patents per head of population
than any other peoples aside from Scandinavians.
Kakadu National Park, NT
Blue Mountains, NSW
2
Paterson, the educational ambassador for the fast-growing Australian
Technology Park in Sydney (see separate story on page 45), cites pop-top drink
cans, the solar water heater, pre-mix concrete and refrigerated transport among
examples of Australian ingenuity.
The Greening of the Olympic
Movement
On display will be new technologies and management systems that will help
Australia and the whole planet to protect and to restore the natural
environment. Many of these have been used to develop Games venues costing
$US2.4 billion, or will be operating during the $US1.7 billion Sydney 2000
events. Olympic sponsors, among them some of the world’s biggest
corporations, have swung behind the greening of the Games with their own farreaching environmental initiatives.
The ruling body of the Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC),
has made the environment the third pillar of the Olympic Movement,
alongside sport and culture. Sydney is where this new green commitment is
being put to its first big test. The Green Games are a once-in-a-lifetime focal
point for Australia’s environmental achievements.
Cooper Creek and River Redgums at sunrise
These Games sponsors, along with the environmental innovators and
entrepreneurs of the entire nation, have inspired this special publication. The
aim is to celebrate Sydney 2000’s Green Games, to showcase the vast project
and the green initiatives of key sponsors, and to profile other exciting ecobusiness breakthroughs and opportunities in Australia.
Behind the success of the whole Games agenda is a vital partnership. It
includes the City of Sydney; the NSW State Government and its Sydney 2000
team of organising bodies; the Commonwealth of Australia and the IOC.
This core team is backed by a host of innovators and businesses that have risen
to the challenge of the first Environmental Guidelines for the Summer Olympic
Games. Sydney’s ambitious green guidelines – developed with the help of
Greenpeace and other environment groups – were forged in the wake of the
landmark Rio Earth Summit in 1992.
The green challenge has spread to every aspect of Sydney’s massive host city
responsibilities. These include: planning and construction of venues; energy
conservation; water conservation; waste avoidance, minimisation and
management; air, water and soil quality; protecting significant natural and
cultural environments; event management; merchandising; ticketing; catering;
transport; noise control; and other items.
In the seven years since Sydney won the right to host the Olympics, the
Environmental Guidelines have been at the heart of Games preparations. On
display to the world during Sydney 2000 will be the nation’s solutions for
sustainability, and its readiness to face the challenges of a new millennium.
The Green Games is a worthy challenge for Australia, and for nations
everywhere.
… the Olympic Movement is predicated on holistic principles of balance
between body and mind, between action and contemplation, between sport
and culture. It would be inconceivable for the IOC to divorce itself from
recognition of the desirable balance between the needs of the present and
those of the future. Expressed in more concrete terms, the IOC must seek a
balance between the needs of our generation and those of the next and
succeeding generations. It is, after all, the youth of the world who will inherit
the earth which we leave them.
– Richard W. Pound, Q.C., IOC Executive Board Member, 1993
The Pinnacles
3
2
Section
Environmental Innovation at the Sydney
2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games
Delivering on our promise of a ‘Green Games’ highlights Australia’s special
capacity to develop and apply innovative technologies, expertise and
partnerships to create the type of sustainable solutions that will be vital in the
new millennium.
– Senator the Hon Robert Hill, Minister for the Environment and Heritage, 2000
There is no doubt the 2000 Olympic Games will be the most environmentally
friendly Games ever staged.
– Michael Knight, Minister for the Olympics and President of the Sydney Organising
Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG), 1999
Never before in the history of the Olympic Movement have environmental
considerations being addressed so transparently or so comprehensively … it’s
very important that Sydney be remembered both in the Olympic Games and
the Paralympic Games for our innovation and achievements in the
environment.
– Sandy Hollway, Chief Executive Officer, SOCOG, 1999
The opportunity to integrate ESD into Olympic Games developments is one
that will provide a demonstration of environmental commitment that benefits
the whole community and provides a legacy for future generations.
– David Richmond, Director-General, Olympic Co-ordination Authority (OCA), 1999
Sydney’s green dream
The ongoing dream of the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games is to
turn green into gold for the city, the State of NSW, Australia and the planet. It’s
a dream that the corporate world is increasingly coming to share.
Global business interest is being driven by fast-growing, multi-billion dollar
markets for the protection and restoration of the natural environment; and
through the quest for sustainability, which demands that social and
environmental performance be accorded similar status to economic
performance.
The Green Games vision is a child of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero,
Brazil, in 1992. At Rio, the largest gathering of world leaders in the history of
the planet began to chart a path for ecologically sustainable development
(ESD). In the years since Rio, Sydney Games organisers have pursued this
sustainability mission with rare vigour.
© Olympic Co-ordination Authority (Bob Peters)
Turning the environmental vision for Sydney into a reality, however, was never
going to be easy. Consider the challenge. The combined Olympics and
Paralympics, spread over 45 days in September and October 2000, are to be the
world’s biggest-ever peacetime event. The stage and the show are both huge.
The logistics are daunting, even just in people terms. The figures for the
Olympics begin with 10 300 athletes, 5 100 officials, 8 000 members of the
Olympic family,
15 000 or more media representatives, 120 000 workers, up to 700 000
spectators a day and a world-wide television audience of more than 3.5 billion
people.
Stadium Australia
4
© Chris Hamilton, Atlanta GA
The Sydney 2000 Paralympics on their own have a bigger ‘footprint’ than the
Olympics did when they were last held in Australia, at Melbourne in 1956,
with 4 000 athletes, 3 000 officials, 1 300 media and 10 000 volunteers. As the
Games have grown, so has the need for an environmental revolution in the
business of delivering them.
The Environmental Guidelines
for the Summer Olympic Games
When the Sydney team bidding for the 2000 Games sat down to write their
ground-breaking Environmental Guidelines for the Summer Olympic Games,
they focused on the big environmental challenges of the modern era including:
•
global warming – caused by gas emissions from human activities, ranging
from smokestack industries, to cars, to land clearing. Growing
concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and other so-called greenhouse
gases are causing the Earth to warm at its fastest rate in more than 10 000
years, creating an international market for solutions that Australian experts
have estimated at $US700 billion a year and growing.
•
pollution – along with greenhouse gases, there is the pollution of the land,
the water and the air with a variety of contaminants. The science and the
business of avoiding, reducing and cleaning up contaminants is set to
continue as a growth industry in the early part of the 21st century, both in
Australia and in many other nations.
•
ozone depletion – high overhead is the depletion of the ozone layer, which
protects life on Earth by filtering most of the sun’s harmful ultra-violet
rays. This atmospheric guardian has fallen victim to pollution by gases that
were previously used extensively in industry and consumer products like
refrigerators and spray cans, with a massive hole forming over Antarctica
each year and reaching up to Australia.
•
resource depletion – happening all around humanity is the over
consumption of resources, which is accelerating as the global population
climbs upward from the current six billion people. Australia itself, with a
small population and a vast area, is well endowed in many of the world's
great trading commodities. But everyone on Earth shares the responsibility
of not wasting limited and often non-renewable resources.
•
loss of species – finally, there are the ongoing threats to biodiversity. The
planet faces the greatest rate of extinctions since the dinosaurs disappeared
65 million years ago. In this regard, Australia is a paradox. It is losing more
vertebrate species than most nations on Earth, but still has the ability to
save far more of its natural environment than most.
In the seven years since Australia promised the Green Games, the
challenges presented by these issues have become more and more potent for
communities, governments and businesses everywhere. Hand in hand with
the challenges, however, there are major business opportunities in
developing and implementing sustainable solutions.
5
Highlights of the Green Games
The Games organisers have not always received perfect scores from their main
environmental watchdogs, the locally based Green Games Watch 2000 and
Greenpeace. With a project the size of the Olympics and Paralympics, it would
be remarkable if they had.
But the Earth Council, headed by leading international environmental figure
Maurice Strong, has given Sydney’s preparations excellent scores during a
series of reviews commissioned by the Olympic Co-ordination Authority
(OCA). There are a number of Green Games success stories that stand out,
including:
•
turning a contaminated wasteland into one of the world’s great sporting and
recreational precincts, where thousands of people will live and play in the
21st century
•
Sydney’s Environmental Guidelines, which seven years later Greenpeace
still rates as being ‘among the most progressive environmental
commitments ever made’
•
solar power and energy efficiency initiatives, including the world’s largest
sun-powered suburb in the Olympic Village, and low energy use designs
for housing and other buildings
•
the on-site destruction of 400 tonnes of soil containing waste contaminated
with deadly dioxin and other toxic chemicals
•
the focus on public transport for the Olympics and the Paralympics,
including spending $US60 million on new rail connections
•
the protection of an endangered species, the Green and Golden Bell Frog at
Homebush Bay
•
the water reclamation and management system at Homebush Bay, where
sewage and stormwater will be treated, recycled and reused, reducing
demands on the mains water supply by 50 percent
•
the integrated waste management system in venues and the common
domain during Games time, controlling the waste stream from beginning
to end.
Arguably, however, the real success of the Sydney 2000 Games in years ahead
will be measured as much by changes in the culture of governments,
corporations and communities as by these more tangible environmental
outcomes. The home of the Green Games is meant to be an inspiration for
change everywhere.
6
The Green Team
Once a contaminated wasteland, Homebush Bay is now home to one of the
greatest sports complexes in the world. There is also a vast swathe of
parklands, and a whole new suburb that will house the athletes and officials
from nearly 200 nations, before a permanent community of nearly 5 000
people takes over when the Games end.
Achieving this outcome at Homebush Bay and in the neighbouring suburb of
Newington – on the site of an old military munitions depot – has demanded a
teamwork approach that matches the finest traditions of the Olympic
Movement. Above all else, it is teamwork that is delivering the Green Games
to the world. Many are sharing the vision, as well as the spirit of the Green
Games.
The team is led by Sydney 2000. It incorporates the State of NSW’s Olympic
Co-ordination Authority (OCA), which has primary responsibility for
designing, developing and managing Games venues and facilities to new
environmental standards; the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic
Games (SOCOG), which has primary responsibility for planning and staging
the Games; and the Olympic Roads and Transport Authority (ORTA), to
deliver the transport solutions posed by such huge events.
Other team members include: the Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee
(SPOC); the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC); the International Olympic
Committee (IOC); corporate sponsors for the Games; government at local,
regional, state and national levels; the wider environment management sector
in Australia; the green movement; and the community itself.
Some of the biggest corporations in Australia and the world have been rising to
the occasion as Olympic sponsors by moving to meet their own environmental
challenges, along with those facing the Green Games.
They include Ansett, BHP, Bonds, Bonlac Foods, Carlton and United
Breweries, Cleanevent, Coca-Cola Amatil, EnergyAustralia, Frazer-Nash, Fuji
Xerox, Holden, McDonalds, Olex Cables, Pacific Waste Management, Royal
Australian Mint, Shell Australia, Southcorp Wines, TAFE NSW, Telstra, Visy,
Waste Service NSW, Westpac and others.
7
Building Green Venues
When Sydney secured the right to host the sought-after 2000
Olympics and Paralympics – the Games of a New Millennium –
the challenge was to deliver on its promises to the world. A
high priority was Sydney’s environmental commitment,
featured in the Environmental Guidelines, which mapped out
a groundbreaking approach to implementing ecologically
sustainable development (ESD).
"The responsibility for ensuring that this commitment is
attained in the delivery of Olympic and Paralympic venues and
facilities rests with the Olympic Co-ordination Authority," says
OCA’s Director-General, David Richmond.
The OCA vision
OCA is preparing cost-effective world-class sporting and
recreation venues and facilities which reflect best practice and
environmental sustainability in their construction and
development. These facilities will be enjoyed by participants in
the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games and by the
community in the long term.
– OCA’s vision statement
Documenting green achievements at
the Sydney 2000 Games
To guide all who may follow in Sydney’s footsteps, OCA has
committed its achievements to a dynamic written record that
is still being updated and expanded. At the heart of OCA’s
Environment Strategy are three key areas of performance,
being:
• conservation of species
• conservation of resources
• pollution control
"These key performance areas are incorporated in OCA’s
planning, design, construction and operational management,"
says Mr Richmond. They are also reflected heavily in OCA’s
Compendium of ESD Initiatives and Outcomes, the crucial
record of all that has been done, that can be used into the
future by designers, consultants, public authorities, the private
construction industry and others.
In some cases OCA has achieved real breakthroughs. In others,
its efforts have revealed significant practical difficulties with
achieving the desired ESD improvements. These include cost,
design implications, availability of space, the commercial
availability of plant and ongoing technical support and
maintenance issues.
8
Environmental Highlights of
Homebush Bay
Homebush Bay is the core precinct for the Sydney 2000 Olympic and
Paralympic Games. The 760 hectare site is in the demographic heart of Sydney.
Stadium Australia
Stadium Australia is the venue for the Olympic opening and closing
ceremonies, the track and field program and the finish of the marathon and
football finals.
It will seat 110 000 spectators, the greatest number of people in the history of
the modern Games. After the Olympics and Paralympics it will be reconfigured
to seat 80 000.
"Stadium Australia achieves sustainable standards far above those of
conventional stadia", says sports architecture specialist John Whatmore,
Principal, Bligh Voller Nield – the Australian company responsible for the
design of the Stadium. A wide range of innovative design approaches and
technologies have achieved, in comparison to conventional stadia, the
following key results:
• 30% reduction in energy use
• 37% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
• 13% reduction in water use with 77% of water used either recycled or
collected on site
Energy usage is reduced by the natural ventilation of major spaces in the
stands, a move which cuts air-conditioning requirements; installing energy
efficient lighting and electrical fixtures; and using ‘gas co-generation’ plants to
simultaneously produce both hot water and electricity from gas. The natural
ventilation system utilises the natural buoyancy of warm air to expel rising air
at high levels in the stands, and pull in cooler external air at low levels in
individual rooms.
On summer nights, the louvres in these spaces automatically open to allow
cool air in through the building, thus reducing the temperature of the structure.
The following day the spaces are cool and the louvres are closed to emit hot
external air. This process is known as ‘night flushing’.
Stadium Australia not only reduces energy use, but the energy that it purchases
is ‘Green Energy’ meaning that it is produced using renewable technologies
such as solar and wind, that do not produce greenhouse gas
emissions.
Rainwater is collected off the rooves of the Stadium and stored
for cleaning and pitch irrigation, which both involve high
water consumption. In addition the Stadium has ‘dual water
reticulation’ enabling the more precious drinking water to only
be used where necessary, and other ‘grey’ water to be used for
things such as toilets and cleaning.
In order to achieve these features rigorous environmental
studies were produced. Of particular benefit was a Life Cycle
Analysis (LCA) report, which was commissioned to help
determine how the Stadium design would perform over its
whole 50-year lifespan, and also to help understand the true
environmental costs of all the materials used.
9
The Olympic Village
The Olympic Village and the wider suburb
of Newington will become a showpiece
new suburb for Sydney after the Games,
with thousands of permanent residents
living next to the sprawling Millennium
Parklands and some of the world’s best
sport and leisure facilities.
Features include:
•
permanent houses are designed to
achieve a 50 percent reduction in energy requirements and greenhouse
emissions compared to conventional dwellings
•
665 permanent dwellings will be fitted with rooftop photovoltaic cells
sufficient to generate household energy demands
•
50 percent reduction in potable water usage as compared to conventional
dwellings through water-saving devices and use of reclaimed waters
•
PVC use is reduced by at least 40 percent compared to typical housing
construction
•
construction waste recycling rate of about 92 percent achieved
Olympic Village and the wider suburb of Newington
The Millennium Parklands
Hundreds of hectares of parklands will be
one of the great legacies of the Sydney
2000 Games. Millennium Parklands,
comparable in size to Central Park in New
York, will not be completed until 2010. But
much will be ready for the Games.
Features include:
Olympic Boulevard
10
•
preservation of sensitive ecological
areas such as surviving woodlands,
saltmarsh and wetlands, including a bird
sanctuary
•
restoration and realignment of a sizeable
watercourse, Haslams Creek
Haslams Creek, Kronos Hill
•
planting of 51 000 trees, 408 000 grass seedlings and 178 000 shrubs –
with 98 percent of them being native species
•
network of up to 40km of pedestrian and cycle trails through 450 hectares
of parklands
•
conservation Management Plan to protect cultural heritage sites, with
heritage interpretation and environmental education for visitors
•
solar lighting in remote areas of parklands and energy efficient lighting
throughout
•
stormwater run-off to be collected, stored and distributed through the
parklands
Building the Olympic Village – Mirvac Lend
Lease Village Consortium
Two of the largest and most prominent property development companies in
Australia, Mirvac and Lend Lease, joined forces in 1995 to win the right to
build the Olympic Village for the 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In
accordance with their commitment to Ecologically Sustainable Development
(ESD), Mirvac and Lend Lease brought together eight prominent Sydney
architects to design a range of homes that showcase exceptional
environmental planning, including solar power and dual water supply.
Ecological, social, cultural and economic issues were taken into account in
ensuring that all aspects of the Village development were consistent with
the principles of ESD. These principles were translated into the following
series of objectives which were the basis for the planning and design
structure of the Olympic Village and the wider suburb of Newington:
• minimal energy use
• minimal waste
• maximising human health
• promoting bio-diversity
© Bovis Lend Lease
• minimal water use
• maintaining cultural significance
• creation of a vibrant community
• creation of a commercially viable development
© Bovis Lend Lease
Showcasing environmental technology in a residential development, the
Olympic Village and wider suburb of Newington are an inspired example of
world’s best practice. At the time of the 2000 Games, Newington will be
one of the largest residential solar powered developments in the world.
Every permanent house built before the Games will be equipped with roof
mounted solar panels. These photovoltaic panels will have the capacity to
generate one million kilowatt hours of electricity per year that will be fed
into the grid – in effect becoming a clean, green mini power station. Houses
will also be fitted with gas boosted solar hot water systems.
Olympic Village
MLLVC has also demonstrated a commitment to minimising or avoiding the
use of materials or products which deplete natural resources or create toxic
pollution in their manufacture or processing. All key materials used in the
development were therefore required to undergo a Life Cycle Assessment –
a world first for a development of this type and size. This process assessed
all materials for their impact on the environment from their initial state to
their end use or disposal.
Examples of chosen materials include non-toxic termite protection and
timber treatments; paints with low toxicity to improve indoor air quality;
reduced use of PVC; wool insulation within ceilings; five and six star energy
and water efficient appliances; and plantation softwoods and hardwoods
taken only from sustainably managed forests.
Mirvac Lend Lease Village Consortium hope that the ESD principles in the
construction of Newington will act as a catalyst for permanent change in
the housing industry – demonstrating that these principles can become
mainstream in a residential development.
11
When EnergyAustralia signed on as a Team Millennium Olympic Partner for the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and as
Official Energy Management Partner of the Paralympics, it accepted the challenge of one of Australia’s biggest
energy management projects.
In its Olympic partnership role, EnergyAustralia has been involved in a range of infrastructure and renewable
energy projects, including working on some of the main Games facilities at Homebush Bay.
Initially, this involved removing the large overhead transmission towers, providing power to parts of the City of
Sydney that traversed the site and then, undergrounding this high voltage electricity system, using a specially
developed cable for the project.
One key element of EnergyAustralia’s role as a Team Millennium Olympic Partner and Official Energy
Management Partner was to make the Games more environmentally friendly.
This has involved the design, development and operation of a 70-kilowatt rooftop solar power installation (the
biggest in Australia) on the roof of the Sydney SuperDome at Homebush Bay.
This installation, which operates separately from the SuperDome’s electrical system, is connected to
EnergyAustralia’s main electricity grid. It forms a key component of the company’s Pure Energy scheme which
also sources renewable energy from EnergyAustralia’s solar farm at Singleton in the Hunter Valley, which again is
the largest in Australia, and the Kooragang Island wind turbine in Newcastle, just north of Sydney. Renewable
generation is also taken from landfill gas power stations at Lucas Heights and
Belrose in Sydney.
The SuperDome is sourcing 100% of its power supply from the Pure Energy program, which is accredited by the
Sustainable Energy Development Authority of NSW.
The SuperDome’s use of power will not contribute to the Greenhouse Effect. By signing up to Pure Energy, it is
stopping more than 26 000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being emitted by a conventional coal-fired power station
over a five year period – enough to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool around 10 000 times.
One of the most visual symbols of the commitment to create a tangible renewable energy environment within the
Games area at Homebush has been OCA’s ‘Towers of Power’ project which will demonstrate to millions of
Olympic visitors the innovative and functional use of solar power.
EnergyAustralia won this multi-million dollar project to develop OCA’s designs, and construct and operate the
solar generators on the 19 multi-functional towers which illuminate, provide signage, shelter, shade and other
facilities for visitors to the Olympic Plaza at Homebush Bay, adjacent to Stadium Australia and Sydney
SuperDome. The towers, which feed
electricity back into the main grid,
generate approximately equal the energy
they consume in lighting the Olympic
Plaza area.
EnergyAustralia accepted and has
achieved the challenge of helping make
the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games more
environmentally friendly by its use of
innovative thinking, design and
harnessing the elements of nature.
© Energy Australia
SPONSOR STORY
GREENER POWER – ENERGYAUSTRALIA
Solar Panel on Sydney SuperDome
12
The Sydney SuperDome
The SuperDome is a multi-purpose recreational facility and Games venue that
can seat up to 20 000 people.
100 percent of energy used coming from renewable sources
•
photovoltaic solar cells are installed on the roof to provide energy back to
the grid
•
PVC eliminated from seating, floor and wall finishes and minimised
elsewhere
•
use of Eco Chart Ratings to assess total environmental impact of material
manufacture, use and disposal to select materials with minimal impact on
the environment
•
recycled timbers used inside and plantation timbers used for formwork
•
energy efficient lighting
•
Features include:
Sydney SuperDome
The Water Cycle
The Water Reclamation and Management Scheme
'Cutting edge technology with an emphasis on innovative plant design',
describes the Water Reclamation and Management Scheme (WRAMS), the
most significant water conservation initiative at Homebush Bay. The scheme is
specifically designed to minimise the demand for potable water from Sydney's
mains water supply and to minimise discharge into the sewerage system while
meeting health objectives, conserving water and minimising the use of energy.
The water recycled by this system will replace more than 500 million litres of
water a year or about half the water used on the Homebush Bay site.
Potable water to be used for drinking, cooking, showering, clothes washing and
firefighting will be supplied from Sydney's mains water system while
stormwater and sewage effluent generated at Homebush Bay will be collected
and treated on-site and then re-used for irrigation in parks and gardens, toilet
flushing, washdown and water features. To achieve this, two sets of pipes have
been laid to establish a dual water supply system. WRAMS also comprises the
13
construction of a wastewater reclamation
plant, a water treatment plant and a reservoir
for up to 300 million litres of water in a
disused brickpit at Homebush Bay.
Another key component of OCA’s water
management scheme was the requirement
that all Olympic venues be designed to
incorporate water-saving devices and
techniques, and efficient irrigation and
landscaping. For example, drought-tolerant
Australian native plants have been
predominantly used in landscape design at
Olympic venues because they can thrive on
less water.
Northern Water Feature
In addition, water efficient appliances and
fittings were used including water-flow
reduction valves, dual-flush toilets, efficient
shower roses and appliances, and drip
irrigation systems. A number of venue design features were also incorporated
to conserve water, such as the roof of Stadium Australia which was designed to
collect rainwater for use in irrigating the stadium field.
The Millennium Parklands
The Water Reclamation and Management Scheme will be complemented by a
water harvesting and reuse scheme within the adjacent 450 hectare Millennium
Parklands at Homebush Bay. Stormwater from the Millennium Parklands will
be treated before reuse or discharge into waterways, largely by water quality
control ponds that mimic freshwater wetlands, reducing both nutrients and
sediment in run-off. The existing water quality control pond at the Homebush
Bay site has been redesigned, and along with other ponds has been landscaped
with plants that naturally remove nutrients from the water. The ponds will also
provide some habitat for water birds. Gross pollutant traps installed upstream
of the water quality control ponds will remove litter and other material from
the water before it enters the ponds. In combination with the supply of water
from WRAMS, this water will be used to irrigate the Parklands and supply the
freshwater wetlands at Homebush Bay.
© SOCOG/Peter Ottesen
"The comprehensive water management
program at Homebush Bay will continue
well into the next century, which will
have long-term environmental benefits
for Sydney and be a catalyst for similar
water management programs around the
world," Mr Richmond said.
WRAMS
14
The Novotel and Hotel Ibis
Hotel operator Accor Asia Pacific has signed a Memorandum of Understanding
with the Australian Board of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to form
a beneficial relationship based on its twin hotels at Homebush Bay, in the
Sydney 2000 heartland.
This identifies mutual benefits, with WWF helping to ensure that design,
construction and operation meets agreed environmental outcomes, and also
assisting in environmental marketing of the hotels.
The operators will pay WWF $1 per occupied room night (indexed for
inflation) for the first five years of operation, with the proceeds going towards
wetlands conservation.
Features include:
purchase of 100 percent ‘green power’ for 10 years, and 400 square metres
of solar collectors for hot water system
•
all energy saving measures will deliver savings in annual energy
consumption of 40 percent over comparable hotels
•
measures to reduce transport reliance on private vehicles by 25 percent
•
waste will be reduced by 50 percent comparable to other hotel resource
consumption
•
in-house environmental educational television channel and information in
all rooms on sustainable attributes of the hotels
© SOCOG/Daniel Waeger
•
Novotel Hotel
Green and Golden Bell Frog
15
Planning and Staging the Green Games
Delivering a truly Green Games requires more than just
environmentally-sound facilities – the staging of the events must
also meet the highest environmental standards.
Unlike many other industries where environmental considerations
have become a regular part of management and where the use
of environmental plans and policies is quite common, the concept
of considering the environment in event management is quite
new. Since SOCOG is starting with the biggest event of them all,
the Olympic Games, it has been quite a challenge.
Venue Operations
SOCOG developed an environmental planning document
called the Venue Environmental Plan (VEP), which assists
venue teams to:
• understand the environmental features of their venue
• identify and evaluate potential environmental risks, impacts
and opportunities
• determine and document management responses to those
risks and opportunities
• develop a set of tools for venue operation which will allow
venue team members to undertake their duties and at the
same time achieve their environmental objectives
The VEP is supported by a number of SOCOG’s policies and
procedures dealing with venue operational matters such as:
regulatory compliance; energy and lighting management;
irrigation practices and use of reclaimed water; information
services; paper minimisation; and packaging and foodware
materials. The plan is an important element of staff training,
venue familiarisation and skills training.
Volunteer Venue Environment Managers on venue teams will
ensure that the facilities are managed to best environmental
advantage. They will provide advice and support to the venue
team, monitor and measure environmental performance, and
report on progress, outcomes and outstanding issues.
Olympic Overlay
Environmental considerations are just as important for the
temporary structures and services required during the Games as
for permanent facilities. These include: temporary seating, toilets
and structures, relocatable buildings, tents and marquees, fencing,
staging for ceremonies and indoor sports, temporary vehicle and
pedestrian surfaces, and additional building services such as
power supply, lighting and air-conditioning. A major objective of
‘overlay’ is to have components sponsored, hired or leased, which
means reduced resource consumption, wastage and energy use.
16
Visy Industries is the official provider of packaging and recycling services to the
Olympics. Visy therefore plays a large role in waste management at the Games, a
role that is crucial in delivering the promise of an environmentally responsible
Olympic Games.
Visy will provide full closed loop recycling at Olympic venues – providing not only
recycling equipment but also tailoring the waste stream with a complete, 100%
recyclable catering packaging range.
© Visy
All collected materials are valuable resources that will be turned into products for
reuse. Packaging recycled from the Olympics and the Paralympics will be remanufactured into packaging to be used again at other major events later in the
year, including the Australian Tennis Open and the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
Visy will also provide logistical assistance to the Games by supplying cardboard pallets
(which are recyclable after use) and other unique environmental solutions including an
exciting range of cardboard furniture and items such as signage for the ‘look’ of the
Games.
Through Visy Recycling, the company collects more than 700 000 tonnes of waste paper a
year, using it as feedstock for paper recycling mills. This is saving the equivalent of more
than nine million trees from being chopped down. With the extra waste generation during
the year of the Olympics, this saving will be even greater!
To the people at Visy, recycling is a matter of ‘harvesting the urban forest’. In cooperation
with municipal authorities, Visy has been moving into an integrated recycling service,
collecting and separating a variety of packaging.
Through another arm, Visy Plastics, the firm also has taken a major step into recycling
some of the half a million tonnes of plastic that traditionally has gone to landfills in
Australia each year.
"Visy Plastics is constantly developing innovative and practical markets for recycled
plastics collected at kerbside, industry and retail establishments," says the company, which
manufactures everything from garbage bins to concrete reinforcing mesh out of recycled
plastic.
The Australian Government has supported Visy with up to $US26 million in assistance to
develop a new state-of-the-art unbleached Kraft paper mill in the mountains of southern
NSW, a project worth more than $US260 million.
The mill is an example of world’s best environmental practice in Australia, with new
computer control technology improving its energy efficiency, reducing oxides of nitrogen
emissions and other discharges, and minimising water use.
The main source of energy will be biomass generation
using organic material from nearby plantation forests. And
the mill will use only plantation timber and recycled paper
feedstock in its production process. Unlike many such
mills, it will not use any timber from native old growth
forests, which is one of the reasons why the project has
won substantial support from environmentalists.
© Visy
SPONSOR STORY
CLOSING THE LOOP – VISY
17
Integrated Waste Management
© SOCOG/Bronwyn Rennex
SOCOG’s waste strategy, The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games
Integrated Waste Management Solution, aims to minimise waste
and achieve a ‘closed-loop’ system by controlling what materials
enter venues, providing separate bins for different waste
products, and then recycling or composting as much waste
as possible.
In public areas there will be waste stations with three bins. Two
will be dark red, for biodegradable material such as food scraps,
paper plates and newspapers, which will be composted in a
large-scale biowaste facility. The other bin will be green with a
yellow lid, for bottles, cans, plastic cups and food containers, all
of which will be recycled. New recyclable or biodegradable food
and drink packaging products are being developed to fit the
system, and both these and the bins will be attractive and colourcoded. Reminders from ‘Syd’ – one of the three Olympic mascots
– will help to convey the message at events.
Transport
The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games will create the highest demand
for passenger transport ever seen in Australia. Transport
strategies, such as having spectators travel by public transport,
will significantly reduce potential pollution levels and reduce
emissions of greenhouse gases. Tickets for events will cover both
entry to the event and travel on the Olympic transport system.
© Frazer-Nash
All buses in the Olympic Village will be powered by natural gas
(CNG), and electric golf buggies, some with solar cells on their
roofs, will be used around venues. A hybrid car will be
showcased in the Torch Relay.
Electric and solar assisted buggy
Sydney 2000 Olympic Games
Merchandise
The range of Olympic merchandise has minimal packaging, is
durable (and therefore unlike many standard souvenir items,
does not become waste quickly) and is made of materials
which, depending on the product, incorporate recycled material,
are reusable or recyclable, incorporate natural fibres and are
non-toxic.
Sydney 2000 Olympic Headquarters
18
SOCOG’s headquarters was refitted to environmental
guidelines. This involved extensive recycling of
materials, minimum use of PVC plastic, a range of
energy saving measures and a comprehensive waste
management system – including a commercial scale
worm farm which takes kitchen waste from the
cafeteria.
Olympic Park Station
SPONSOR STORY
HYBRID CAR – HOLDEN
Holden, the Australian arm of General Motors Corporation, will be unveiling a very special car in the lead up
to the Sydney Olympics.
The Team Millennium Olympic Partner has been developing a demonstration model of a hybrid electric car,
which could halve the fuel consumption of a typical family sedan.
While cars of the future are likely to run on electricity generated by fuel cells, it may be 15 or 20 years
before this technology is affordable for ordinary customers.
But hybrid vehicles, which combine two power sources to drive the car, are already appearing around the
world and could be fully commercialised within four to five years.
The design criteria for Holden's hybrid car include a reduction in fuel consumption and emissions by up to
50 per cent.
The demonstration model will be recognisable as a Holden Commodore, Australia's most popular car. But
underneath, lightweight materials and new technologies will help the unique vehicle achieve fuel
consumption requirements of the future.
The project is a cooperative development between Holden, Australia's peak scientific organisation, the
CSIRO, and local component suppliers.
In addition, Holden will showcase fuel cell technology using the Opel Fuel Cell Zafira to further support the
Green Games theme. Holden is also a sponsor of Greener Sydney 2000, which is a major tree-planting
project in the Games host city.
19
Olympic Sponsors Environment Network
The Olympic Sponsors Environment Network is a SOCOG initiative which provides a unique opportunity
for Sponsors to network on environmental issues by sharing ideas, initiatives and problems in a noncompetitive forum and to consider opportunities for joint activities and promotion. Topics discussed at
meetings have included: environment and the Olympic Games; the role of environmental groups; risk
management; media; packaging; waste management; life cycle analysis and environmental marketing
and communications.
The Olympic spotlight falls on
waste
Waste was thrown into the Olympic spotlight from the moment that Sydney
chose a degraded old military and industrial area called Homebush Bay to be
the centrepiece of its bid to host the 2000 Games.
Homebush Bay’s waste story began decades ago, before environmental
regulatory standards began to be taken seriously by business and the
community, when the bay area was like a magnet for dumping of everything
from household garbage to highly toxic chemicals.
The bay itself, a waterway which is linked to Sydney’s world-famous harbour
via the historic Parramatta River, was shaped by land reclamation that used
industrial and other waste as fill. Over a period of more than a century,
mangrove mudflats were replaced with reclaimed land enclosed behind rock
walls.
The legacy of all this dumping was a cocktail of contamination, including
dioxin, an organochlorine chemical with a reputation for being the most toxic
substance ever made by humans. Transforming this wasteland into a worldclass precinct for sport, recreation and residential use has demanded vision,
technical innovation and strong financial commitment.
Making contamination disappear – Enterra Pty. Ltd.
(formerly ADI Ltd.)
Enterra Pty. Ltd. is using a special soil cleaning process to dispose of the toxic chemicals isolated during
the Olympics redevelopment by breaking them down into their relatively non-harmful constituent parts.
The approach is based on technology that has been developed and adopted since the Green Games were
first conceived.
A crucial aspect of the technology is that it does not use any incineration. Australia opted for using
alternatives to high temperature incineration of contaminated wastes. Innovation in this area has been
driven by the lack of a high temperature incineration facilities in Australia (a situation applauded by
environment groups), and prohibitive costs of sending materials overseas for destruction by incineration.
Stage one of the Enterra process involves steam cleaning the contaminated soil, in a process similar to
dry-cleaning clothes. The second stage of treatment involves pressure cooking the material, at similar
pressure and temperature to a home pressure cooker. This has the effect of reversing the formation of
the target chemicals.
20
Leading Australian dairy company, Bonlac Foods, pursues sustainability-focused
innovation from the farm to the factory.
Bonlac Foods is the exclusive supplier of all butter, cheese, cream, milk and yoghurt to
official venues of the 2000 Olympics.
© Bonlac
Its long-term commitment to environmental best practice was a key factor in the
company securing its prized Supporter role at the Green Games. Bonlac’s Dandenong
plant was the first food company in Australia to be accredited to ISO 14001, the
respected international environmental management standard, and the rest are now also
accredited or progressing towards it.
Bonlac Foods also became the first Victorian food manufacturer to be awarded Accredited Licensee status by the
Environment Protection Authority. The licence, for the company’s Darnum Park plant in Gippsland recognises the
facility’s high level of environmental performance and ongoing capacity to maintain and improve its standards.
Bonlac’s Cobden plant in Western Victoria is currently applying for Accredited Licensee status.
In 1997, Bonlac became the first dairy company to commit to the Australian Government’s Greenhouse Challenge
Program and has reduced CO2 emission by 13.6% between 1994 and 1999.
Bonlac Foods provides a number of assistance programs to its dairy farmer suppliers including:
•
provision of incentives to purchase more energy efficient milk cooling equipment,
•
support and co-operation with the Target 10 and Landcare organisations in delivering wastewater management
and sustainable land management messages,
•
provision of technical advice for more energy efficient milk harvesting systems and effluent disposal systems,
and
•
development of an on-farm environmental system that will be an extension of the current ISO 14001 EMS
covering factory sites.
The company is aiming to continually improve the environmental performance of its facilities and future actions
being explored include:
•
incorporating energy and greenhouse awareness training into on-site environmental training programs, and
•
further utilisation of the site process control
system to enable increase energy monitoring
and management.
The firm’s overall commitment to
environmental performance awarded it with one
of Australia’s most prestigious awards in 1998,
the Banksia Environmental Foundation’s Gold
Award. In 1999, Bonlac won the Environmental
and Energy Management category in the
Rabobank Agribusiness Awards for Excellence
and in the same year reached the finals of the
EPA Cleaner Production Awards.
© Bonlac
SPONSOR STORY
LAND OF MILK AND SUSTAINABILITY –
BONLAC FOODS
Darnum Park
21
The cost of cleaning up the land controlled by OCA is about $US100 million.
More millions will be spent after the Games to remove dioxin and other toxic
contamination from the sediments of the Homebush Bay waterway itself,
which lies to the east of the Homebush Bay Games precinct. The waterway is
one of the few places in Australia where fishing is totally banned for safety
reasons.
The aim of this hi-tech clean up of contamination both on land and in the bay
is to turn the whole area into a major new waterfront residential precinct – one
that is safe for people and the environment.
At Homebush Bay OCA has created artificial mounds such as Kronos Hill out
of excavated waste. During the Games thousands of people are likely to walk
across these markers, and perhaps sit down for their picnic. That is a measure
of the success of the clean up at Homebush Bay.
Worm Farm
Such picnickers may find it hard to believe that in some places – beneath their
feet, and below the grass and soil – there is an impermeable sealing layer of
clay covering hundreds of thousands of tonnes of old waste. Surrounding the
base of such remediated areas there is a system that collects leachate and
carries it to a liquid waste treatment plant nearby.
During the remediation of Homebush Bay, OCA and its principal waste
advisers, Waste Service NSW, isolated nearly 400 tonnes of soil containing
contamination, including highly toxic materials such as dioxin. Disposing of
this cache was one of the biggest challenges for the whole Olympic clean up.
The solution used has won the praise of Greenpeace, which has long supported
disposal of all waste and contaminated materials on site, rather than shipping
them off to pollute another community. Greenpeace has described OCA’s
approach as ‘an example to the rest of the world’, that has used ‘cutting-edge
remediation technology’.
OCA has produced a video of its remediation efforts, entitled The Big Clean
Up, and another on the development of the sprawling Millennium Parklands at
Homebush Bay, A Growing Legacy.
The challenge to change behaviour
From a worm farm in the basement of the Sydney 2000 administrative
headquarters, to the clean up of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of old rubbish
and contamination at Homebush Bay, a rich array of waste issues have been
brought to the fore in Sydney. In some cases, new products
and technologies have had to be developed to solve key
challenges.
The Green Games goal is not just to clean up. It’s also to
change human behaviour, making sure that waste and toxic
materials are avoided and minimised wherever possible, and
are handled responsibly where it is necessary to have waste at
all.
The roll call of Games sponsors that are helping OCA,
SOCOG and SPOC to get the waste equation right for the
Sydney Olympics and Paralympics is a long one.
In the frontline of the Integrated Waste Management Solution
22
Minimising PVC use
For the business world, a clause in Sydney’s
Environmental Guidelines that requires the
avoidance or minimal use of PVC (polyvinyl
chloride) has proved to be one of the most
controversial issues.
Greenpeace International has targeted the
ubiquitous chlorine-based PVC as a toxic threat
to the global environment, partly because it can
produce dioxin when it is burned in an
incinerator or at a landfill.
While the Green Games are not PVC-free, they
are PVC-minimised, including an 80 percent
cut on normal usage in the Olympic Village.
The Royal Australian Mint, for example, has
produced non-PVC packaging for souvenir
coins. TAFE NSW, a major educational
network, has produced PVC-free training
folders and manuals, Olex Cables has produced
alternative cabling to bury powerlines on the
site, and Telstra has provided non-PVC
communications cables.
The search for better environmental outcomes
with plastics has not been confined to the PVC
issue.
Carlton and United Breweries and Southcorp
Wines are, respectively, producing plastic beer
bottles and mugs, and wine glasses in PET
plastic, a relatively acceptable form of
recyclable plastic from an environmental
perspective. Coca-Cola Amatil, meanwhile, has
built a whole PET recycling plant in Sydney’s
west.
‘TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE’
ACCOUNTABILITY –
SHELL AUSTRALIA
Shell Australia, an Olympics supporter, was a
natural fit for the Green Games when SOCOG
needed a fuel products sponsor.
As part of the global Shell Group, it has a very
public commitment to sustainability and a ‘triple
bottom line’ approach to business. "We take
economic, environmental and social considerations
into account in every endeavour we undertake," says
Shell Australia Chairman and CEO, Mr Peter
Duncan.
As part of this commitment, the Shell Group has
become a global leader in the oil industry for
recognising the threat of human-induced climate
change, and for committing to reduce its own
greenhouse gas emissions.
The company operates a major processing refinery
on the Parramatta River, within several kilometres
of the Olympic site, and tanker unloading facilities
on Sydney Harbour.
When a tanker accidentally spilled thousands of
litres of strong-smelling fuel into the Harbour in
August 1999, Shell won plaudits for its rapid and
effective response. It immediately accepted
responsibility for dealing with the event at its
terminal (the tanker owners have since admitted
liability for the spill and have paid for the clean up),
and made a strong commitment to cleaning up the
harbour.
One strong point for Shell Australia in handling the
crisis was its good relations with its neighbours,
thanks to a community consultation group
established nine years earlier. "Effective
communication and community consultation is vital
to the success of our business," says Mr Duncan.
© Shell Australia
They also include BHP with its recyclable steel,
Fuji Xerox with its eco-manufactured office
machines and recycled paper, Telstra and Olex
Cables with communications and electrical
cables free of PVC plastics and Ramler for its
innovative ‘cardboard’ furniture, which is 100
percent recyclable.
SPONSOR STORY
for the Green Games, covering everything from
corporate purchasing to composting, are leading
recycling firm Visy, Waste Service NSW,
Pacific Waste Management and Cleanevent, the
Australian company that also cleaned up at the
Atlanta Olympics in 1996.
23
Non-PVC cabling, Stadium Australia
Visy, the company which is supplying all of
the catering packaging to the Games, has
included PET plastic products which are
100% recyclable within its range. Such
products include sandwich and salad
containers and PET cups. The PET cup is a
new development and is a big step forward in
Australian public place recycling. The cup
development means much of the catering
packaging at the Olympics can be recycled.
A special ink designed for PET production
which is non toxic and food grade approved is
Non-PVC cables
used for printing on the cups. This ink is completely washable in Visy’s
recycling process.
McDonalds, the multi-national food chain that is another leading Olympic
sponsor, has been applauded by Greenpeace for its decision to phase out PVC
Australia-wide in the small toys included with its children’s ‘Happy Meal’
product. This means about 50 million toys annually. McDonalds has cited
Sydney’s Environmental Guidelines as the reason for the move.
Greenpeace Australia spokesperson Corin Millais said: "This is one of the first
examples of an Olympic sponsor taking up some of the environmental
standards of Sydney’s Olympics and applying them, not just on site, but
company-wide. We hope to begin a dialogue with the company internationally
to encourage it to follow McDonalds Australia’s lead and set an international
example".
The 3Rs for avoiding the waste mistakes
of the past
Waste handling has come a very long way in
Australia since the days when Homebush Bay
was a giant dumping ground. The aim at the
Olympics is to achieve a new level of
excellence for such a huge event, based on
the three ‘Rs’ of the waste business – reduce,
reuse and recycle.
Again, the mission is huge. Millions of
people will be spread across 38 venues over a
period of several weeks. Plastics, metal, glass,
paper and oils all need to go for reprocessing,
as will much of the office equipment and
furniture. Food, soiled paper and animal
waste will go to a biowaste composting
facility.
The ultimate aim is maximum materials recovery and minimum disposal in
landfills. Success during the staging of the Green Games will cement the
position of Australia, and companies like Visy and Cleanevent, as world
leaders in green event management.
24
When Green Games spectators drop their PET soft drink and spring water bottles in the recycling bins at the 2000
Olympics, the chances are the containers will be heading for a major recycling plant built in the host city Sydney
by Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA).
Using world first proprietary technology, CCA has developed a ‘bottle to bottle’ system for PET containers,
enabling the company to close the loop on PET recycling.
CCA has invested more than $100 million dollars in PET recycling and bottle manufacture enabling the company
to manufacture its own PET soft drink bottles with 100% of them made with recycled resin produced at its
purpose built PET reformation plant in Sydney.
"Consumers should think of the bottles as 'being on loan' and place them in the specially provided recycling bins
after consuming the contents," says CCA.
CCA is one of Australia's largest manufacturers and consumers of recycled content products with all its soft drink
containers and cardboard cartons made with recycled content.
CCA is also a large consumer of Green Power and through its purchase of renewable energy for its production
facilities and corporate headquarters, is contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gases and the development of
clean and renewable energy for all Australians.
Like many other Olympic sponsors, Coca-Cola has taken up the Greenhouse Challenge. As part of its
participation in the Challenge, Coca-Cola Amatil has developed a comprehensive action plan that will reduce
greenhouse gas emissions per unit of production. The plan contains a strong focus on operational energy
efficiency improvements at all bottling and PET sites.
As a result of actions already undertaken and from the actions identified in its Greenhouse Challenge action plan,
the company expects to reduce its CO2 emissions by 15.4% over the next four years.
While the company does not develop or manufacture cooling equipment, Coca-Cola is a significant purchaser of
coolers from a range of local and international suppliers. As a result, it has put in place an ongoing program to
select the best cooling technologies for the future, including collaborating with suppliers to ensure superior
technology, safety, performance and environmental benefits for its business and consumers.
A number of technologies are currently being pursued. One of these technologies is hydrocarbon refrigerants.
For example, in Denmark last year, Coca-Cola joined with the Danish Institute to conduct ‘laboratory’ tests of
single door HC coolers.
Results from those tests were encouraging. Consequently, the decision was made to continue field trials in
Denmark. In addition, Coca-Cola in Australia will extend these investigations to a trial of single door HC coolers
during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
One hundred single door HC coolers will be located in
competition venues at Sydney Olympic Park during the
Olympic Games. This means that 100% of the single
door coolers required by Coca-Cola at those high profile
competition venues will use hydrocarbon refrigerants.
The Coca-Cola Company is a Team Millenium Partner
for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. It is the longest
standing sponsor of the Olympic Games having been a
sponsor since Amsterdam in 1928.
© Coca-Cola Amatil
SPONSOR STORY
BOTTLE TO BOTTLE – COCA-COLA AMATIL
Coca-Cola Amatil PET Reformation Plant, Sydney
25
Measuring and passing on Green Games
knowledge
A strong focus on the environment is a relatively new phenomenon for any big
events, which means that SOCOG, OCA and others in the Green Games team
have had to pioneer much of their model.
Until now there was no ‘greenprint’ to pluck off the shelf on how to run a
Green Games. But host cities of the future will learn much from the successes,
and also the inevitable shortcomings, experienced in Sydney.
Every step of the process has been watched not only by the Olympic partners,
including SOCOG, OCA and the IOC, but also by community organisations
such as Greenpeace and Green Games Watch 2000. In particular the Earth
Council, through Maurice Strong, undertakes annual reviews of OCA’s
environmental performance.
There will also be a full Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of the Olympic Games,
undertaken with the help of major sponsor BHP, to help to develop the
greenprint that Sydney lacked. Under LCA, the environmental story of
materials can be traced from their creation to the grave, or more ideally, to their
rebirth through recycling.
In addition, a full greenhouse emissions audit of the Green Games will be
conducted under the Olympic Greenhouse Challenge program. This project
will record the greenhouse gas pollution over the entire 45 days of the Green
Games, in the three key areas of transport, energy use and waste. These
emissions can be balanced against carbon sequestration by the estimated four
million trees that have been planted in conjunction with the Games, through
Olympic Landcare, Greener Sydney 2000 and other initiatives.
Australia’s hope is that the green records it sets in Sydney will tumble
frequently at Games of the future, in Athens in 2004, and beyond. The ultimate
success of the Green Games, and of the partnership that created them, will best
be measured by others living the Olympic motto of ‘faster, higher, stronger’.
26
SPONSOR STORY
CLEANING UP – CLEANEVENT
Big events, big venues and big piles of waste are the stock in
trade for Australian based Cleanevent, the official provider of
cleaning management services to the Green Games in Sydney.
© Cleanevent
For Cleanevent, the answer to these big waste management
challenges is a cutting-edge focus on technology, recycling and
sustainability. Cleaning up at the 2000 Olympic and Paralympic
Games will be the company's biggest ever job on home soil.
One of the company's secrets to its success – at events ranging
from the Atlanta Olympics to the US Open Tennis to the
Australian Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne – is what has become known as the ‘closed loop recycling
process’.
The ‘closed loop’ is a cradle-to-the-grave approach, where waste is managed from event packaging – such as
drink cups, food wrapping, cardboard, food scraps and other items – through to its recycling or composting.
Steps along the way include a company developed software program that predicts waste type and quantity
based on spectator numbers, event type and length of the event, high level liaison with event stakeholders (ie.
catering and merchandising), and user-friendly recycling bins at events.
The idea is that every packaging material used at an event is pre-selected for its recycling or reuse potential,
with non-complying packaging being banned from use.
This year Cleanevent finally closed the ‘loop’ with the introduction of PET plastic drinking cups at
Melbourne's Grand Prix, providing another large-scale and high-glamour international sporting event as a preOlympic test.
Cleanevent operates in Australia and chooses to take with them their strategic alliances with other companies
in the packaging, waste management and recycling industries, including another Games sponsor, the Visy
Group.
The vision that Cleanevent brings to the cleaning industry has attracted interest from overseas investors, as
well as event managers, with the company now operating out of several international locations.
Cleanevent has forged an alliance with German-based Karcher Pty. Ltd. to supply equipment, with the partners
sharing a global commitment to research and develop environmentally friendly technology for the future.
© Cleanevent
In continuation of its relationship with the Olympic movement, Cleanevent is now providing consultancy
services to the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games.
27
Australia’s Greenhouse Challenge
If you are drinking out of recyclable plastic, or sitting in a
venue powered by ‘green’ electricity at the Sydney 2000
Olympic Games, it is likely that they have been brought to you
by a ‘Greenhouse Challenger’. This will be the first Olympic
Games at which greenhouse gas emissions will be minimised
at every level of the operation, and in which the results will
be measured to guide future Games.
OCA’s Towers of Power, Stadium Australia
Visitors to the Games will see the commitment to reducing
greenhouse emissions all around them. Projects like
EnergyAustralia’s 70 kilowatt rooftop solar power installation
on the roof of the Sydney SuperDome at Homebush Bay, and
OCA’s ‘Towers of Power’ that generate solar energy back into
the grid, will show some of the future of energy generation.
The steel for many of the venues has been produced by BHP,
using processes with improved energy efficiency.
Other companies that sponsor the Sydney 2000 Olympic
Games are members of the Greenhouse Challenge and have
made their mark in making the Games a greener event.
Carlton & United Breweries are producing PET plastic beer
bottles and mugs for use at the Games, and Coca-Cola Amatil
has built a PET recycling plant in Sydney’s western suburbs.
Other companies such as Ansett, Bonds, Bonlac Foods,
McDonald’s and Westpac are contributing through
sponsorship and changes to their corporate culture.
It’s very practical solutions to the problems of greenhouse gas
emissions like these that are features of the Greenhouse
Challenge program; solutions that are also helping Australian
industry to become even more competitive and to address the
environmental issues that we all must face.
What is the Greenhouse Challenge?
The Greenhouse Challenge program works through
cooperative agreements between industry and government to
reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions and to assist
industry to improve its bottom line.
Since 1996 the Greenhouse Challenge has assisted members
with support and technical expertise, and currently there are
over 250 members. Membership is entirely voluntary, and
organisations of all sizes and across a range of sectors have
joined the Greenhouse Challenge to improve their business
efficiency and environmental performance.
Already emissions in many Challenge organisations have been
reduced significantly. Progress reports are to be verified by an
independent observer, a firm called Det Norske Veritas.
28
Most importantly, the greenhouse challenge program has been
developed through extensive dialogue with Australian industry. This
joint approach has been one reason for the success of the program,
and gives a strong basis for discussion on other environmental
issues facing Australia.
The Green Games sign on to the
Greenhouse Challenge
When faced with the task of making the Games as green as
possible, SOCOG chose to sign an agreement with the Greenhouse
Challenge program. The agreement aims at reducing the
greenhouse gas emissions from preparing and staging the Olympics.
This means that the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games
will be the first ever to assess the greenhouse gas emissions from an
Olympic event.
SOCOG, assisted by EnergyAustralia, will measure the greenhouse
gas emissions for 60 days over the Games period in the areas of
energy use, transport and waste. These actual figures will then be
compared to estimates made before the Games. The analysis will
include the sequestration capacity of the trees planted as part of
Olympic Landcare. BHP, which manufactured the steel for many of
the Olympic venues, will also undertake a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)
of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, a study that will be very
valuable in staging future Games.
The savings in greenhouse gas emissions won’t be confined to the
events themselves. SOCOG’s partnering approach has encouraged
its sponsors and other related organisations to address greenhouse
issues in their operations. It’s another way of ensuring that as many
people as possible take up the challenge of addressing climate
change.
OCA’s Towers of Power
29
Australian-based resources group BHP, a Team Millennium
Olympic Partner, chose steel as the backbone of its
environmental commitment when it signed up as a sponsor for
the Sydney Olympics.
After eco-rating of construction materials, steel emerged as the
number one choice for Olympic venues by meeting or
exceeding environmental benchmarks, and by allowing
innovative design and building solutions.
Now steel is holding up the giant Stadium Australia, the
striking light towers at Olympic Park, the architecturally
innovative railway station that is the gateway to the Green
Games, the Olympic Village and much more.
© BHP
Architect James Grose, of the village design firm Bligh Voller
Nield, says: "It’s appropriate steel should show up in so many
forms and applications, given that this village is a blueprint for urban development for the new millennium."
Behind the steel is BHP’s commitment to life cycle analysis (LCA), which charts the environmental impact
of a product throughout its entire life.
BHP has been using LCA since 1992, before Sydney even won the right to host the 2000 Olympics. Such is
BHP’s expertise, that it is undertaking a life cycle assessment project covering the whole of the main
Olympic venue at Homebush Bay.
This comprehensive study is looking at the buildings and other infrastructure for the Games, their utilisation
during the events, transportation, waste management and the planting of trees to offset greenhouse pollution
emissions.
BHP intends to continue to develop and apply LCA in the future because of its value as a powerful tool for
reducing the impact of products and processes on the environment.
The story of steel is one of increasing energy conservation and recycling. Energy use in steel production has
been halved over the past three decades, while the metal has become the world’s most recycled material.
BHP does far more than recycle the steel itself. To reduce waste, it has generated a by-products sideline that
reuses gases, turns slag into road base and a corrosion resistant cement additive, and recycles in various ways
spent acids, iron oxide, water, tar and coal wash.
BHP is also a partner in Olympic Landcare, and
is running its own internal ‘Environment Team
2000’ program to change corporate culture. The
Team 2000 program promotes environmental
awareness and uses Olympic prizes and rewards
to recognise and encourage employees to develop
innovative environmental solutions on site.
© BHP
SPONSOR STORY
30
SHINING STEEL – BHP
Frog Count
The Green and Golden Bell Frog is Homebush
Bay’s ‘very own’ endangered species, whose
survival in a giant disused brick pit required
significant changes to the Homebush Bay
development plans, and a conservation program
costing nearly $US1 million.
The frog, adorned naturally in Australian
sporting colours of green and gold, has been
made the mascot for public transport education
ahead of the Olympics and the Paralympics. The
use of cars for the Games will be minimised with
spectators travelling on more energy efficient
public transport as part of their ticket price.
The frogs have also inspired part of the Olympic
2000 Schools Strategy, known as the Aussie Frog
Challenge, a program developed to encourage
students to enjoy lifelong, active, regular
participation in and enjoyment of physical
activity. The challenge includes a program to
develop awareness, knowledge, understanding
and skills that are vital to improving the quality
of the environment.
When a bell frog census was done at Homebush
Bay in 1994, before development for the Games
began, the estimated population in their
favourite haunt in the old brick pit was between
55 and 110.
One of the newer players in the Green Games
team is Australia’s Landcare movement, which
has more than 4 500 groups around the country,
involving nearly a third of the nation’s farmers in
voluntary conservation work.
Landcare Australia was created in the late 1980s
through cooperation between two peak national
organisations – a leading green group, the
Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), and
the National Farmers Federation (NFF).
Under Olympic Landcare, a project developed
with SOCOG, up to two million trees will be
planted around Australia, including 2 000 in 500
different places during 2000.
The project will showcase to the world the high
commitment of Australians to repairing their
local environments, and leave a Green Games
legacy of regenerated land, improved water
quality and carbon sinks.
A budget of about $US3 million has been
provided by the Australian Government’s Natural
Heritage Trust, and through Team Millennium
Olympic partners Fuji Xerox, BHP, Westpac,
Telstra, Visy and Channel Seven.
A number of these and other sponsors also have
joined SOCOG in signing on to the Australian
Government’s Greenhouse Challenge program, in
recognition of the importance of greenhouse
issues to the Green Games. They are Ansett, BHP,
Bonds, Bonlac Foods, Carlton and United
Breweries, Coca-Cola Amatil, EnergyAustralia,
Fuji Xerox, McDonald’s and Westpac.
Nearly five years later another count estimated
the population at between 600 and 720 inside
the brick pit and more than 1 000 outside,
suggesting the frogs have been thriving in the
midst of Australia’s biggest development site.
Landcare joins the Green
Games
Green and Golden Bell Frog
Olympic Landcare, Lithgow
31
The Green Games torch
ECO-MANUFACTURING –
FUJI XEROX
Australia’s green Olympic torch travelled into
space in May 2000 signalling the start of the
torch relay, on the long road to Sydney via much
of Australia’s vast expanse. Along with the five
Olympic rings, the torch is one of the great
symbols of the Olympic movement. For it to burn
brightly, through all extremes of weather, and
across many thousands of kilometres, is a design
challenge in its own right.
Fuji Xerox Australia, a Team Millennium Olympic
Partner, didn’t need the Green Games to
convince it to take on environmental
responsibility.
The local arm of the global Fuji Xerox group is a
long time sponsor of the Landcare movement in
Australia, which involves a third of the nation’s
farmers in land restoration and tree-planting
projects.
One special torch will even be carried on an
underwater leg of the relay, amid the splendour
of the Great Barrier Reef.
Indeed, when Fuji Xerox Australia introduced
SOCOG to Landcare, it led to Olympic Landcare,
and the planting of nearly two million native
trees.
Inspiration for the design and manufacture of
the torch was drawn from the ‘sails’ of the
Sydney Opera House, the subtle curve of a
boomerang and the waters of Sydney Harbour.
In its core business, Fuji Xerox Australia styles
itself as a leader in the delivery of ‘document
creation solutions’, and promotes a conservationfocussed business program called ‘Office Care’. Its
office products include photocopiers, printers,
digital printing and copying machines, as well as
consumer products such as paper and laser
cartridges.
To match that elegance, the internal workings
needed clever science to achieve environmental
aims such as fuel efficiency, clean burning,
recycling of fuel cylinders and recyclable
packaging. All this had to be achieved in a
lightweight construction, and it was necessary to
ensure maximum wind resistance.
To underpin its environmental commitment, the
company operates an eco-manufacturing facility,
returning spare parts and print cartridges to as
new, or better than new, condition.
The weight to be held aloft in the torch relays is
just below 1 kilogram. It will be lighter still when
people in the torch relay take them home as
memorabilia, because the gas containers
will be taken out first for recycling.
Xerox copiers used at the Olympics and
Paralympics will be 90 percent recyclable. The
official copy paper for the Games will be
Xerox’s ‘Green Wrap’, a 50 percent recycled
paper specifically designed for high volume
environments. Used laser cartridges will also
be collected for re-manufacturing.
At the heart of the torch’s function is a tiny
‘precision orifice’, a hole half the thickness
of a human hair, that controls the flame. It
must be perfectly round and able to be
reproduced exactly in all of the torches.
Achieving this level of precision required
laser micro-machining techniques
developed in Australia for use in
manufacturing drug delivery systems, gas
flow controllers, micro-electronics and
other micro-components.
Equipment requirements for the Games
include 1 200 copiers.
© Fuji Xerox
The result of SOCOG’s tough targets for
the whole process is an Olympic torch
which, while being beautiful and
functional, also embodies the
environmental principles fundamental to
the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
32
© SOCOG
Greenwrap Carton
Business Club Australia –
Showcasing Australian
Industry at the Green Games
A feature at the Business Club Australia centre at
Darling Harbour, Sydney during the Green
Games will be a technology showcase of
Australian industry.
This will portray Australia's key strengths as a
business destination, focusing on leading
industry sectors such as agribusiness, tourism,
food and beverages, transport, natural resources,
banking, health, and sport and recreation. The
environment industry of course is an integral
part of these, from sustainable transport
technologies to eco-tourism.
Business Club Australia's Manager of Industry
Showcasing, Michaela Southby,says, "We will use
the Club centre to demonstrate to visitors how
Australia is leading the world in ground-breaking
innovation, while promoting our key industry
strengths. The Club centre at Wharf 7 will be a
great setting for a dynamic, informative display."
The main industry showcasing display will be
enhanced by special displays brought in for
industry-specific networking events and daily
innovation sessions.
As Ms Southby commented, "Our aim is to
ensure that Club members and other VIP visitors
to the centre get a real taste for what Australia
can offer in terms of global trade and
investment. It's an attempt to raise awareness
and encourage business matching between
international and Australian Club members."
Environmental solutions have become a growth
area for opportunities for trade and investment.
Visit www.australiaforbusiness.com for an on-line
showcase of Australian industry expertise and
the Environment Management Industry
Association of Australia (EMIAA)
www.emiaa.org.au for on-line information
concerning goods and services that improve
eco-efficiency.
Delivering the Green Games:
at a glance
Goal: setting a new standard of environmental
excellence in staging an Olympic Games or any
other large sporting event.
Guidelines: the Environmental Guidelines for the
Summer Olympic Games, 1993, written for the
successful Sydney bid to host the 2000 Olympics.
Key performance areas: energy conservation,
water conservation, waste avoidance and
minimisation, pollution management and
protection of significant natural and cultural
environments.
SOCOG strategy: based on corporate
commitment to goals, integration of the
environment into the Games business,
partnerships for a team approach, education and
training for informed participation and
communication of ‘the story’.
OCA strategy: produced the five volume
Homebush Bay Development Guidelines series to
help developers, designers, land planners and
managers to understand and meet the
environmental guidelines. This work by OCA
includes the environment strategy, a
comprehensive environmental management
system, an environmental tendering code and
other initiatives.
Measuring success: performance can be
measured against the guidelines, previous
events, world’s best environmental practice and
benchmarking against existing practices in
Sydney.
Greenpeace rating: mark of 7 out of 10 in its
‘one year to go report’ in September, 1999.
Earth Council rating: mark of 8.5 out of 10 in its
Environmental Performance of the OCA Review
in February 2000.
Environmental legacy: better buildings and
infrastructure, improved products, remediated
lands and wetlands, new skills and knowledge,
green tendering and management systems and
increased community awareness.
33
SPONSOR STORY
RECYCLING IN ACTION – RAMLER FURNITURE
Waste is virtually non-existent with the recyclable cardboard furniture that is being supplied to the Olympic
and Paralympic Games by Ramler Furniture.
At the end of the Games the furniture may be a bit the worse for wear. But it can simply be collected, and
reprocessed as paper or cardboard.
With about 400 000 pieces of furniture needing to be supplied, installed, removed and disposed of, the
cardboard option for some of the job is looking like a Green Games winner.
The sturdy, but light weight cardboard furniture line includes chairs, desks, bookcases, vases, tables and
partitions. They are manufactured from 100 percent recycled cardboard, using a low-energy use process,
without bleaching or chemical finishes.
"Consideration of environment practices is becoming part of our everyday business," says Ramler’s Olympic
Project Manager, Aldis Sveilis. "Being environmentally sound makes good economic sense."
Ramler Furniture is also organising a Celebrity Art Auction in support of the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games.
Through this initiative Ramler hopes to raise much-needed funds by auctioning cardboard chairs, frames and
screens decorated by high-profile celebrities and artists.
Cardboard furniture is manufactured for Ramler Furniture by Visy Recycling, another Games sponsor.
34
© Ramler
© Ramler
The founding chairman of the Ramler Group, Mr Harry Ramler, was an original supplier of merchandise to the
1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. More than 40 years on, he is delighted to be renewing his association
with the Olympic Movement in Sydney.
3
Section
Highlights of Australian Green Innovation
Beyond the Games
With the high profile of the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the
world is set to learn a lot more about Australia – a land of sun and sea, with its
beautiful and rugged landscapes, vast terrestrial and marine wildernesses, and
fascinating species of plants and animals.
The sense of wonder that these natural attractions inspire among many of the
five million international visitors who now come to Australia each year is easy
to understand. So is their desire to experience the culture of the nation's
indigenous peoples, whose traditions may be the longest-surviving rituals and
lore that are still being practised on the planet.
But along with the wonders that nature and ancient human civilisations have
bestowed on Australia, come the impressive achievements of a modern,
innovative nation. These achievements – highlighted by enterprise, innovation
and excellence in the environment field – include many of interest to the
buyers and investors of the world.
At the Green Games, Australia is showcasing these achievements for a world
audience. Australia’s environmental capabilities and achievements are not
however limited to those on show at the Games. The CSIRO, Cooperative
Research Centres (CRCs) and many businesses have much to offer.
Core areas for Australian research and development, and commercialisation
include:
mining, emphasising minimising impact, site restoration, reducing
greenhouse gas emissions and pollution prevention
•
agriculture, including water use efficiency, salinity control, lowering
emissions to air and water, biotechnology, non-chemical pest control and
farming of native species
•
fisheries, including sustainable management of wild-caught stocks,
aquaculture alternatives and technologies to protect non-target species
•
forestry, including carbon sink opportunities, sustainable management and
plantation alternatives
•
Twelve Apostles, Victoria
35
•
cleaner production and eco-efficiency, including reducing emissions to
air, land and water, energy efficiency, waste minimisation, reuse and
resource conservation
•
initiatives to combat global warming, including leading research on
understanding climate change, renewable energy technologies such as solar,
wind and biomass generation, and the use of forestry and agriculture to
reduce emissions and sequester carbon from the atmosphere
•
water quality, including catchment and river management, changing
agricultural practices, treatment systems, pollution control, health issues
and demand minimisation
•
waste and waste water, including minimisation, recycling, reuse and
pollution reduction
•
biodiversity conservation and restoration ecology, including protected
areas management, threatened species policies, vegetation protection and
replanting and marine environment management
•
ecotourism, including job creation through protection rather than extraction
in sectors such as fisheries and forests, low impact commercialisation of
native fauna and flora and education of visitors
•
land management, including remediation of contamination, sustainable
farming, acid sulphate soil management, erosion control and salinity
measures
•
ozone layer depletion, including alternatives to ozone-depleting chemicals
Environmental technologies and management systems are now one of the
priority sectors for the Australian Government's main investment and trade
promotion arms, InvestAustralia and Austrade (see Appendices), and the Green
Games are rightly seen as a golden opportunity. That opportunity is to tell the
world that Australia is open for green business, and to showcase investment
options to explore along with Sydney Harbour, the beaches, the Outback, the
Great Barrier Reef and the nation's many other natural treasures.
Australia has developed arguably the best integrated national database
framework in the world for evaluating biological change on a local, regional,
and continental level … Few other countries have similar opportunities for
research, disaster prevention, cost reduction, and economic gain from a wellconstructed environment policy.
– American Professors James Brian Quinn and James F. Quinn at Australia’s 1999
Forum on Sustainable Development.
Cradle Mountain, Tasmania
36
Seeking scientific solutions for
sustainability
When a giant US life sciences conglomerate, the DuPont Corporation, wanted
to develop a cleaner, greener product for the $US5 billion a year global
automotive paints market, it found itself working with Australia's major publicfunded science organisation, the CSIRO.
The result is a world-leading new generation of paints for cars and trucks that
could revolutionise the market when they are released. Using controlled
chemistry techniques developed originally by Australian scientists in the
CSIRO's Division of Molecular Science, DuPont will change the way paints
are produced and applied.
This comes through precision control over the molecular weight and structure
of paint coatings, which is achieved by adding a special, low-cost reagent to
established paint mixtures. The result will be the significantly reduced use of
environmentally damaging solvents.
Best of all, similar technology is transferable to a far wider range of
commercial products, such as adhesives, dispersants and others. For the
CSIRO, this is one of the happy commercial stories for an organisation with a
big commitment to sustainability.
About a third of CSIRO's annual budget of $US500 million is directed towards
addressing environmental issues in one way or another, in areas including
agriculture, forestry, manufacturing and mining. Commercialising good
outcomes is a core aim of the CSIRO.
Another of the CSIRO's commercial hopefuls is a technological breakthrough
for predicting air pollution, much like we currently predict the weather. Using
meteorological data, the new system can forecast air quality down to a
resolution of 200 metres – almost one city block to another.
A pilot model of this technology from the CSIRO's Division of Atmospheric
Research is being developed in Sydney – which has a reputation for being
Australia's air pollution capital – in time for the Olympics.
Other promising areas of environment-related research for CSIRO include:
•
tree-planting to combat the salination of vast tracts of land
•
a hybrid car that runs on petroleum and electricity with very low toxic and
greenhouse emissions
•
indoor air quality improvements
•
low-emission agriculture
•
clean, green aquaculture
•
water quality breakthroughs
•
generating power for cities from coal seam gas
•
plans to store stormwater in underground aquifers for purification and later
use
37
More innovation through cooperative
research
World-class science by no means ends with the internationally acclaimed
CSIRO in Australia. There are a host of private research initiatives, university
programs and a variety of other government and semi-government facilities.
Also in the nation's scientific and innovation armoury is a network of nearly 70
Cooperative Research Centres, or CRCs, which unite the skills and resources
of government, industry and academic institutions to drive solutions-focused
research.
This network for collaboration is aimed at using science and innovation to
improve Australia’s economic growth and standard of living. Effective
commercialisation of the fruits of the nation’s research and development is a
critical challenge for the CRCs, and for the whole country.
Many of the CRCs have an environmental role. They include CRCs for
Sustainable Tourism, Reef Research, Freshwater Ecology, Sustainable Rice,
Catchment Hydrology, Terrestrial Carbon Accounting, Coastal Zone Estuary
and Waterway Management, Tropical Rainforest Ecology and Management,
Australian Cotton, Viticulture, Waste Management and Pollution Control,
Sustainable Sugar Production, Tropical Savannas, Soil and Land Management
and others.
The opportunities are enormous. If anything it is lack of investment and
commercialisation, rather than any shortage of imagination and innovation, that
is the key limitation on Australia's scientists.
There is a history of Australian inventions having to be commercialised
overseas – examples include the photocopier, the black box flight recorders on
aircraft, the orbital engine, the Synroc nuclear waste disposal technology and
the new anti-flu drug Relenza – because of inadequate investment support
within Australia.
Australia recognises that the dominance of major multinational corporations in
commercialising the fruits of scientific and technological R & D is a
competitive reality in a global economy. But there is a strong desire to build
partnerships around Australian innovation to ensure that both the inventors and
the investors are appropriately rewarded.
In acknowledgment of the crucial role that innovation will play for the nation’s
well being in the 21st century, Australia held a National Innovation Summit
early in 2000, with support from the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering
and Innovation Council (PMSEIC). The clear aim is to accelerate the pace of
transforming new ideas into commercial services and products, with human
impact on the environment being a key area for innovation and improvement.
38
Green Business Case Studies
Sun and wind – Solar Sailor
This year a striking new vessel will be catching the attention of passers by on
Sydney Harbour, the spectacular waterway that leads to the home of the Green
Games, the Sydney 2000 Olympics and Paralympics.
This vessel is powered by two of the greatest sources of renewable energy on
the planet – the sun and the wind.
The Solar Sailor II will be the first commercial scale version of a hybrid solar
and wind-powered passenger ferry, using new SolarWing technology
developed in Australia.
In bringing together two of the planet’s most available renewable power
sources, the sun and the wind, Solar Sailor provides a new benchmark in low
pollution water transport.
The builders are focused on a 21st century maritime marketplace where the
‘eco-value’ of a vessel will be as important as its price tag. Already fossil fuel
powered vessels are being banned from many lakes and waterways, in Europe
especially, as concern grows for the health of lakes and rivers.
"The concept behind solar sailing is simple," says Dr Robert Dane, the
Managing Director of Solar Sailor Pty Ltd, who conceived the SolarWing in
the mid-1990s. "A wing acts as both a solar collector and a sail, with the solargenerated energy supplementing the wind energy to create a synergistic effect."
"The concept is a world first," says Dr Dane. "It has received a very favourable
preliminary international patent examination acknowledging our six claims as
novel and inventive."
Dr Dane cites the advantages of the Solar Sailor as including quiet operation,
no diesel fumes, lower running costs, unlimited range, access to
environmentally sensitive waterways, zero air and water pollution, low wash
and no greenhouse gas emissions.
The Australian Government has
awarded an $A1 million Renewable
Energy Commercialisation Grant,
through the Australian Greenhouse
Office, to assist with launching the
Solar Sailor to the world.
Solar Sailor is seeking innovative
boat builders and vessel operators
from around the world to
commercialise its technology.
© Solar Sailor
The project’s consultant naval
architect, Grahame A. Parker, has
designed many more traditional
passenger craft, including the
‘Rivercats’ and ‘Supercats’
operating in Sydney.
39
"We believe that these craft will be able to be designed and manufactured in a
virtually unlimited range of sizes, from small 20 passenger vessels to large
vessels carrying hundreds of people, be they passenger ferries, sightseeing
vessels or future ocean-going ships," says Mr Parker.
Solar Sailor is a primary member of the NSW Government Australian
Technology Showcase and has been invited by the Japanese External Trade
Organisation to appear in an exhibition in Tokyo in May 2000.
It will also be a feature at the Australian Pavilion at the World Expo 2000
Hannover, from June to October 2000, at which more than 40 million visitors
are expected. The SolarWing concept recently won a gold medal at the Asian
Innovation Awards, hosted by the Far Eastern Economic Review.
Sunny side up – Solahart
After nearly 50 years in the solar hot water business – and with sales in 70
countries around the world – Australian-based Solahart Industries is a global
leader in a vital green energy sector.
The growing international focus on cutting greenhouse gas pollution is making
Solahart into a 21st century powerhouse in both heating and electricity
generation.
At the top of the range is Solahart’s new generation Black Chrome XII model –
boasting what the makers bill as the ‘world’s most advanced technology’ in
solar water heating.
The Black Chrome XII is the culmination of millions of dollars in research
expenditure and more than a decade of scientific development in Australia.
Uniquely, according to Solahart, the three-model range comes backed by a 12year guarantee.
What, then, makes it different?
In standard solar hot water systems, water is circulated through the solar
collector panels and back into a storage cylinder. Problems can arise if the
system becomes clogged or corroded inside the panels.
The Black Chrome XII is a closed circuit
system, with a specially-developed,
trademark fluid called ‘Hartgard’
absorbing the sun’s energy and
transferring the heat to the water as it
circulates within a special jacket
surrounding the cylinder.
There is nothing to become corroded or
clogged and the Hartgard fluid will not
freeze, avoiding damage even under frost
or prolonged sub-zero temperatures.
© Solahart
Although the initial purchase of a solar
hot water system is more expensive than
an electricity or gas water heater, all of
the heating provided by the sun is free
and totally non-polluting.
Black Chrome XII
40
If the sun is not shining, the fall back is an electric – or ideally a gas – booster.
By selecting a natural gas boosted system, a household can reduce waterheating costs by up to 95 percent a year.
Household greenhouse gas emissions can be cut by up to 4.5 tonnes a year –
the equivalent of taking a family car off the road forever.
Given that water heating accounts for up to 50 percent of a home’s energy use,
going solar is one of the easiest ways for householders to reduce everyday
impact on the environment, while cutting bills as well.
Solahart’s products are finding their way to every continent on the planet –
including even the frozen expanse of Antarctica.
This year, the Australian Government’s Antarctic Division has completed trials
with Solahart aimed at using its two-year-old PowerPak product to generate
electricity in one of the harshest environments on the planet.
Despite winter temperatures often falling below minus 40 degrees centigrade,
the PowerPak’s closed circuit system allows it to operate whenever the sun is
shining.
The trial PowerPak system was shipped to Davis – one of Australia’s four
Antarctic research stations – at the beginning of 1999.
Solahart also has joined the Australian National University’s Department of
Engineering in developing a photovoltaic trough concentrator system.
The system is a solar electricity generator with a difference. Instead of being
made of flat photovoltaic panels, it concentrates sunlight by a factor of 20 to 30
times and then focuses it on to a set of solar cells.
Cheap glass mirrors replace almost all of the expensive photovoltaic cells.
Unlike other forms of electricity generation, it produces no polluting fumes or
greenhouse gases, and it does not generate any noise.
The system is flexible in size and can easily be adapted to any given electrical
demand.
Chasing global markets – Geo2 Ltd
Socially aware, ecologically sound and radically cost-effective is the catchcry
of Geo2 Ltd – a clean-up and cleaner technology company – that is
headquartered in the major Australian city of Melbourne.
Geo2 is using a series of partnerships, joint ventures and acquisitions to take
Australian environmental technology to the world. Outside of Australia, its
major areas of operation include China, the US and the Middle East.
Geo2 is concentrating its research and development, and its marketing, in the
water and wastewater sectors. The World Bank estimates that globally, $US600
billion will need to be invested in better infrastructure in these sectors over the
next decade. The US alone spends more than $US20 billion a year on treating
wastewater at publicly owned utilities.
In March, 2000, Geo2 entered a strategic partnership with Texas-based GulfTex Environmental Services Inc to exploit opportunities in the huge global
problem area of human and animal waste disposal.
41
Among the fruits of Geo2’s in-house innovation and outside partnerships are
advanced oil water separation systems for on-board bilge water treatment
systems on ships and other industrial applications. These are the IC-SEP
(Induced Cyclonic Separator) for cleaning pollutants from liquids and state of
the art air sludge dryers.
Geo2’s IC-SEP is to be combined with Gulf-Tex’s unique Air Shear Pulveriser
(ASP), a versatile and highly cost competitive technology for drying and
volume reduction of human sewage, animal effluent and industrial waste.
By using IC-SEP and ASP together, one process can take wastes from two
percent solids to greater than 80 percent – representing a quantum reduction in
volume and weight. This reduces transport costs for partly treated sludge and
removes the need for landfill by producing a saleable fertiliser product.
As well as water purification, the firm’s areas of expertise range across acid
mine drainage, polluted soil remediation, gold recovery and airborne dust
separation. It’s very name underscores its commitment to the environment,
with Geo meaning ‘earth’ and the ‘2’ signifying a second chance for the earth.
A classic example of Geo2’s technology and marketing approach is its oil
water separators for ships.
The Royal Australian Navy in 1999 ordered six oil water separators for heavy
landing craft, and eventually is expected to fit most of its ships with the Geo2
product. That, says Geo2, has led to international inquiries from suppliers of
maritime equipment, major navies and commercial shipping operators.
Internationally, the market for addressing marine oil pollution from ship’s bilge
water is huge. In the Middle East, for example, where Geo2 has finalised a
joint venture, oil water pollution is a major threat to fisheries and tourism.
Geo2 estimates a world market worth about $A500 million a year, based on 2
000 new ships each year, retro-fitting for 12 500 large vessels and a further 5
000 smaller vessels that will be required to install separator units.
General Manager for water, David Hardy, estimates that a third of Geo2’s
technologies are generated through in-house research and development, with
the balance coming from outside – mainly from within Australia.
He sees Geo2 as making headway in an area of great difficulty for small
Australian companies in all sectors – the successful commercialisation of the
products of their innovation.
"Australians are always renowned for being fairly inventive," says Hardy. "It is
a good breeding ground for creative ideas and inventions. We just cannot get
them off the ground."
Geo2 is starting to show the way.
42
Water quality rescue – Taronga Zoo
For many years one of Sydney Harbour’s most polluted areas was Little Sirius
Cove, near the Olympic city’s famous waterfront zoo, Taronga. One of the
causes was discharge from the zoo into the cove.
© Taronga Zoo
In 1996 things improved for water quality in that part of the harbour after the
zoo’s water system was upgraded in a $2.2 million project organised by Ian
Kiernan, the Chairman and founder of the innovative environment
organisations, Clean Up Australia and Clean Up the World.
The result is a first for any zoo in the world.
Kiernan put together a team of specialists from government and business under
the banner of Clean Up Australia 2001 – a ‘fix up’ program supported by
Olympic sponsor Westpac – to develop a recycling system for the zoo.
The mission was almost as complex as developing water reuse for people. One
crucial issue was hygiene, given the fact that recycling effluent could threaten
most animals in the zoo if the treated water contained any pathogens.
The plant catches about 60 percent of the zoo’s waste water (most of the
balance soaks into the ground on the 27 hectare site), treats it and then pumps
it back through a specially-built ring main for use on lawns, hosing down
animal displays, filling moats and flushing toilets.
To ensure full disinfection, the plant uses biological treatment, microfiltration
and ultraviolet disinfection technology to treat up to 250 kilolitres of water a
day, enough water to supply an average household for a year.
The project has been an unqualified success, attracting overseas interest from
Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand.
Waste to energy –
Landfill Management Services
A technology company, a waste management company, a power company and
a coal company are combining to reshape the future of green energy production
in Australia.
The concept they are creating is known as ‘ReOrganic Energy’.
The crucial technology player in the consortium is Landfill Management
Services (LMS), based in Adelaide, the capital of the State of South Australia.
LMS specialises in extracting polluting gas from landfills and providing it for
energy generation. It operates throughout Australia and in Asia, and boasts that
its gas recovery rates outstrip most in the world.
© Landfill Management Services
For the ReOrganic Energy project, LMS has teamed with three companies
based in the State of Queensland to develop a bio-gas alternative to coal, for
burning in an old power station called Swanbank. Colliery company New
Hope Coal Australia owns the site being used, Thiess Environmental Services
are waste managers and landfill operators, and CS Energy operates the power
station.
LMS’s managing director, John Falzon, sees the project as a revolution in
converting waste to energy.
43
"As pressure on our planet grows we need to find new ways to manage our
resources," says Falzon. "ReOrganic Energy has the potential to reduce
Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 364 000 tonnes a year at a single site."
The key to the project is speeding up the production of landfill gas, and
ensuring maximum capture.
Traditionally, organic waste is buried in engineered ‘cells’ which are lined at
the bottom, and covered over with soil at the top.
LMS has developed expertise and proprietary technology for capturing the gas
from these landfills – which is a significant source of greenhouse gas pollution
throughout the world – and is exporting this technology to South Korea and
Malaysia.
LMS is setting up the first landfill gas facility at a power station in South
Korea under the International Greenhouse Partnerships program, and is
working with the Australian Government on a project for the Malaysian
Government.
ReOrganic Energy involves using a specially-designed bio-cell and a bioreactor along with proprietary technology for gas extraction and vital leachate
circulation, a process which uses contaminated liquid draining from the waste
to speed up the breakdown of the waste.
"Using traditional landfill management practices, full decomposition can take
over 50 years," says Falzon. "By using bio-reactor technology, ReOrganic
Energy can halve the timeframe and significantly increase gas volumes."
The bio-cell is a large scale anaerobic digester, in a specifically designed void,
that receives organic waste (garden, food and wood waste) and biosolids
(sewage sludge). Natural bio-degradation processes are applied in a special
configuration to stimulate and accelerate the production of bio-gas.
Rather than locking away waste materials indefinitely, as is the practice in
other landfills, the bio-cell is designed to allow recovery of this material for
further use. When bio-gas generation in the bio-cell declines, the residual
organic material can be excavated and used as soil conditioner or feedstock for
composting.
The Swanbank power station, meanwhile, will be partially modified to allow
injection of the landfill gas into its boilers, completing the cycle of energy
generation from waste. The target start-up date for ReOrganic Energy is the
end of 2001.
In addition to displacing coal-fired generation, the process will also reduce
emissions of oxides of nitrogen – a major factor in the formation of dangerous
ozone air pollution – by more than three percent of current levels.
The consortium’s $A4 million ReOrganic Energy concept is being supported
by the Australian Government, through an $A1 million grant from the nation’s
lead agency on greenhouse issues, the Australian Greenhouse Office.
As John Falzon sees it, a ‘fantastic future’ beckons in the landfill gas business.
His company has been doubling its turnover every year for the past four years.
44
The innovation incubator –
Australian Technology Park
© Australian Technology Park
The Southern Hemisphere’s only commercial fuel cell is operating at the
Australian Technology Park, an exciting centre for innovation and enterprise in
the Green Games city of Sydney.
Fuel cells generate heat and electricity from natural gas or other hydrogen rich
gases, such as ‘digester gases’ from sewage or landfill operations. Electricity
and heat are chemically produced from the fuel, with an overall efficiency
greater than 80 percent.
Fuel Cell
In the future, fuel cells are likely to power everything from cars to modern
factories. They are expected to be a crucial clean energy technology for use in
the global challenge to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. The fuel cell is
currently eliminating greenhouse gas emissions at the rate of 100 tonnes per
month.
The fuel cell project at the Australian Technology Park is a highly significant
environmental milestone. It supplies electricity to a major bio-medical research
centre in the technology park run by the multi-national Johnson & Johnson,
and will also power a planned new ‘super computer’ installation – the
Australian Centre for Advanced Computing and Communications.
The park’s cell has been backed by a range of corporate sponsors. The State of
NSW’s Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) provided a loan
for some of the shortfall. The project received a grant of $330 000 grant from
the US Government’s Climate Change Program.
An American company called ONSI Corporation is the manufacturer of the
cell. But Australia’s premier technology park was selected as the perfect site to
‘demonstrate and utilise all of the technology in the way it was meant to be’.
The technology park’s visionary founder and chief executive officer, design
engineer Dr Tom Forgan, says that the place is all about ‘sustainability’ –
especially through education and employment creation.
The park – located on a sprawling inner-city site that once housed a vast 19th
century railway workshops complex – includes new business ‘incubators’ in
areas including the environment, information technology and
telecommunications, biotechnology and multimedia.
Dr Forgan stresses the park’s strong environmental emphasis.
"The very creation of the park is a text-book example of wealth-creating urban
renewal that takes account of heritage and environmental responsibilities," he
says. "As a starting point a derelict industrial site with substantial
contamination emanating from foundries and heavy metal workshops had to be
made safe for human habitation."
The facilities taking shape at the 14 hectare site in the inner-city suburb of
Redfern embody the transition from the old industrial economy to the new
knowledge economy.
The park’s environmental incubator is oriented towards new companies in areas
such as engineering design, planning, energy, flow monitoring, geophysics,
mapping, marine and coastal, and risk management. It also is home to the
45
Institute for Sustainable Futures, a division of one of the park’s main founding
partners, the University of Technology, Sydney. The other founding partners
are the University of NSW and the University of Sydney, with the support of
the NSW Government.
The technology park has been selected as one of four ‘world projects’ from
Australia at the World Expo 2000 Hannover, a giant trade fair with the theme
‘Humankind – Nature – Technology’. Australia is highlighting its
environmental technologies and innovation at Hannover.
The technology park’s theme that it will be presenting in Hannover is: A
Pathway from Research to Business. By 2006, the complex aims to be a major
science and technology precinct with a resident population of 6 000
researchers, and a direct spin-off of more than 60 000 jobs.
"We are trying to move forward in a structured manner that is all the time
renewing itself so that we can move forward even further," says Forgan. "And
in world terms, sustainability depends on having more informed young people
who believe in the future, who are part of the future, who will create the
future."
Meanwhile, in 2000, the park also will be an important Olympics and
Paralympics venue, accommodating uniform distribution and accreditation
facilities.
On the drawing board at the park is a 3-4 star international ‘eco-technology’
hotel, which has planning approval and a target date for completion of mid2001. With 315 hotel rooms and 148 serviced apartments, the hotel is intended
to enhance the park’s role as a host site for national and global interchange.
Big-time worm farms – Vermitech
Biosolids management – including human and animal sewage – is a growing
global problem. The United States and Europe combined produce 5 billion
tonnes of organic waste a year, and most of it ends up in landfill.
Poorly treated biosolids can pose a number of risks to public health and the
environment, due to the high levels of human and animal pathogens, the
presence of heavy metals and toxic chemical contaminants, as well as the
potential problems of odour and nutrient leaching.
An Australian company, Vermitech, has an answer.
Millions upon billions of worms!
Vermitech has designed a proven method of vermiculture
to manage biosolids waste which offers a competitive
global solution for organic waste management and re-use,
and creates valuable worm castings which are sold for
agricultural land remediation, mine site rehabilitation,
saline soil treatment and reafforrestation.
© Vermitech
Vermitech is leading the way in converting organic waste
into fertile soil for agricultural land remediation, in a way
that also prevents high nutrient levels polluting our rivers
and beaches. Working with local councils, waste water
authorities and piggeries, Vermitech is helping them
46
manage sewage sludge disposal and providing them with significant cost
savings.
The technology can be taken all over the world for implementation either on a
small local scale, or a large industrial scale.
© Vermitech
Mike Lotzof, Managing Director of Vermitech, says: "It was Australian
inventiveness that allowed us to develop a solution to our local problems, that
are in fact global."
Lotzof is also a Director of the Environmental Management Industry
Association of Australia (EMIAA). He is making Vermitech a lead-by-example
company when it comes to exporting Australian environmental know-how.
"We aimed to create the world’s best practice for organic waste management,"
says Lotzof.
The advantages of Vermitech systems are that they are affordable and versatile.
According to Lotzof, ‘anything that was once alive’ can be processed with the
right worm formula.
Worms have always consumed waste and in the process converted it into
humus like material. Vermitech was motivated to develop a cost-effective
solution to the organic waste problem and in so doing, has produced a soil
conditioner that can restore life to dying soils.
"There are thousands of worm farms around the globe. We have industrialised
it. Our technology can process waste in scales between five tonnes to 1 000
tonnes a week," says Lotzof. "The possibilities for carbon sequestration and
soil remediation with worm castings are immense."
Only three years old, Vermitech has already won several prestigious Australian
awards, including the Eureka Prize for Science and Industry and is a finalist in
the 2000 BHP Steel award for Innovation.
The company has just completed trials on conversion of high volumes of paper
and placticised-paper liquid containers. It is also working with South Sydney
Waste Board, to develop techniques for processing large volumes of food
wastes.
And Vermitech has plans on the drawing board to install a unit at a major
Sydney sewage treatment plant. This new design will be capable of digesting 1
000 tonnes of sewage solids per week, processing up to a third of Sydney’s
current sludge volume.
Reusing waste – Brightstar Environmental
Currently most of the world’s mountains of household garbage is being sent to
landfill, where it is decomposing and emitting methane gas, a greenhouse gas
that has an impact on the atmosphere 24 times greater than carbon dioxide.
© Brightstar Environmental
To combat this escalating greenhouse threat, Brightstar Environmental has
developed a fully integrated Municipal Solid Waste management system, the
Solid Waste Energy and Recycling Facility, otherwise known as SWERF.
SWERF is the result of three years of intensive research and development by
Brightstar Environmental Australia, a member of the Energy Development Ltd
(EDL) group of companies.
47
"We’ve taken American and Canadian technologies and advanced them
dramatically," says Rick Ralph, Recycling Systems Manager for Brightstar,
"underscoring the Australian talent for adaptation as well invention. This is a
world first in the management and re-use of domestic waste."
SWERF is Brightstar’s response to the global need for an environmentally
acceptable and economically viable resource recovery solution. It is a marriage
of two well-known technologies – the separation of biomass from household
waste and the conversion of this biomass into ‘green’ electricity.
The SWERF process consists of three integrated stages:
1. Reception, pre-treatment and separation of mixed Municipal Solid Waste
(MSW) to aggregate the organic material and recover inorganic materials for
recycling.
2. Gasification of the organic material to produce a clean, dry synthetic fuel gas
(syngas).
3. Conversion of the syngas into electricity using Energy Development’s
standard power generation modules.
The combination of technologies results in:
•
a highly efficient and environmentally sustainable option for the recovery
of resources from waste
•
recovery of recyclable materials for re-use
•
substantial greenhouse gas abatement due to reductions in methane
generation from waste and the offset of the use of fossil fuels for electricity
generation
•
minimal emissions as the clean synthetic gas is used to fire both the
gasification process and the power plant, with waste and heat recovery
throughout the process
•
a highly competitive level of energy recovery compared with competing
technologies, due to the efficiencies gained within a fully integrated process
that does not involve the combustion or incineration of solid waste
The first commercial SWERF plant is under construction in Wollongong, south
of Sydney. Once operational, this plant will process up to 150 000 tonnes of
MSW per annum, providing enough electricity for 16 000 households.
It is expected that 90 percent of Wollongong’s domestic and commercial waste
will be redirected to the SWERF plant. This will result in a net reduction in
the cost of waste disposal for the Wollongong Council and its residents.
Energy Developments currently operates landfill gas collection systems on
more than 40 landfill sites around the world. The gas extracted is generally
used in power generation projects. EDL has experienced engineers and
technicians who undertake the design of landfill gas collection systems. EDL
offers a complete design, installation, operations and maintenance service in
conjunction with the development of landfill gas projects.
48
Smart science shines through –
University of NSW Photovoltaics
One of the largest and most successful research teams ever established at an
Australian university has developed world-leading technology in solar cells to
convert sunlight directly into clean and green electricity.
© UNSW
The cells, also known as photovoltaic cells, generate solar power without
pollution, noise or moving parts – and last virtually forever. New ‘thin-film’
solar cells developed at the University of NSW promise to cut the cost of solar
power by two-thirds.
The photovoltaic (PV) industry has been growing at a rapid rate of 30 percent
per annum, outstripping even the computer industry. This growth rate is
predicted to continue as a new market – photovoltaics in residential homes –
expands.
Governments around the world have already developed plans to install solar
cells on the roofs of at least three million additional houses in the next 10
years, and Australian technology is likely to be at the forefront.
About 1.5 million solar-powered homes are targeted for Japan, a million for
Europe and a further million houses for America.
Australian PV manufacturers currently have almost 8 percent of the
international market – a figure that could increase in the future as more stateof-the-art Australian technology enters the market place.
The explosive demand for photovoltaics has caused a steady drop in the cost of
PV panels, and this in turn is promoting additional growth in the booming
industry. Worldwide, its is estimated that hundreds of thousands of new jobs in
photovoltaic research, engineering and manufacturing will be created in the
next decade.
UNSW’s research has been led by the director of its Centre for Photovoltaic
Engineering and Solar Energy, Professor Martin Green, who is also research
director with the university’s commercial partner, Pacific Solar.
In 1999 he and a UNSW colleague, Professor Stuart Wenham, shared the
$A350 000 Australia Prize for their solar energy innovation.
A 180kg solar ‘car’ built by UNSW for the 1999 World Solar Car Challenge –
run over a 3 010km route across the Australian continent – was capable of
travelling at 100 km/h using the same power as a hair dryer. Another entrant
from Melbourne, called Aurora 101, ended up winning the race – it too was
powered by UNSW solar cells.
In 1993, at a solar car race in the United States, nine of the first ten placegetters were carrying solar cells made by BP Solar, under license from UNSW.
UNSW’s world leadership in photovoltaics, and the growing interest in
expanding the use of solar energy, has led the university to establish the word’s
first Engineering Degree in Solar Energy. It will be offered internationally via
the Internet.
49
Water management for life –
One of the great causes of urban water pollution is wet weather run-off from
road surfaces and kerbs. In some cases, up to 90 percent of urban areas are
sealed, trapping water and accumulating pollutants.
Runoff from roads contains high levels of heavy metals such as nickel, zinc,
copper and lead, and other contaminants including faeces, phosphorus and
nitrogen. During rain, these are carried into our waterways and oceans.
© Atlantis
Concerned by this source of water pollution, Atlantis Corporation has spent the
last 17 years designing water filtration systems that purify stormwater runoff.
The Atlantis Drainage Cell
"We have created a complete stormwater management system," says Oscar
Larach, commercial manager for Atlantis Corporation. "It’s the best in the
world today and we hold the international patent."
The system includes installation of a porous road shoulder with porous grass
blocks. Runoff filters through the road and through a special biologically
engineered soil, cleansing the water of pollutants. Water is then collected into
drainage tanks below the ground and stored in retention tanks with excess
water flowing into a creek.
"In nature, water moves through aquifers underground and feeds rivers. We
have designed a product that’s just like a gutter, but it keeps the rubbish on top
and lets the water percolate down into our tanking system of ‘ecological
channels’," says Larach.
"Our technology is designed to solve the problem at the source instead of
releasing contaminated water into rivers and the sea."
Atlantis’ ecological channels allow water runoff to move continuously in a
natural cycle.
The Bio Cell is Atlantis’ basic product, and has been the inspiration for all of
its future innovations. The cell is made up of a three-dimensional chessboard
pattern – with water filters in the void space between the squares. It has an
incredibly high load bearing capacity, with each square metre of drainage cell
capable of withstanding 78 tonnes of continuous pressure.
The drainage cells are made from recycled polypropylene from old car
batteries. The plastic is strong enough to last under the ground for between
500 to 1 000 years. A layer of filter fabric is placed over the outside of the
cells, to prevent soil being caught inside the cells and blocking water flow.
According to Larach, the Bio Cell is the first aquifer system to supersede the
pipe, which was invented more than 2 000 years ago.
Bio filters can be used to: remove odours from polluted water; remediate soils,
when used in worm farming; drain sports fields; drain railway lines; create
under water channels; retain walls in building sites; filter leachates from septic
systems and build ‘green roads’.
"The company’s aim is turn the environmental clock back to nature," says
Larach.
Atlantis has had the Bio Cell on the market for the past 17 years. In the past
50
five years, the Atlantis stormwater management system has become a
completely integrated system, with all components supporting and feeding into
each other. Other products include ecological tanks, strip filter drain pipes,
digestion units, eco soils, grass ‘Ceo Block’ and stormwater purification units.
Atlantis Corporation’s storm water system in Concord, Sydney, has won the
River Care 2000 Gold Award.
"Everything we do is designed to treat water where the problem is and purify it
before letting it contaminate other clean water," says Larach. "This releases the
pressure on urban infrastructure and the environment."
Atlantis currently exports its products to over 23 countries around the world,
including Brunei, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, India, China, Europe, Canada
and countries in South America.
Micro hydro electric system –
APACE and the Rainbow Power Company
Two small Australian engineering companies are filling in the gaps of energy
generation, where the sun shines a little less often. Their solution is ‘micro
hydro’, and APACE and the Rainbow Power Company are exporting it to the
world.
In a greenhouse reduction program being implemented jointly with the
Solomon Islands Government and Australia, APACE is installing two microhydro electric power generators in remote Solomon Island villages.
The aim of the project is to reduce the potential greenhouse gas emissions from
electricity production in rural Solomon Island villages, and to train local
communities in the use and maintenance of renewable energy technologies.
The micro-hydro energy generators will generate 240-volt electricity.
"Electricity is vital for achieving sustainability," says Paul Bryce, president of
APACE. "Economic and social enterprise depend on it. Developing countries
need affordable, clean energy. Otherwise they turn to the environment to make
inefficient energy by burning bio-mass."
APACE estimates that each of their hydroelectric systems in the Solomon
Islands will deliver up to 876 000 kW hours of electricity a year, saving at least
683 tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum.
APACE’s Micro-Hydro Energy System is one of the world’s first 100
Activities Implemented Jointly (AIJ), that are forging the way in greenhouse
gas emissions trading on an international scale.
"Being the first Australian AIJ gives us a competitive advantage in designing
and implementing AIJ technologies," says Bryce. "We’re setting the rules and
gaining the know-how for the future of carbon emission trading possibilities."
© Rainbow Power Company
"This project demonstrates that greenhouse gas emissions can be saved by
introducing renewable hydroelectric power generation instead of using fossil
fuel-based power generation."
The remote area micro-hydro electric scheme also qualifies as a Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM) project under the terms of the United
Nations’ Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gas pollution of the
The Rainbow Pelton Wheel Hydro
51
atmosphere. The CDM assists developing nations to trade their savings on
greenhouse gas emissions.
The project in the Solomon Islands will also provide local experience in
greenhouse measurement and monitoring in a rural Pacific Islands context.
"Every technology either fails or invents itself because of non-technology
reasons," says Bryce. "Generally cultural factors are the driving force."
APACE is committed to delivering a complete package, from
conceptualisation, to installation and refining of their technologies. This
approach includes:
•
managing projects in developing countries
•
community consultation and participatory management of technologies
•
developing the technology to suit the local environment and match
available resources for maintenance and servicing of the equipment
•
designing affordable technology for developing countries and remote
village communities
The Rainbow Power Company, meanwhile, is also focused on the needs of the
developing world.
Currently there are tens of thousands of medical clinics in developing countries
and remote areas that don’t have access to mains power. This lack of power is
a serious obstacle to improving the health of villagers. During the past few
decades, several types of electricity generators have been used in small village
settings, but all have had their problems. With diesel, the running cost is often
prohibitive, although solar panels are today one of the most reliable electricity
products available, they can prove difficult and expensive in remote locations.
The Rainbow Micro Hydro Generator represents a revolution in the production
of electricity from small streams. Designed by the Rainbow Power Company
after two decades of experience in the field, the unit incorporates state-of-theart design and materials. The result is a low-maintenance product, with an
exceptional service life.
Power transmission over hundreds of meters is possible because the generator
produces a higher voltage before being transformed to battery voltage by the
battery charger. This allows the turbine to be sited for the best possible pipe
location, while the controller is located close to the battery, where its
performance can be conveniently monitored.
The Rainbow Micro Hydro can produce useful amounts of power from as little
as 0.2 litres of water/second, or as low as 7 metres of ‘head’. This range is
exceptional for a micro hydro unit.
There is only one moving part on two standard bearings that are easily
replaceable. There are no brushes or other wearing components in the
generation unit and the plumbing is of corrosion resistant brass and aluminium.
The Rainbow Micro Hydro requires minimal maintenance and will provide
years of trouble free service at no further cost.
52
Tackling stormwater – CDS Technologies
When it rains in Sydney, stormwater pollution of the Olympic city’s beautiful
harbour is the inevitable consequence. Around the world, the litter and
contamination picked up by drainage systems is a serious problem for water
quality.
© CDS Technologies
Thanks to an innovative Australian company, CDS Technologies, there is a
solution at hand even for the biggest of drains. It is an on-site blocking and
screening device, which operates at high water flow rates.
The firm’s state-of-the-art gross pollutant trap catches almost all waterborne
pollution – including oils – along with a high proportion of sinkables, including
vegetative matter, coarse sediments and solid litter, which would otherwise
enter waterways.
"The litter and debris associated with stormwater runoff is becoming an
environmental problem worldwide," says John Fitzgerald, managing director of
CDS.
A non-blinding gross pollutant trap
"With the tightening of environmental standards, authorities are being
increasingly required to address the issues of stormwater clean-up, before
discharge, but are finding that conventional entrapment methods suffer severe
shortcomings which include capture, easy blocking and the need for frequent
cleaning."
According to CDS, the solution has to be worked out by closely monitoring the
problem.
That’s why CDS has developed a stormwater drain that screens out even the
heaviest of litter – while also preventing the screen from blocking. Two years
was invested in research and refining of the idea before it was taken on to the
market.
CDS traps are now proven to remove 95–100 percent of all gross pollutants
from stormwater, a level of performance that is rarely matched by other
stormwater devices.
"We have three levels of technology sophistication. Stormwater is the
simplest," says Fitzgerald. "All of our technology is based on a non-blocking
screen system."
The second level of technology sophistication is a combined sewer and
stormwater overflow. CDS is launching this product in the UK this year, with
trial units being installed in West Scotland, Manchester and Liverpool.
"Our third level of technology sophistication is in the treatment of sewage,
filtering out fine fibres such as hairs," says Fitzgerald. "This is a top of the line
method of sewerage treatment used for separating solids and liquids."
The technology involves using a chemical floc process, whereby the chemical
acts as a binding agent for very fine particles that would otherwise either pass
through the screen, or block it. Bound together, they form a larger bundle that
can be screened successfully and moved away from the filter screen.
53
The biodiversity business –
Earth Sanctuaries
© Earth Sanctuaries
When South Australian-based company Earth Sanctuaries Ltd floated its shares
on the Australian Stock Exchange earlier this year, it boasted of being the only
publicly-listed conservation business in the world.
Earth Sanctuaries already has more than 4 500 shareholders around the world.
The company’s stock in trade is rare and endangered animals. They are kept in
private nature reserves, and are displayed as part of one of Australia’s more
successful ecotourism ventures.
The company’s modus operandi is simple, but effective.
After acquiring suitable land for the return of species that may have gone
locally extinct – such as rare marsupials like bilbies and numbats – Earth
Sanctuaries prepares its site by erecting special fences and destroying feral
predators such as cats and foxes.
Earth Sanctuaries has even had success at breeding the Australian platypus in
semi-captivity in dams, a rare feat in the nature restoration business.
The company’s founder and Chief Executive, Dr John Wamsley, believes that
Earth Sanctuaries will come of age as an investment vehicle in the early years
of the 21st century.
"People are beginning to understand that Australia’s wildlife has an increasing
value, to us and our children, and to the millions of international visitors
seeking an authentic Australian tourism experience every year," says Dr
Wamsley.
Earth Sanctuaries currently manages 16 ‘genetically-viable’ populations of rare,
threatened or endangered animals that have been re-introduced into their
original habitat.
They are: Platypus, Eastern Quoll (a native cat-like carnivore) and a very
Australian roll call of small to medium-sized marsupials including the Numbat,
the Bilby, the Rufous Bettong, the Boodie, the Woylie, the Long-nosed
Potoroo, the Southern Brown Bandicoot, the Stick Nest Rat, the Plains Mouse,
three species of wallabies, the Cream-striped Red-necked Pademelon and the
Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat.
To Dr Wamsley, they represent highly valuable assets that traditional
accounting methods fail to capture.
The World’s Natural Theme Park –
Ecotourism
When the fast-growing ecotourism industry set out to promote itself ahead of
the international attention that the Olympics and Paralympics will focus on
Australia, the slogan adopted was ‘The World’s Natural Theme Park’.
© Earth Sanctuaries
It is an easy boast for a nation with 13 World Heritage sites listed for their
natural values, including the biggest of all UNESCO-recognised sites, the
Great Barrier Reef.
54
According to Hector Ceballos-Lascurain, the Mexican environmentalist who
coined the phrase ‘ecotourism’ in 1983, tourism is the most important
economic activity in the world; and the eco variety is a crucial sector.
In the tourism sector overall, 600 million people travel between countries each
year, with economic turnover of $US3.5 trillion a year. Between 15 and 20
percent of the market is ecotourism, and the sector is growing at a rapid 15
percent a year compared with about five percent for tourism in general.
In Queensland, the capital of Australia’s nature-based tourism sector, it is
estimated that $40 worth of economic activity is generated for every $1 spent
on national parks.
Aside from the nature-based component of ecotourism, Australia is placing an
ever-growing emphasis on culture-based tourism, creating new opportunities
for indigenous peoples to benefit from presenting their art and heritage to the
world.
Australia, after all, has the world’s oldest living culture embedded in the
world’s oldest continent. Both the land and its peoples are fascinating to many
of the five million or so visitors who come to Australia each year.
The Tourism Council Australia says:
The sustainable tourism approach has been championed by many within the
Australian tourism industry. Australia has always been seen as improving its
unique position at the forefront of adopting and trialing new approaches and
implementing measures to improve long-term sustainability and economic
viability through improved environmental performance.
Green initiatives when encouraged and developed by various tourism
organisations assist the Australian tourism industry in becoming increasingly
responsible for its progressive relationship with the natural environment. As is
reinforced by the tourism industry, good environmental practice is good
business practice and makes good economic sense.
In 2000, the ecotourism industry in Australia is marking the new millennium
with a new and improved version of its world-first accreditation scheme. The
National Ecotourism Accreditation Program has been developed by the
industry for the industry.
The self-funding program is a joint initiative of the Ecotourism Association of
Australia and the Australian Tourism Operators Network. ‘Products’ such as
tours, attractions and accommodation can all be accredited under the scheme.
NEAP has been relaunched in February/March 2000 with a nature based
component to add to the already successful ecotourism and advanced
ecotourism accreditation segments. This internationally recognised
environmental tourism accreditation scheme is intended to ‘raise the bar’ for
the Australian nature based/ecotourism industry, matching the best traditions of
Olympic competition.
55
Contacting Australian green
businesses and industry
The appendices section contains all the details you will need to explore
investment opportunities in Australia, and to contact relevant Government and
other agencies, as well as industry groups. For the growing array of companies
operating in the environment sector, see the booklet Australia’s Environment
Industry Directory.
Environment Management Industry
Association of Australia (EMIAA)
The EMIAA is the peak industry body representing Australia's
environment industry. Association members have eco-efficient
environmental solutions for both government and the private sector in
water, wastewater, air quality, energy efficiency and renewable energy
sources, waste minimisation and recycling, planning and architecture,
construction and development, sustainable land use and restoration of
degraded soils and contaminated sites. Members provide goods,
services, technologies, infrastructure, systems, operational management
and financing mechanisms. The Association works with all industry
sectors to improve environmental outcomes and more efficient operation
leading to better financial performance.
Further information can be found in the Australian Environment Industry
Directory or by contacting the EMIAA directly; tel 61-2 6230 1011,
email: [email protected], website: www.emiaa.org.au
56
4
Section
The Green Games Legacy
When the Games are over, the legacy of environmental responsibility will
remain to inspire future generations. They will carry an enhanced Olympic
spirit into the 21st century.
– Sydney’s Environmental Guidelines for the Summer Games, 1993
OCA has not let up in its quest to demonstrate that, and how, ecologically
sustainable development can be put into practice in a way that not only
makes good business sense but is elegant and meets the need of the broader
community.
– Third Earth Council review of Sydney 2000 preparations, February, 2000
Our goal now is to ensure the lessons learned through this great opportunity
are not lost at the end of the Games. As the new millennium approaches,
finding and integrating environmental solutions must be looked at as an
opportunity, not a burden.
– Greenpeace International Olympics Campaign, September, 1999
Australia – 2000 and Beyond
The powerful convergence of economic and environmental priorities in
Australia goes far beyond the six weeks of the Sydney 2000 Olympic and
Paralympic Games. Australia’s people, and its cities, industries, mines,
transport networks, utilities, rural enterprises, oceans, reefs, rivers, forests,
deserts and fauna and flora present a fantastic opportunity. It is an opportunity
to embrace the principles of sustainability, to implement them for the 21st
century, and to show the world how they can work for people and their
environment.
At their highest purpose, Australia’s Green Games aim to foster a new culture
of positive environmentalism. This will be the ultimate legacy of the Green
Games. This culture, based on practical and commercial solutions to real and
serious dilemmas, is developing around the green torch that is being held aloft
for Sydney 2000. There are high hopes that the light cast will keep spreading
across Sydney, around Australia and over the seas to other nations.
Through the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Sydney’s turn-of-themillennium example can be used to ignite even greater environmental efforts
from Games host cities of the future. Peter Ottesen, the environment program
manager for the Sydney Organising Committee of the Olympic Games
(SOCOG), believes that Sydney’s achievements are indeed living the Olympic
motto of ‘faster, higher, stronger’. For business, in a new era of sustainability,
the motto being forged in Australia is ‘smarter, cleaner, stronger’.
For OCA, ESD is not just a promise – it’s an action. The planning and
development of Olympic venues and facilities provides a practical and
enduring demonstration of how to implement ESD initiatives. This is a
significant legacy of the 2000 Games.
For the people of Sydney especially, the legacy will be very real. Future
generations will have access to magnificent sporting and leisure facilities at
© SOCOG
– Jo Moss, Senior Director, Environment, OCA
57
Sydney Olympic Park and other facilities. Pride of place will go to the vast
Millennium Parklands at Homebush Bay, providing a green icon covering 450
hectares in the demographic heart of a great city.
Many enterprising people and companies have already been touched by
Sydney’s Environmental Guidelines. They include small and medium-sized
Australian businesses with great ideas for sustainable solutions. They are ideas
that can and do work. They are also ideas that will help the nation and the
world to safeguard precious fresh water. To clean up waterways. To restore
degraded and contaminated lands. To save energy. To reduce air pollution. To
conserve non-renewable resources. To protect biodiversity. To repair the hole in
the ozone layer and to address the greatest threat of all, human-induced global
warming.
Australia’s Green Games torch also is being held high by some of the great
corporations of the nation and the world. The green guidelines have been a
challenge, and in many cases an inspiration, for the likes of McDonalds, CocaCola Amatil, Fuji Xerox, Telstra, Ansett, BHP, Samsung, Holden, Visy,
EnergyAustralia, Shell, Westpac, Cleanevent, Pacific Waste Management,
Southcorp, Carlton United Brewery, Bonlac Foods, Olex Cables, Waste Service
NSW, TAFE NSW, the Royal Australian Mint and others.
The real challenge, and the real opportunity, is that these pioneers make the
green torch burn ever more brightly throughout the world of business.
Remember, the whales came back
Human ingenuity, innovation, enterprise and behavioural change are all vital to
achieving sustainability in the 21st century. The Green Games are a celebration
of the opportunities that lie ahead for environmental restoration and protection.
The return of the whales to Australian coastal waters – after whalers drove
them close to extinction in the 19th and early 20th centuries – is one of the
greatest of all environmental recovery stories. The whales now support a multimillion dollar tourism industry. As the Green Games begin in Sydney, whales
will be migrating south down the East Coast of Australia, travelling from
tropical waters towards the Antarctic for their summer feeding.
Who knows? Another may even visit Sydney Harbour for the Green Games.
58
5
Section
Appendices
Environment Australia
GPO Box 787
CANBERRA ACT 2601
Tel: +61-2-6274 1111
www.environment.gov.au
Sustainable Industries Branch
www.environment.gov.au/epg/env_sust.html
Environment Industries Focus Unit
www.environment.gov.au/epg/eifu
Australia's EnviroNET
www.environet.ea.gov.au
Other relevant Commonwealth
Government agencies
Australian Greenhouse Office
www.greenhouse.gov.au
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
www.dfat.gov.au
Australian Trade Commission
www.austrade.gov.au
www.australiaforbusiness.com
www.businessclubaustralia.com
Department of Industry, Science and Resources
www.disr.gov.au
AusIndustry
www.ausindustry.gov.au
Invest Australia
www.investaustralia.gov.au
Australian Tourist Commission
www.atc.net.au
www.2000.australia.com
www.media.australia.com
www.australia.com
Sydney Olympic Games and
Paralympic Games Organisers
Olympic Co-ordination Authority
www.oca.nsw.gov.au
Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games
www.sydney.olympic.org
www.olympics.com
Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee
www.olympics.com
Olympic Roads and Transport Authority
www.orta.nsw.gov.au
International Olympic Committee
www.olympic.org
Environment organisations
monitoring the Games
Greenpeace Australia
www.greenpeace.org.au/olympics
Green Games Watch 2000
www.nccnsw.org.au/member/ggw
Australian State and Territory Governments
New South Wales
www.nsw.gov.au
Victoria
www.vic.gov.au
Queensland
www.qld.gov.au
South Australia
www.sa.gov.au
Western Australia
www.wa.gov.au
Tasmania
www.tas.gov.au
Northern Territory
www.nt.gov.au
Australian Capital Territory
www.act.gov.au
Relevant industry associations
Environment Management Industry Association of Australia Ltd.
www.emiaa.org.au
Australian Industry Group
www.aigroup.asn.au
Business Council of Australia
www.bca.com.au
Tourism Council Australia
www.tourism.org.au
Ecotourism Association of Australia
www.ecotourism.org.au
Green business case studies
Commonwealth Scientific and Industry Research Organisation
www.csiro.au
Cooperative Research Centres
www.isr.gov.au/crc
CRC for Sustainable Tourism Pty. Ltd.
www.crctourism.com.au
Solar Sailor Pty. Ltd.
www.solarsailor.com.au
Solahart Industries Pty. Ltd.
www.solahart.com.au
Geo2 Limited
www.geo2.com.au
Taronga Zoo
www.zoo.nsw.gov.au/taronga
Landfill Management Services
www.lms-landfillgas.com.au
The Australian Technology Park
www.atp.com.au
Vermitech Pty. Ltd.
www.vermitech.com
Brightstar Environmental, EDL Australia
www.edl.com.au
Centre for Photovoltaic Engineering, UNSW
www.pv.unsw.edu.au
www.atlantiscorp.com.au
APACE
www.apace.org.au
Rainbow Power Company Ltd.
www.rpc.com.au
CDS Technologies
www.cdstech.com.au
Earth Sanctuaries Ltd.
www.esl.com.au
59

Greening the Games, Australia Creating Sustainable

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