Buildings
Australia Post's operations comprise over 1,300 owned facilities across Australia. The majority are retail outlets, followed by mail processing and sorting facilities and administration offices. Two thirds of Australia Post's greenhouse gas emissions derive from the energy consumed by these facilities.
Facility energy consumption
Our facilities, which range from historical post office buildings to industrial complexes, have been built using traditional building practices, so opportunities exist to make our buildings more energy efficient.
Reducing the energy consumption in our buildings
The table below outlines key initiatives designed to reduce energy consumption.
| Green Building Strategy | A Green Building Strategy was developed to ensure that the design, construction, refurbishment, maintenance, operation and waste disposal related to our owned facilities reflect the "best practice" green building vision adopted by Australia Post. The strategy will also apply to all leased premises and provide guidance on a co-operative approach with landlords. |
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| Energy Efficiency Opportunities (EEO) Program | Through the Federal Government's Energy Efficiency Opportunities (EEO) program we are auditing 80 facilities to establish opportunities to reduce energy use. At the end of the first reporting period we identified approximately 280 energy saving initiatives. |
| Environmental Facility Data Tool | Our online reporting tool enables facility managers to monitor their facility's environmental performance. The tool provides data on: • energy and water consumption • waste disposal • greenhouse gas emissions The tool is linked to a checklist of opportunities that facility managers can use to help reduce the environmental impact of their site. |
| Move to virtual servers | We are undertaking a server virtualisation project, which replaces physical servers with virtual servers. During the 2008/09 financial year, more than 550 servers in Victoria were decommissioned or virtualised. So far, the project has significantly reduced the energy used by our aging hardware and the associated cooling of our data centres, reducing emissions by an estimated 5,000 tonnes of CO2-e per year. Decommissioning and virtualising of servers will continue and will include the analysis of servers in other states. |
| Air conditioning controls | As part of the EEO program, we are reducing the energy consumed by air conditioning at some of our major sites by improving air conditioning controls, adjusting temperature ranges and installing insulation. At some sites, such as the Hunter Region Mail Centre, the initiative saved approximately 25% of the energy used for heating and cooling. |
| LED lighting trial | As part of the EEO program, we successfully trialled a new high bay lighting technology as an alternative to metal halide lights. The trial at Dandenong Letters Centre in Melbourne, demonstrated a 60-80% reduction in energy consumption while significantly reducing the heat load on our air conditioning system. The new lights also have twice the lifespan of metal halides. We plan to install the lighting across all major facilities. |
| Lighting voltage reduction | Lighting voltage reduction units were connected to circuits at mail and parcel processing facilities in 2006 and 2007. The units reduce the current supplied to lighting without affecting lighting levels. This initiative currently saves more than 1,400 tonnes of CO2-e a year and will be implemented at additional sites that have been identified through our EEO program audits. |
You can read more about how we are implementing some of these energy saving initiatives in our case studies:
Your can read more about our Staff awareness programs.