Maths and Stats Green Team

Environment Advocates

If you would like to be involved, or just have suggestions that will improve our performance in reducing our carbon footprint, please contact us:

Christina Burt
c.burt@ms.unimelb.edu.au

Natalie Aisbett
n.aisbett@ms.unimelb.edu.au

Department Carbon Footprint

We use www.carbonfootprint.com to calculate our carbon emissions.

The monthly carbon footprint is calculated taking the following items into account:
1. Energy consumption (as reported for the Richard Berry building on sustainablecampus.unimelb.edu.au);
2. Waste
3. Business flights
4. Stationery
5. Internet usage (as reported on its.unimelb.edu.au)

	Q1	Carbon (tonnes)	Q2	Carbon (tonnes)
Energy (kW/h)	186609.28	273.76	156979.92	230.29

Measurements on "waste" can currently only be made by manual survey, which is both difficult and inaccurate. We are currently conducting a test study on measuring business flight emissions within MASCOS - for the first three quarters of 2009, MASCOS (139 Barry st members) generated 10.48 tonnes of carbon for business flights. We are not aware of any carbon footprint calculator that accounts for stationery. If you can help with any of these measurement issues, we would love to hear from you!

Achievements up to 2009

The admin staff in the department have taken a pro-active view to reducing waste around the department:
• they collect any used office accessories, including stationery, for re-use;
• they also collect paper that has been printed on one side for the purpose of creating paper pads for work;
• they have implemented a co-mingle recycle program in their office.

The Maths and Stats department has already implemented the following EHS goals:
• Battery Recycling;
• Co-mingle Recycling;
• Computer Recycling;
• Paper/Cardboard Recycling;
• Polystyrene Recycling;
• Toner Cartridge Recycling.

Property & Campus Services are organising an increase in the temperature band within the Richard Berry building. Air-conditioning will be set to a minimum of 26 degress, while heating units will be set to a maximum of 20 degrees. We anticipate that this initiative will help the department meet the University's goal for 10% reduction in energy consumption by the end of next year.

Environment objectives for 2009

1. Investigate the feasibility of off-setting CO2 emission generated in business flights by purchasing carbon credits.
2. Replace stationery with sustainable alternatives where feasible (and cost neutral).
3. Implement a co-mingle waste program.
4. Implement a duplexing/toner-saving campaign.
5. Implement a 'switch-off' campaign.

Things you can do to help

1. Avoid using overhead transparencies (as they are difficult to recycle).
2. Place waste paper that is printed on one side only into the appropriate bins in the print rooms.
3. Place recyclable items into co-mingle bins.
4. Print 2 pages per page, duplex and use toner-saving modes.
5. Switch off your light if you leave your office for more than 45 minutes.

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