Leichhardt Council’s sustainable business program, Leichhardt Business SMART, has been up and running for five months now and local business people are being invited to get involved…
The SMART program is FREE and open to businesses of all sizes across the Leichhardt LGA with a focus on assisting them to identify opportunities to reduce resource use in the key areas of waste, water and energy through an ongoing assessment process.
The SMART team work with local businesses looking at ways in which the business can potentially operate more efficiently through a series of resource use assessments. The business is then provided with a report detailing all assessment findings, recommendations and costed savings and payback periods. The SMART team will also continue to provide support in implementing the findings of your assessment, including assistance with grant funding opportunities where applicable.
Some simple changes that you can easily make in your business (or at home) to reduce your resource use include:
• Ensure all electrical equipment (computers, TVs, appliances etc) are switched off from the power point at night, weekends and during holidays. Even on standby some devices still use significant amounts of electricity.
• Set automatic sleep timers to turn computers off after a period of inactivity.
• Switch to low energy lighting, especially in areas of high use. With new technology lighting, this can result in significant financial savings while still maintaining quality of light.
• Ensure any drips or leaks from water fixtures are repaired promptly (one drip per second from a tap equates to approximately 7000L per year).
• Encourage staff to use water responsibly, for example, always mop floor surfaces instead of hosing them where possible.
• Ensure waste streams are separated properly, minimising the amount of waste sent to landfill.
• Reduce the amount of waste generated by being aware of product packaging and selecting recyclable products where possible.
By recommending and implementing simple changes like these, the SMART program has been successful in identifying opportunities for over 715,000L worth of water savings, as well opportunities to reduce energy use by over 5500kWh and divert almost 122 cubic metres of waste from landfill. These reductions in resource use equate to potential financial savings of almost $15,000 per year for participating businesses, and this is still only the beginning.
The Leichhardt Business SMART team will continue rolling out this program over the next year, and is looking to engage new businesses interested in improving their overall sustainability and reducing their operating costs.
If you are a local business owner and are interested in learning more about the Leichhardt Business SMART program, or would like to register for the program, visit: www.leichhardt.nsw.gov.au, or contact Roy Morizzi at: roym@lmc.nsw.gov.au.
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