Ecological Footprint
For the past three years we have calculated
the ecological footprint (EF) of our full year’s operations. We are the
first in the Australian waste industry to use this technique. It enables
us to understand better the cumulative environmental impacts arising from
our business activities and to measure our progress towards more environmentally
sustainable waste services.
The EF measurement, expressed in hectares (ha) includes:
- the area occupied by our operational sites;
- land that has been disturbed by the harvesting, manufacture and supply of materials;
- energy and services used in our operations; and
- potential future land disturbance due to climate change arising from the emission of greenhouse gases.
For 2006-2007, our overall footprint stands at 42,427 HA, down 10.5% over the past two years. However, there is more work to do. We have measures in place that will further reduce our carbon footprint, including:
- improved gas capture at the Eastern Creek landfill;
- extensions to gas infrastructure at the site formerly known as Jacks Gully; and
- full-capacity operation of the Eastern Creek AWT facility for the entire year.
Shared Responsibility Model for Measurement
We are now using a shared responsibility model for measuring our ecological footprint. This model assumes that impacts generated from both WSN’s supply chain and business operations are divided between WSN, our customers and our supply chain.
This approach reduces multiple counting of impacts and provides a more accurate representation of the footprint WSN generates through our own operations.
