Congratulations to the Royal Automobile Club of Western  Australia (RACWA) for their commitment and comprehensive approach to minimising their carbon impact. RAC is WA’s leading motoring membership club, with more than 720,000 members. A corporate culture of environmental  sustainability is already embedded across the organisation’s external operations with initiatives such as the ‘Less Emissions Mission’ which rewards low carbon emitting car owners with cheaper insurance and membership, offsetting of emissions produced by its own vehicle fleet, provision of greener motoring information to all members and participation in WA’s first electric vehicle trial. Since joining CitySwitch in  November 2011, RACWA has turned their focus to their own office operations and implemented a range of bold and innovative projects.

RACWA impressed CitySwitch  Awards judges with their commitment and rigour to introducing and implementing new green initiatives. Having originally gained a 4 star rating in 2009 they have since gone on to achieve and maintain a 4.5 NABERS Energy whole building rating, saving 46,474 KWh in electricity use. Following on from this achievement, RACWA conducted a comprehensive assessment of resource consumption at their West Perth office, identifying a range of opportunities to reduce energy consumption. A resulting Resource Efficiency Action Plan and associated Marginal Cost Curve of Abatement (which facilitates the prioritisation of energy saving initiatives based on their cost and abatement potential) have helped identify the organisation’s next energy saving initiatives. 

City of Perth’s Clr Lyndon Rodgers presents RACWA’s Senior Vice President Esme Bowen & CEO Terry Agnew with the National Signatory of the Year Award.

Tract Consultants and GIW Environmental Solutions are the collective winners of the 2012 National New Signatory of the Year. Sharing a tenancy in Richmond, Melbourne, the office has cut energyuse by 10 per cent and are on track to reduce their annual energy consumption by 19MWh, saving $4,400 and achieving a 4 Star NABERS energy rating. The judges said, “If the definition of leadership is to inspire others to follow, Tract and GIW are the standout winner in this category. Their internal competition has all the hallmarks of best practice: creating competition to drive engagement, empowering teams to improve their environments, backing this up with budget and management support, and implementing ideas for continuous improvement.”

The shared office put staff up to the challenge of an internal energy reduction competition across ‘blue’, ‘yellow’, ‘green’ and ‘orange’ teams.  Competing for maximum energy savings, teams actioned a diverse number of initiatives ranging from delamping, an HVAC upgrade and an energy-saving tips mascot, to equipment timer switches and use of switch-off signage with the slogan ‘we are yellow’ to bolster team member participation and behaviour change. The tenancy has since gone on to partner with RMIT University students (as part of CitySwitch Victoria’s collaboration project) to identify new improvement strategies.

New South Wales

New South Wales