Riverina celebrates $2.36 million environmental savings

Lisa Corbyn, director general of the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC), said some of Australia’s biggest primary producers and agricultural service providers were participating in the Riverina Sustainability Advantage program, and achieving the best results in the state.

“Throughout NSW there are 225 organisations in 24 different groups of businesses working with the DECC to fight climate change by significantly reducing water and energy use, as well as waste and greenhouse gas emissions.

“The Riverina business group has led the way for sustainable business practice,” said Ms Corbyn.

“Their achievements are a credit to the commitment of the organisations to efficiency and environmental improvement and a credit to the skills of their staff.”

Members’ achievements include:

• water savings of 150 ML
• electricity savings of 1600 MWh
• gas savings of 9600 gigajoules
• stopping over 150 tonnes of waste going to landfill
• reducing transport distances by 100,000 km
• planting over 27,000 native trees

De Bortolis operations manager Rob Glastonbury said De Bortoli Wines had introduced changes to its labelling, bottling and cropping techniques to improve efficiency and fight climate change.

“We have saved 50 tonnes of waste going to landfill; reduced energy consumption from 400 to 8 kWh/year, saving $160,000 a year in power; introduced a system for the complete re-use of winery waste water for growing crops, which now generates around $200,000 a year. We have also avoided capital spending of over $350,000 for larger power supplies; and reduced our wine and packaging waste,” said Mr Glastonbury.

“The key program for us has been staff engagement provided by the DECC. De Bortoli Wines managers and staff were seeking a better way of working and the program galvanised us into a continuous learning and improvement program. To date we have seen some amazing improvements based on simple cultural changes in the business.

“The productivity rates on our cask and bottling lines have improved 37 and 30% respectively, and our lost time injury rates have fallen by over 80% in the past 12 months. In that period, process non conformances have dropped by 26% and customer complaints have dropped by 42%.

“I was surprised by the huge savings in our overall costs that have been achieved through the introduction of these new sustainable procedures. We have managed to help the environment and the business at the same time,” Mr Glastonbury said.

Having seen these changes, the De Bortoli Family had the confidence to initiate a $1m research and development program to create the concept of a zero waste winery and trials to date indicate further savings and sales opportunities between $3 and $4 million.

Gary Polkinghorne, director of PHL Surveyors, said that the Sustainability Advantage program resulted in savings in energy, paper and printing costs.

“The savings created by our participation in the program have been allocated to our newly formed sustainability budget and will go towards the capital cost and implementation of further efficiencies within our organisation,” said Mr Polkinghorne.

Businesses taking part in the Riverina Sustainability Advantage program are Casella Wines, Orlando Wines, Westend Estate, De Bortoli Wines, McWilliams Wines, National Foods, Rockdale Beef, Bartter Enterprises — Griffith, Murrumbidgee Irrigation, Real Juice Company, Chicken Income Fund and PHL Surveyors.