SUSTAINABILITY & ENVIRONMENT
Across the world GHD operates in diverse and complex communities. As our reach broadens, our corporate responsibilities are equally expanding. GHD defines ‘sustainability’ as improving human wellbeing without compromising the local or global environment over the long term. In an organisational context, this means integrating social, economic and environmental issues into core business to achieve a socially and environmentally responsible operation that enhances the long-term value delivered to both our clients and the broader community.
Recognising the importance of sustainability to our business, GHD has implemented a framework to reduce the environmental footprint of our operations and projects in alignment with a commitment to pursue opportunities, enhance our workplace, contribute to the community and help our clients realise their objectives.
This framework defines how we do business and deliver projects as part of the broader economy and enables us to consider the long-term consequences of our services. It helps us operate in an atmosphere of responsible corporate citizenship, which inspires our people, fosters effective working links with our clients and generates value for our shareholders.
GLOBAL AGENDA
GHD recognises the rapidly increasing urgency for society and business to address the global sustainability challenges of the efficient use of natural and human capital, loss of biodiversity, poverty and population growth. Our response to these challenges is to manage the social, economic and environmental consequences of our projects, provide positive outcomes wherever possible and avoid serious negative impacts.
We are an active member of the peak global business organisation for sustainability, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and contribute to its four focus areas of Energy & Climate, Development, the Business Role and Ecosystems. Nick Apostolidis, Water Business Stream Leader, heads the Council’s activity to support the UN International Year of Sanitation. The aim of this initiative is to help raise awareness within the business and broader community of the plight of 2.6 billion people with inadequate access to sanitation and to contribute actively and positively to the International Year of Sanitation.
POLICY
Our Sustainability and Environment Policy reflects our commitment to being a responsible corporate citizen: "GHD recognises its corporate responsibility to contribute to the goals of sustainable development and is committed to managing the social, economic and environmental impacts of our operations, and assisting our clients to manage theirs in the provision of our professional consulting services. We recognise innovation as the key to realising this aspiration."
Our policy commitments are given effect through our Environmental Management System (EMS) procedures and the use of Sustainability Impact Assessments on projects.
STRATEGY
In 2008, we established a Sustainability Advisory Group to guide the implementation of our sustainability strategy. The role of this group is to:
- Identify global and local sustainability issues and determine how they might be addressed by GHD.
- Establish thought-change, direction and policy for incorporation into GHD’s business.
- Monitor and provide feedback on EMS performance.
- Influence, review and report on GHD’s own sustainability performance.
- Investigate innovation opportunities, which advance sustainability in our business and services.
- Develop partnerships that assist in developing and accessing new technology and business.
Through its regular meetings to date, the group is quickly establishing an excellent overview of sustainability initiatives across GHD’s markets and areas of operation. It is also identifying strategies such as the need to leverage relationships with various partners to enhance access to knowledge on a global scale. Most significantly, the group recognises that it can become an effective communication agent to identify, receive and promote information on key issues such as energy security, emissions trading, water conservation and management, allocation of natural resources and waste management with the aim of realising opportunities for our clients.
2008 INITIATIVES
We are determined about the contribution that GHD can make to a sustainable society and enthused by new initiatives in the 2008 financial year:
- The development of guidelines for office energy and travel plans as core components of our commitment to achieving carbon neutrality.
- Substantial completion of our successful sustainability awareness program to GHD staff in Australia.
- Creation of Sustainability and Environment Committees and sustainability networks in our offices.
- Developing and piloting our project Sustainability Impact Assessment process.
- Creation of a Climate Change Service Line and strategy that includes significant additional recruitment and internal retraining of staff to embed mitigation and adaptation options for all projects.
- Participation in the 2008 UN Climate Change Summit in Bali.
- Participating in the business dialogue on key public policy issues such as emissions trading, infrastructure and future energy scenarios.
- Engaging with our clients and their stakeholders to workshop sustainability solutions through an ongoing series of sustainability seminars.
- Support of core environmental activities around the world including World Environment Day, Earth Hour, Clean Up Australia, Clean Up the World, tree planting days and the like.
2008 INITIATIVES CONTINUED
- GHD became a foundation member of the Australian Green Infrastructure Council (AGIC). We are working closely with the organisation in the development of a sustainability-rating scheme. This is an industry-developed scheme with the intent to deliver optimised sustainable infrastructure across sectors and states in all phases of delivery.
- Establishment of an Innovations forum for GHD staff to contribute to ideas for business improvement. Numerous suggestions related to sustainability and improved environmental management have been received.
- Investment in new technology to collect environmental data worldwide, with automatic reporting functionality.
- Participation in the Australian Government’s Australia 2020 Summit.
- Support for walk and ride to work days, pro bono environmental consulting for community groups and more.
OUR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
The impacts of our operations are a consequence of our business activities in our buildings, transport and on-site activities for our clients. In this context our environmental impacts are considered to be water use, electricity use, paper use, waste production and recycling, fuel use and our greenhouse emissions.
Electricity Use
GHD continues to reduce its total electricity use in our offices1.| Financial Year | Number of Offices Surveyed |
Kilowatt hours per employee per annum |
| 2008 | 62 | 1850 |
| 2007 | 63 | 1923 |
| 2006 | 36 | 1970 |
| 2005 | 25 | 2140 |
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
GHD has developed a Life Cycle Assessment methodology to identify and quantify greenhouse gas emissions attributable to our services over their life cycle. Previous greenhouse assessments were based on available data for Australia, for which reliable emission factors exist, and extrapolated to the whole company. For the 2008 financial year, data for offices worldwide, where available, was included.
Our greenhouse gas emissions for 2008 are 4.7 tonnes CO2-e emissions/per employee/per annum, compared to 5.2 tonnes for 20072. Our inventory for this year is not directly comparable to previous years, as data collection improvements have been made and more accurate (lower) emission factors used for offices outside Australia. The largest sources of greenhouse emissions continue to be electricity use in our office buildings and those associated with air travel.
In order to reduce these major emission sources, each GHD office is developing Office Energy and Travel Plans. These will assist in our strategy of achieving carbon neutrality (target date 2010). Office Energy Plans will be developed during 2009 and will include a range of measures to improve the energy and greenhouse intensity of our operations.
1 Includes only offices with reported data.
2 This figure is a correction of the figure of 6.4 tonnes per employee stated in our 2006/07 Annual Review.
Paper Use
A reduction of approximately 20 percent per person was achieved in 2008. This exceeds the target of 5 percent reduction and shows our ongoing commitment to reducing paper consumption.
A number of paper reduction measures were initiated including:
- Evaluation of 100% recycled paper supply for printer/copier paper across Australia.
- Evaluation of the environmental credentials of paper content of our major publications - GHD News and Annual Review.
- Provision of electronic greeting cards for Christmas and Chinese New Year instead of traditional paper cards.
- Printing restrictions on internal newsletters.
- Provision of paperless pay summaries.
- Joining the Project Paperless initiative in May 2008.
EMS Re-certification
GHD has an Environmental Management System accredited to ISO 14001: 2004. In 2008, we successfully completed our tri-annual re-certification audit.
