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Sustainable Purchasing Home Taking Action Resources
 - One of the new hand dryers in the Town Hall. Photo supplied by Council.
From July 2008, Maribyrnong City Council staff have been drying their hands with efficient air dryers rather than the 1.5 tonnes of paper towel previously used each year.
This relatively straightforward change is will save Council around $26,700 and prevent 2.6 tonnes of direct CO2e emissions each year.
In addition to the direct CO2 and cost savings, Council also considered the life cycle emissions and water consumption in the production of paper towel.
Producing a year’s supply of paper towel for Council requires an estimated 40,000 litres of water and 2.3 tonnes of CO2e is emitted during the manufacturing process – and that’s not counting the emissions from harvesting raw materials or from transport.
Council’s simple action has a 12-week payback period and substantial greenhouse gas and cost savings. It has also led to tidier bathrooms and happier cleaners.
 - Waste paper towel bins often overflowed. Photo: Gary A. K.
The Town Hall complex houses approximately 250 staff. There are nine toilet blocks (male and female) in the complex, all using paper hand towels despite hand dryers being available in two of the toilet blocks.
Waste paper towel often ended up on the floor of the hand washing area as bins overflowed.
Supplying paper towel for the Town Hall complex cost Council approximately $9000 each year, not including the labour costs of cleaning the floors, restocking the holders, ordering, emptying the rubbish bins and buying plastic bin liners.
With the addition of the associated costs, Council was spending around $27,000 annually.
Financial benefits
The new hand dryers cost $6075 and ongoing annual energy costs are $234.
However, this cost is minimal when compared to the estimated $26,941 Council used to spend each year to keep the toilets supplied with clean paper towel and to dispose of it when used.
The action has a payback period of 12 weeks and is predicted to save $26,700 a year.
Environmental benefits
By no longer using paper hand towels, Council is preventing 2.6 tonnes of direct CO2e emissions each year, as well as the estimated 40,000 litres of water used in production and 2.3 tonnes of CO2e emitted during the manufacturing process.
Keith Loveridge
Climate Change Officer
Maribyrnong City Council
Ph: 03 9688 0395
Fax: 03 9688 0234
Maribyrnong City Council website.
Mosman Municipal Council knows how to get results. After successfully completing the first three milestones in the Sustainable Purchasing Project, Belinda Atkins knew that unless she got the Greenhouse Purchasing Action Plan integrated with Council’s strategic plans, there was a good chance it was destined to sit on the shelf collecting dust.
The first step was to get the Action Plan endorsed by Council. Only a few months after endorsement, it was becoming clear that despite Council support for sustainable purchasing, the only officers implementing the plan were the environment officers who were involved in preparing it.
A review of Council’s Environmental Management Plan (EMP) proved the perfect opportunity to get sustainable purchasing onto the agenda. An action was added into the EMP that meant implementing the Greenhouse Purchasing Action Plan was now a deliverable. The EMP was adopted by Council, requires staff to report on progress quarterly, and is reviewed annually.
Belinda points out this is the key to success. “Not only does the quarterly reporting ensure actions are being implemented, but the adoption by Council makes sure responsibility is allocated to relevant officers”. Staff now have sustainable purchasing actions in their work plans and are accountable for getting the job done. The most recent actions by the corporate services department was to switch to 100% recycled paper, and the inclusion of a sustainable transport tag on the back of all council business cards.
The integration process goes even further. The EMP at Mosman Municipal Council is a component of Council’s three year Strategic Plan (Mosplan). This has led to cross-council support for sustainable purchasing - from Councillors to officers. Belinda comments that “having the Greenhouse Purchasing Plan integrated into an Environmental Management Plan or similar system is crucial to the success of the project. As a component of Council’s Strategic Plan, the EMP holds more weight and ensures the support of senior staff”. Her tips for other Councils wanting to get sustainable purchasing integrated into strategic plans? “Make sure you have support from the top, think about the timing of reviews/budgeting process and make sure Council adopts the plan!”
If you would like to find out more about how Mosman Municipal Council integrated their Greenhouse Purchasing Action Plan into the Council’s strategic plan, you can contact Belinda Atkins, Environmental Coordinator on (02) 9978 4018.
 - Penrith City Council. Image supplied by Council.
Printers are often associated with an opportunity to reduce paper use and ensure that waste paper is appropriately recycled. However Penrith City Council has demonstrated that they also offer a simple way to reduce Council’s operational energy use, long-term operating costs and associated greenhouse gas emissions.
Effective printing is integral to the operational efficiency of any office environment and no doubt many of us have experienced the repercussions of temperamental equipment.
Council’s project also delivers additional benefits that are not as easily quantified but valuable to the organisation nonetheless. This can include less time and stress associated with printing, less office clutter, reduced paper wastage and better quality outputs.
Penrith City Council recognised an opportunity to improve the printing services and efficiency for its childcare centres and administrative buildings. An accumulation of printers over time had created a range of inefficiencies that required streamlining.
The overall objective of the project was to optimise printing efficiencies throughout Council, minimising costs and associated greenhouse gas emissions.
The project was conducted over several months enabling project managers to establish a clear understanding of Council’s current and future printing needs, analyse the effectiveness of existing services and make recommendations to rationalise and improve these services.
The process involved the following key steps: - Conduct an inventory of all of the existing internal printers, their capabilities, energy consumption and costs associated with their operation.
- Implement printing controls that will enable the ongoing monitoring and management of printing activities, such as determining printing volumes and officer printing needs.
- Review all external printing services and associated costs.
- Carry out market research and evaluation to determine best practice technology, including highest energy star rating equipment.
- Review staff printing needs and identify opportunities for improving current services.
- Investigate and report on alternate solutions to print management such as centralised printing and multifunction devices (MFD) (e.g. copier/printer/fax/scanner).
- Develop recommendations for alternative printing technology and structure that meets current and future needs while reducing operational costs, maximising the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and other associated operational and environmental benefits.
 - A council employee reviews a print job from his local print service.
The following key issues were uncovered during the inventory and monitoring period: - Existing MFDs were aged technology, uneconomical and provided a low level of service.
- The main print room printers were unreliable, old technology and demonstrated a poor level of service.
- The fleet of small laser printers was extremely large – 109 units. A number of units were old and in need of replacement.
- Many units lacked print management controls such as data reporting and energy saver modes.
- Inefficient toner use led to high annual spending on toner cartridges.
- There was a high level of office devices in childcare centres – 108.
- Spending on external printing services was high.
- A number of devices being used to service one area could be replaced with a single, better quality, multifunction device.
As a result of the audit Council was able to identify key issues and opportunities and implement a range of actions, which included: - Replacing all existing MFDs and downsizing the fleet of small printers, which resulted in an annual saving of over $90k.
- Recycling all unusable printers.
- Creating a standardised purchasing policy for the printing fleet, which resulted in reduced costs and increased operational efficiency. The policy also mandates that only refillable and recyclable print cartridges are to be purchased.
- Activating print management controls such as energy saving and reporting.
- Expanding the print room capability, resulting in a further saving of $80,000.
- Replacing all office devices at childcare centres with MFDs, a cost neutral action.
- Implementing centralised control of all external printing requests.
The table below provides a summary of the reductions achieved by implementing the actions detailed above.
 - Table 1: Summary of the reduction achieved at Council from replacing all existing MFDs and downsizing small printer fleet
 - Graph 1: Annual printing costs for Penrith City Council
The combined results of these actions will save approximately 556 tonnes of CO2e over a 10-year period or about 56 tonnes per annum. These savings are equivalent to taking 129 cars off the road or eliminating the emissions generated from heating and cooling 371 average Australian homes for a year.
The graph to the right shows the added benefit of reduced costs associated with meeting Council’s printing service needs for the childcare centres and administrative buildings.
For further information on the City of Penrith's Printer Rationalisation Project contact Supply Coordinator Mal Ackerman.
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