Mercury is an essential ingredient of fluorescent lamps (tubes, CFLs, etc). But did you know that 90% of fluorescent lamps are just dumped in landfill? From the dump, the mercury can find its way into the water and accumulates in plants and animals. 

But every element of a fluorescent lamp can be recycled. Fluorocycle is signatory program run by the Lighting Council Australia that encourages the safe disposal and recycling fluorescent lamps.

Make sure your electrician and building management responsibly dispose of fluorescent lamps. Your firm can also join 240 other businesses as a FluoroCycle signatory (it's free!) and publicly commit to keeping mercury out of landfill. 

Fluorocycle presentation (PDF) - presented by Lorraine Lilley to the AusLSA Melbourne Sustainability Champions Network, February 2015. Fluorocycle Blog post on AusLSA website.

REPORTING ENCOURAGES MEASUREMENT AND MANAGEMENT King & Wood Mallesons Melbourne tracking towards significant power reductions Over the past three years, King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) have been managing their environmental footprint and began publicly reporting with AusLSA in 2014. As a result of their ongoing measurement and management, they were able to compare their major national tenancies’ power consumption and found that the Melbourne office stood out as consuming 40% more than their other comparable sized offices. This has led to a specific initiative in Melbourne to reduce power consumption in that office. Warren Booth, KWM’s Business Services, Premises and Projects Manager is leading this project and, together with his team, have set an ambitious stretch target to reduce power in the Melbourne office by 30% by June 2015. “A big advantage in reporting is that is encourages measurement and management” said Warren. He has a whiteboard in his area with the target in big bold letters so that the staff see it every day. “Walking past the whiteboard, seeing the target and see we are tracking seems to have some subliminal effect on us all and we start to adopt more energy conscious attitudes” he said. Generally, all of KWM’s tenancies have been reducing power over the years, taking advantage of government re-lamping schemes and employing other energy saving measures. This has been a little more difficult in KWM’s Melbourne office, due to the age of the tenancy and the nearing expiration of the lease. “The commercial payback for major lighting projects simply wasn’t there”, said Warren. Despite this, Warren and his team have been able to make great inroads in other areas which includes fitting “kill switches” on all floors that override sensor lighting, engaging with building security to check lighting after hours and modifying how the conference floor auxiliary air conditioning works. In addition to this, equipment power settings and gradual equipment replacement also attributes to overall power saving. “Technology devices are all set to go to sleep and PC’s are remotely switched off. New equipment on balance draws about half the load as older equipment”. After having picked the ‘low-hanging fruit’, Warren and his team are ready to audit remaining equipment with power meters to find the “power hogs”. So how is the project tracking? So-far Warren is at an impressive 20% of his 30% stretch target. “We had to pick something inspirational to aim for. I followed the example of the Yarra Energy Foundation’s ‘Zero Carbon Project’, where the City of Yarra aims to have a zero carbon future by 2020” said Warren. While many of KWM’s other offices are already in six-star energy efficient buildings, Warren plans to extend his successes nationally and the lessons he has learned will be passed on. AusLSA congratulates Warren and his team for their vision and success to date and thanks KWM for allowing us to share this story with our members. Contact: Warren Booth Business Services, Premises and Projects Manager King & Wood Mallesons T: +61 3 9643 5526  E: warren.booth@au.kwm.com

Energy and appliances

	We all know the Energy Rating scheme that advises on the energy efficiency of the appliances we buy, but how about these extensions of the program.
Energy Rating App	The Energy Rating App is a new app for mobile devices that provides info on the costs of running different models of various appliances. Available as Apple / Android / Blackberry or web-based app.
Compare Models	Compare Models allows the comparison of different models within an appliance group according to various metrics such as power, output and efficacy. Detailed results can be downloaded for further analysis. You can even input your electricity tariff and calculate lifetime running costs; a great tool for building your business case for purchasing more efficient monitors.

 

Lighting Guides

Energy efficient lighting technology report

When implementing energy efficient lighting solutions, the Energy Efficient Lighting Technology Report (PDF 3.6MB) can help you:

• Understand the various lighting solutions available – their costs, savings and payback periods
• Select cost-effective upgrades best suited to your business
• Implement a lighting upgrade.
  

The Energy Efficient Lighting Technology Report - technical details (PDF 1MB) should be read by suppliers, installers, plant operators, site engineers, and facilities seeking more detailed technical information about lighting upgrade options. 

Lighting

Improving the energy efficiency of lighting is high on the list of 'low hanging fruit'. Swapping from halogens to LEDs can be one of the easiest energy efficient projects with the following benefits:  Low energy (save $$ on electricity) Long lasting (save $$ on maintenance and replacement) Low heat emissions (save $$ on AC) Easy retrofitting (often simple swap) No mercury. But there has been a proliferation of LEDs, some of which are not from reputable sources with issues around longevity, so how do you know which ones to buy? Try these guides from the Lighting Council Australia. Guide to choosing LED products and suppliers (PDF) A consumer guide to buying good quality LEDs

Lighting systems can be responsible for a substantial amount of the energy used by businesses, sometimes up to 50 per cent. Energy use associated with lighting systems can be reduced by up to 82 per cent if energy efficient lighting practices are adopted.

Energy Saver provides the following tools to help you understand your lighting system and enable you to identify, implement and realise energy and cost savings.

Energy Saver energy efficient lighting technology report (updated)

As lighting technologies are changing fast, OEH has updated its Energy Efficient Lighting Technology Report to help you better understand this changing landscape. The report outlines energy saving solutions for common types of lighting and provides detailed annual energy savings, capital costs and payback periods for various lighting options. It will help you implement energy efficient lighting solutions and choose the most cost-effective energy efficient technology upgrades. 

The report should be read by facilities managers, plant operators, site engineers, procurement managers and operations and financial management at any facility or organisation with significant lighting.

Download:

• Energy Saver Energy Efficient Lighting Technology Report (Feb 2014: 140017EEL.pdf, 3.7MB)
• Energy Saver Energy Efficient Lighting Technology Report: technical details (Feb 2014: 140016EELTech.pdf, 1MB).

Calculight – the Energy Saver lighting upgrade calculator

The Calculight calculator helps you make an informed decision about energy efficient lighting for your site. Calculight:

• helps you to identify appropriate, cost-effective energy efficient lighting upgrades for common types of lighting
• shows you a number of options, letting you make the best choice for your business
• compares lighting upgrade options and lets you sort results by annual energy savings, capital costs and payback periods
• gives you generic technical specifications, so that you can confidently approach lighting suppliers and contractors.

Please note that this tool was developed as a guide for identifying energy savings, and does not negate the requirement to seek technical expertise for design and specification issues.

Energy efficient lighting training

Energy Saver offers a two-day workshop designed to help you:

• understand current lighting technologies
• investigate best practice lighting solutions
• apply best practice lighting solution upgrades to your site.

Visit lighting training for details and to book a place.

For more information please contact the Energy Saver team on 1300 361 967 or emailenergysaver@environment.nsw.gov.au

Energy efficient lighting training

Lighting can be a substantial energy cost for many businesses. It presents a significant opportunity to improve energy efficiency and reduce the cost of energy bills. This training, in conjunction with the Energy efficient lighting technology report and Calculight tool  is designed to help you understand current lighting technologies, investigate best practice lighting solutions and apply them to your site.

• Book a session that suits you

Key learning areas

• Understand types of energy efficient lighting
• Evaluate existing lighting effectiveness and expectations of a new system
• Understand total cost of ownership for lighting
• Develop lighting solutions using the Calculight tool
• Work more effectively with suppliers and evaluate quotes
• Verify that completed works meet expectations

Who should attend?

Senior staff, sustainability and environment officers and champions, operations and facilities managers, management team members, procurement staff, site managers and engineers.

It is recommended that two people from each organisation attend if possible.

To request in-house customised training for groups of 15 or more, emailenergysaver@environment.nsw.gov.au.

Training format

Two half-day workshops. Participants are required to  attend both  workshops.

Businesses should commit to completing a lighting upgrade within 12 months after the training and should be prepared to collect information about actual projects they intend to complete between training sessions one and two. 

Cost: $100 per person in Sydney and $50 per person in regional NSW.

Training location and dates

Select a session that suits you and book online. If there isn’t a suitable session, please register your interest for future courses.

Post-training support

Support is available for participating organisations to assist with implementation of energy efficiency opportunities arising from the training. Support options can include:

• Site visit to identify energy efficiency lighting opportunities
• Development of an energy efficiency lighting business case
• Assistance with completing the Calculight tool
• Creation of a top-line lighting retrofit action plan, which could include:
  
  • Support preparing requests for quote
  • Assistance with quote evaluation
  • Assistance with accessing the Energy Savings Scheme

Other training courses

Energy Saver delivers a range of energy efficiency training courses across NSW. Additional training courses include:

• Energy management basics
• Energy efficient HVAC for business
• Energy efficiency in commercial refrigeration
• Cogeneration feasibility
• Industry focused energy efficiency training is also available for the aged-care sector andregistered clubs.

Contact us

For more information about energy efficiency training call 1300 361 967 or emailenergysaver@environment.nsw.gov.au.

David Dercho (Client Development Manager, Wallmans Lawyers) describes why their firm started focussing more on energy efficiency and how that led to them winning the CitySwitch Award for new Signatory of the Year.     Recorded on 21 March 2014.

A discussion of energy efficiency programs at the Melbourne office of Clayton Utz that have resulted in electricity reductions of 50% over 6 years presented by Jason Molin, Operations Manager, Clayton Utz.   Recorded on 7 March 2014.   

Recorded webinars on lighting

Recorded Webinar	Presentation
Introduction	Lighting-VECCI-Intro.pdf
Specific lighting solutions	Lighting-VECCI-SpecificTechnology.pdf
Implementation, funding and subsidies