Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
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The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20170422042231/http://www.bhs.org.au:80/node/275
Environmental sustainability at Ballarat Health Services is overseen by the Environmental Sustainability Committee, which promotes environmentally sustainable practices across the organisation.
A network of Environment Champions from within our staff also contributes to environmental sustainability by supporting initiatives, identifying new opportunities and encouraging colleagues within their work areas to support our movement towards a green future.
For more information regarding environmental sustainability at Ballarat Health Services or to make a suggestion as to how we can further reduce our carbon footprint, please contact [email protected]
As a part of the Australian Government’s Solar Cities program, Central Victoria Solar City partnered with Ballarat Health Services to demonstrate energy efficiency measures and energy generation technology in a hospital environment.
This included the installation of 78kW of solar photovoltaic cells, the introduction of two electric cars to the vehicle fleet, commissioning of two industrial solar hot water systems and the integration of $800,000 worth of environmentally sustainable design features to the Ballarat Regional Integrated Cancer Centre building.
At the time of installation, these initiatives had expected annual savings of 263.88 tonnes of CO2-e and $17,048.38. These initiatives continue to reduce the energy consumption and carbon footprint of Ballarat Health Services. Full report - Energy Consumption and Carbon Emission Offsets 2013/2014.
Desktop bins
Information from Sustainability Victoria showing effective office waste management can reduce landfill waste by up to 90% encouraged Ballarat Health Services to implement a desktop bin in our office spaces.
This initiative involves removing the large under desk general waste bins and replaces them with smaller desktop bins and under desk paper recycling boxes. This encourages office staff to consider how much should be recycled and how little should go to landfill.
The bin exchange in Ballarat Health Services office areas has been supported by education and information about what can be recycled and what waste goes where. This process has been aided by upgrades to waste signage that has been specifically prepared for use in health care.
LED lighting
Energy efficient and long lasting, LED lights are gradually being installed across Ballarat Health Services facilities as they have been shown to use less energy than halogen, incandescent and CFL lights, and last considerably longer.
Ballarat Health Services is undertaking a staged approach to upgrading our lighting to LED through our yearly capital works budget. LED lights have been fitted to Level 3 of the Henry Bolte wing and two of our aged care facilities in Wendouree.
The new LED lights have shown improvements in light levels and light quality, use less power and require less maintenance than the existing lights. Proposals to further the LED lighting program at Ballarat Health Services in this financial year are being reviewed.
MobileMuster
Many staff at Ballarat Health Services use mobile phones as part of their employment and these phones are replaced as phones break or become obsolete leaving many phones to be disposed of.
Ballarat Health Services has partnered with MobileMuster, a government accredited non-for-profit program that provides recycling for all mobile phones and mobile accessories.
Staff and visitors to Ballarat Health Services can recycle their old mobile phones and accessories by handing them in to the cashier’s office at the Ballarat Base Hospital or to main reception at the Queen Elizabeth Centre.
MobileMuster recover over 90% of the metals and plastics to make new products, conserving precious natural resources and avoiding future greenhouse gas emissions.
Organic waste composting
In an effort to reduce our waste to landfill, Ballarat Health Services has entered an arrangement with Davo’s Worm Farms in Creswick to provide them with our food waste, removing it from our general waste stream.
Food waste from the cafeteria at the Ballarat Base Hospital and from preparing the meals in our commercial kitchen at the Queen Elizabeth Centre is collected each day and is used to feed Davo’s worms.
This arrangement diverts over 100,000 kilograms of food waste and organic matter from our general waste each year.
PVC Recycling in Hospitals
The PVC Recycling in Hospitals program collects used medical PVC items such as oxygen masks and IV fluid bags and recycles it into hoses and safety mats here in Victoria.
There are over 50 million IV fluid bags used in Australia each year, which contributes to 2500 tonnes of medical PVC used each year. The PVC Recycling in Hospitals program operates in 60 hospitals throughout Australia and New Zealand.
Ballarat Health Services began participating in the program in mid-2016 and continues to extend the program to different areas of the hospital using medical PVC. Estimates from our suppliers suggest the health service will divert 2.5 tonnes of medical PVC from landfill through participation in this program.
Reusable coffee cups
With three outlets at Ballarat Health Services offering takeaway coffee, it became apparent through our waste audits that the health service required a solution the large proportion of takeaway coffee cups in our landfill waste.
The implementation of a reusable coffee cup at our cafes has reduced the number of takeaway coffee cups the health service uses, thereby reducing Ballarat Health Services total waste to landfill.
Partnering this initiative with the BHS Foundation, Lavazza and Pura has included a free coffee in the purchase price with the proceeds going towards supporting the BHS Foundation.
For further information regarding purchasing a BHS reusable coffee cup, please have a look at this promotional flyer.
Water fountains
To reduce our reliance on bottled water Ballarat Health Services installed 20 chilled and filtered water dispensers across Ballarat Health Services.
The water fountains allow staff and visitors to fill up their water bottles at a number of locations around the health service, reducing the need to purchase bottled water.
Copyright 2010 Ballarat Health Services - Damian Georgiou
