EREP: finding savings when we need them most

Written by: Kirsten Saunders of EPA Victoria

As businesses look to cut costs, EREP is assisting many Victorian businesses to reduce resource use and at the same time cut operating costs. These actions are often without major capital expenditure, delivering quick financial gains.

Introducing EREP

In 2007 the Victorian Government introduced innovative legislation to help businesses meet climate change and resource scarcity challenges.

The Environment and Resource Efficiency Plans (EREP) program run by EPA Victoria is internationally unique in that it:

• encourages whole of business efficiency measures across energy, water and waste
• mandates investment in any measures with a financial payback of less than 3 years

Large commercial users of energy and water (using over 100 TJ or 120 ML in a financial year) are required to participate in EREP. Participants are required to identify actions that reduce resource consumption and minimise waste generation. Importantly, they must also implement any actions that have been found to have a simple payback of three years or less.

Through EREP, EPA Victoria is helping to address a number of market failures that deter businesses from identifying and investing in resource efficiency measures of their own accord. As such, EREP has been designed to generate environmental benefits at the same time as improving the financial bottom line.

Delivering economic and environmental resource savings

Around 250 sites are currently involved in EREP program, with a small number of sites expected to enter the program in subsequent years. Companies are also encouraged to register for the program voluntarily, to take advantage of resource efficiency guidance and gain access to training courses and events.

Most businesses have submitted plans and preliminary data from the program shows that in addition to significant water, energy and waste savings, most businesses will also recoup their initial investments in less than two years. EPA will release full details of the expected savings from the program later in the year.

Many businesses involved in EREP are continuing previous efforts in resource efficiency – having either corporate sustainability policies in place or having been involved in previous government programs (such as the Industry Greenhouse Program, waterMap and/or the Energy Efficiency Opportunities). However, the EREP program is assisting a number of businesses to progress actions from the identification phase through to implementation.

Identifying new actions through EREP

La Ionica, based in Thomastown, has identified significant savings through EREP. Prior to registering for EREP, the business had already undertaken electricity audits, installed substantial equipment and halved its general waste output. But the EREP process helped them not only focus on water and waste, but also prioritise previously identified opportunities.

"When we started looking at it, we realised there were things we'd previously put on the back burner. Once you focus on the key points, you find there are huge savings in it and not a lot of work", said Operations Manager, Rob Peterson.

Through a waste assessment and simply improving infrastructure, the site has cut their solid waste output in half. Contributing to their energy savings, the company modified its refrigeration equipment to operate sequentially as workload demands, and run at full capacity only when required.

La Ionica has also identified potential water savings of 45ML per annum through reuse and process improvements. Believing that some processes might be using excess water, the company will install valves to lock in optimum flow levels on each of its main processing lines. They've also installed three meters that allow consumption to be checked via the internet, at any time, allowing excessive consumption to be investigated immediately and remedied.

For more information on EREP, visit http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/bus/erep/default.asp