Sustainability
As part of our efforts to be responsible custodians of the environment, Mission Australia has developed a Sustainability Action Plan.
Developed in 2009, our Sustainability Action Plan commits Mission Australia to measuring and understanding our environmental footprint generated from energy consumption, fleet operations, air travel and paper usage.
In 2009-10 our sustainability steering and working groups made solid progress by:
- Identifying systems and process improvements necessary to accurately capture and analyse consumption data
- Signing a national electricity supply agreement with corporate partner AGL. This agreement has enabled us to better manage our electricity consumptionand costs
- Using the intranet and our RoapMap staff publication to communicate our sustainability priorities to employees and improve environmental workplace practices
Having identified our potential reporting obligations under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act, we are now working closely with our energy, fleet and travel providers to capture accurate emissions data from all of our services.
Our National Sustainability Manager, Anthony Ogilvie, is developing, coordinating and promoting environmental initiatives across the organisation. As our housing footprint grows and energy tariffs increase, it is imperative that Mission Australia finds ways to make our services more energy-efficient and reduce our carbon emissions.
Mission Australia's Sustainability Action Plan also commits us to working closely with our corporate partners and government on environmental initiatives. During 2009-10 we also partnered with government to deliver programs with both sustainable employment and environmental outcomes. These included National Green Jobs Corps projects run in Victoria and Soft Landing, a mattress recycling and refurbishment program established in Wollongong in New South Wales with support from the Australian Government's Jobs Fund tender.
Transparency
As one of the nation’s largest national community service organisations, Mission Australia strives to be transparent in everything we do. Each year we work to deliver the most accurate and honest report we can for our donors, partners, staff and clients so that they know we are using our money shrewdly and getting the best outcomes from our resources.
Past achievements
- Integrated sustainability into our organisational strategy and established a sustainability steering group to identify and coordinate initiatives
- Made a commitment to measure our national environmental footprint and address gaps in data measurement
- Commenced regular communications with staff on sustainability and identified local sustainability champions
- Supported Earth Hour to help reduce emissions
- In 2007-08 a total of fifteen Mission Australia sites participated in the Queensland sustainability project roll-out, examining their environmental performance. Copies of the reports can be downloaded below:
Queensland sustainability report 2007-08
Queensland summary report 2007-08 - In 2005-06 three Mission Australia services, located in Queensland, participated in a pilot project producing a foundation set of sustainability accounts examining their social and environmental performance.
Copies of the reports can be downloaded below:
Café One on Wickham
Gympie Employment Services
Project Circuit Breaker
Queensland Summary Report 2006
