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Acumen Restaurant Environmental Sustainability Policy Acumen Restaurant commits itself to minimising its impact on our environment throug...
Acumen Restaurant Environmental Sustainability Policy
Acumen Restaurant commits itself to minimising its impact on our environment through
Objectives
- Providing a safe and healthful workplace;
- Having an environmentally sustainable aware culture, where responsibility is assigned and understood;
- Being an environmentally responsible neighbour in our community;
- Conserving natural resources by reusing and recycling;
- Using, in our own operations, processes that do not adversely affect the environment;
- Ensuring the responsible use of energy throughout the organisation;
- Participating in efforts to improve environmental protection and understanding;
- Taking steps to improve environmental performance continually;
- Conducting rigorous audits, evaluations, and self-assessments of the implementation of this policy;
- Enhancing awareness among our employees and customers – educating and motivating them to act in an environmentally responsible manner
- Encouraging our employees to work collaboratively to arrive at solutions to use resources in their own work roles most efficiently.
Policy
Acumen Restaurant will:
- use all reasonable endeavors to meet or exceed all applicable government requirements and voluntary requirements
- use reasonable endeavors to conduct audits and self-assessments of its compliance with this policy and continually improve its environmental management system
- maintain an open and honest dialogue with staff, volunteers, stakeholders, and the public about the environmental, health and safety performance of its operations and services.
- use reasonable endeavors to ensure that every employee, volunteer and contractor is informed of and expected to follow this policy and to report any environmental, health, or safety concern to management so that prompt action may be taken.
- develop guidelines for staff, volunteers and users to adopt sound environmental work practices, and adequate training will be provided to ensure these practices are carried out.
- act responsibly to correct incidents or conditions that endanger health, safety, or the environment.
- promptly report any such incidents to the relevant authorities, and inform affected parties as appropriate.
- use reasonable endeavours to, reuse and recycle materials, purchase recycled materials, and use recyclable packaging and other materials.
- use all reasonable endeavors to that its services and products are safe, efficient in their use of energy, protective of the environment, and able to be reused, recycled or disposed of safely.
- use all reasonable endeavors to minimise materials and energy use, prevent air, water, and other pollution, and dispose of waste safely and responsibly.
- use all reasonable endeavors to conserve energy by improving energy efficiency and giving preference to renewable over non-renewable energy sources when feasible.
- use reasonable endeavors to, utilise its particular knowledge and experience to contribute to environmentally sustainable techniques, technology, knowledge and methods.
- use all reasonable endeavors to contribute to the maintenance and increase of biodiversity through its management of its landholdings.
- demonstrate company and management commitment to sustainability measures to engage all staff to act sustainably, by providing incentive programs and rewards to employees who actively participate in efficiency and sustainability; incentives may include
- provide a company mug to all employees with ‘green’ branding
- provide a reusable carrying bag with the company logo to all employees
- offer public transportation incentives to employees, i.e., discounts or make travel passes available pre-tax
- impromptu small rewards, such as movie tickets, gift vouchers, staff lunch or dinner to celebrate achievements, etc.
- wherever possible, give preferences to products and suppliers that are:
- Australian produced and made
- biodegradable
- greenhouse friendly certified
- recyclable
- recycled post-consumer content
- reusable
Strategies to achieve objectives
· GREENING THE MENU- Provide local, organic and vegetarian menu options to reduce environmental impact
· REDUCE PACKAGING- Choose foods and other products with little or no packaging. When food is purchased in packaging ensure it is made of recycled content and is recyclable.
· USE REUSABLE - Avoid disposables and use reusable cutlery, cups, glasses, plates and platters.
· GET CONSUMERS INVOLVED - Ask customers to bring their own clean take-away food and drink containers and provide $1 discount for take-away food containers and $0.50 discount for take-away drink containers.
· STORE FOODS APPROPRIATELY - Store foods adequately to increase shelf life and in reusable containers, not disposable plastic.
· REDUCE WASTE - Only supply bags/serviettes/takeaway containers if a customer directly asks and only provide those made of recycled content and that are recyclable.
· SUPPORT FAIRTRADE - Demonstrate commitment by prioritising and promoting Fairtrade products.
· RAISE AWARENESS - Inform customers about the measures taken in menus, on a website, on packaging and at the point of sale.
Green purchasing policy
· Minimise Unnecessary Purchasing
o purchases will only be made once it has been determined that the product, material or service is necessary
o stockpiling/ bulk ordering will be avoided unless it is for products that are high use/ high turnover items
· Minimise Waste
o Purchasing decisions must be made in the context of the waste hierarchy to
§ AVOID/ RETHINK:
- functions or tasks should be carried out without using materials that generate waste eg. send information electronically instead of on paper
- where practical and cost effective, products will be ordered in appropriate quantities to avoid having to dispose of obsolete products
- biodegradable products should be used wherever possible eg. compostable paper plates
§ REDUCE
- use less in the first place and avoid waste eg. purchase in bulk to reduce packaging waste
§ REUSE
- ensure that new purchases are durable, have a long service life and are easy to maintain, repair and upgrade.
- equipment purchased or rented are to be compatible, whenever practicable, with the use of recycled-content or re-manufactured products (e.g. photocopy machines- recycled/ recyclable toner cartridges, recycled content paper)
§ RECYCLE
- products should contain high percentages of recycled content (>80%?) wherever possible
- paper should be purchased with at least 50% recycled content, preferably sourced from post consumer waste
- choose products which can be recycled at the end of their life
- recycle goods wherever possible; investigate recycling schemes available
§ DISPOSE OF WASTE THOUGHTFULLY
- waste to landfill should not contain toxic or recyclable items such as batteries, fluorescent tubes, compact fluorescent lamps, chemicals, oil or other toxic items; disposal schemes are available for all of these items in Victoria
· Maximise the Purchase of Eco- Labelled/ Environmentally Preferred Products/ Services
o prioritise products that achieve certification in major eco-labelling schemes
o potential suppliers should provide details of their environmental sustainability policy, plans, and practises
o choose to buy electricity from providers who use renewable sources
· Minimise Greenhouse Gas Emissions
o products and materials must be energy efficient
o use Green Power and reduce reliance on fossil fuels
o goods and services should be sourced locally where possible
· Maximise Energy Efficiency
o products and materials must be energy efficient
· Maximise Value for Money
o purchasing decisions must be made on the basis of value for money rather than just the cheapest up-front purchase price
o cost benefit analysis (using the benefit: cost ratio of~ benefits/ (investment + operating costs)) may need to be undertaken on larger purchases to ascertain whether larger upfront purchase costs of materials or equipment is then offset by lower running and maintenance costs; the calculated benefit: cost ratio should be over 1.
Related Documents
- Code of Ethics
Authorisation
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Appendix C
Sustainability area | Problems | |
Lighting | · There are fluorescent lights in the kitchen. These are not as energy efficient as LED lights. | |
Waste Management | · The restaurant has hired two 120 litre general waste bins. · Each general waste bin costs $150 per year, to hire. · Each collection service for a single bin costs $9. · The total volume of each general waste bin is 0.24 m3 and maximum weight capacity is 30 kg. · The total volume of the recycle bin is 0.46 m3 · Waste is collected twice a week, and the general waste bins are always full, whereas the recycle bin is less than half full. · Food waste is not separated from other types of waste that goes in the general waste bin. · It is estimated that food waste is 50% of the general rubbish · Weekly volume of general waste is 0.96 m3 and weight is 125.8 kg. · Weekly volume of recycling is 0.46 m3 and weight is 29 kg | |
Water usage | · There are two Leaking taps in the restaurant – 1 in the kitchen, one in the bin cleaning area. · There are older style single flush systems in toilets, and users cannot decide to use a half tank of water if they want. | |
Appendix B: Electricity Bill
Electricity Account
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Acumen Restaurant 1 Sample St Sampleville VIC 3999
Customer number 2222 222 222 Account number 3333 333 333 NMI 4444 444 444 Service address 1 Sample St SAMPLEVILLE VIC 3999
Tax invoice Issue date 02 May 2019 Due date 15 May 2019
This account is based on an estimated reading of the meter.
Your electricity usage calculation
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