Tackling climate-change is a global priority if we want to secure a stable and sustainable future, and it’s a responsibility we take seriously. The Victoria Government aims to reduce Victoria’s emissions by 75 to 80 percent by 2035 and brought forward the date to achieve net-zero emissions from 2050 to 2045. The water sector is supporting this effort and has pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2035. We’re going one step further and are on target to achieve net zero by 2025.
Net-zero carbon emissions mean balancing the amount of greenhouse gases produced with those removed from the atmosphere. And we’re doing this through several initiatives that are reducing our carbon footprint including transitioning our fleet to low and no-emissions vehicles.
The distances our team needs to travel across southern Victoria means our fleet footprint is a challenge. But we’re determined to shift all our vehicles to being fully electric or hybrid as soon as we can and are making good progress towards this goal.
Elisa Hunter, General Manager Strategy, People and Culture said incentives such as fringe benefits tax exemptions on eligible electric vehicles are helping the transition and Southern Rural Water is planning more to encourage greener transport.
“Government incentives are important and we’re planning to support a greater update of electric vehicles by installing more solar electricity systems and charging stations at our sites,” she said.
“Technology is moving so fast, and we’re excited to see the electric utility vehicles that are entering the market and how they might help our regional team to reduce their travel emissions,” she said.
We report our emissions through the single national framework called the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme. Under this scheme, there are three types of greenhouse gas emissions: scope1, scope 2 and scope 3 emissions.
Scope 1 emissions are those released into the atmosphere as a direct result of the activities at our facility, such as transport. Scope 2 emissions represent emissions released outside our business to produce the electricity we use as part of our operations, such as grid-connected fossil fuel burning power stations.
Elisa said we have already achieved net zero on Scope 2 emissions thanks to the utility’s unique operating environment and investment in solar generated electricity.
“We are different from other utilities in that most of our network is gravity fed - we don't have a huge amount of pump stations. We manage rural water, so we have traditional channels that run via gravity,” she said.
It’s the scope 1 emissions that are more challenging and we’re tackling them by reforesting suitable areas of our land to generate carbon offsets.
Carbon offsetting works by planting trees to capture carbon from the atmosphere to generate carbon credits that can be used to offset emissions released.
Elisa said each tonne of carbon dioxide stored in trees has the potential to earn one Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU).
“The carbon credits earned through our reforestation projects will be used to offset our scope 1 vehicle emissions while we transition all our fleet to no or low carbon vehicles,” she said.
“It will take a little time for our reforestation projects to establish and generate offsets. In the meantime, we have partnered with Wannon Water who will trade 3,000 ACCUs for the period 2024/25 to 2029/30 which will enable us to meet our net zero target in 2025,” she said.
Solar power is another emission reducing initiative we’ve invested in at a local and state level to meet our target of sourcing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable sources by 2025.
Our recent solar installation at Blue Rock Lake will allow us to slash emissions by between 12 to 27 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. And the 22.1kWh battery will allow us to store extra energy for our requirements on those cloudy days. We are investigating other sites across our estate in southern Victoria where we can install similar systems to power our operations.
At a state level, the Zero Emissions Water (ZEW) initiative we’re a member of is part of a collaborative effort among 12 other Victorian water corporations that supports reducing emissions and increasing renewable energy generation. We do this by collectively purchasing and retiring Large-scale Generation Certificates (LGC).
Large-scale Generation Certificates are tradable certificates for eligible renewable energy power stations. An LGC is equal to one megawatt hour of renewable energy generated. We, along with other ZEW members, can buy and retire certificates to demonstrate reductions in our electricity-related emissions.
Finally, we also continue to buy green power from suitable providers to cover our remaining energy needs and we’re in the early stages of investigating other renewable energy opportunities that could help us drive more sustainable outcomes for our business.
Elisa said the future depends on the actions we take now and everyone at Southern Rural Water wants to leave a legacy the world will benefit from.
“A healthy, functioning environment underpins safe and secure water supplies that are essential to life as we know it.”
“Our team knows this, and we’re committed to leading by example and making climate change resilience our core business,” she said.