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IRT Discovers It's Easy To Be Green
30 August 2011
IRT has embarked on a number of energy and water saving projects, supported by $183,609 from the NSW Government’s Climate Change Fund.
These projects will deliver ongoing benefits to IRT, its residents and the environment and include the installation of energy-efficient lighting, solar hot water heaters and ozone laundries.
IRT has installed energy-efficient lighting at:
• IRT William Beach Gardens in Kanahooka, where the changeover is estimated to save 155 megawatt hours of energy and 166 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over 10 years.
• IRT Woonona, where we are hopeful of saving 249 megawatt hours of electricity and 266 tonnes of greenhouse emissions in the first 10 years.
• IRT Links Seaside in Wollongong, where we expect to save 550 megawatt hours of electricity and 589 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over a 10-year period.
We also received funding for the installation of a solar hot water system to replace the greenhouse gas intensive electric hot water heaters at IRT Diment Towers and IRT Moruya. It is expected the IRT Diment Towers project will save 240 megawatt hours of electricity and 257 tonnes of greenhouse gases over a 10-year period. The installation of solar hot water at IRT Moruya is expected to save 16 megawatt hours of electricity and 17 tonnes of greenhouse gas annually over the next decade.
Additional funding was also secured for ozone laundry installations, as ozone is an extremely effective disinfectant and enables washing to be done in cold water and with fewer cycles. The use of ozone will also reduce chemical use.
At IRT we are installing ozone laundry systems at our Care Centres in IRT Culburra Beach, IRT St Georges Basin and IRT Sarah Claydon in Milton. The benefits of ozone laundries will extend to savings including 5.5 million litres of water, 244 megawatt hours of electricity and 392 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions within the first 10 years at IRT St Georges Basin to 7.7 million litres of water, 460 megawatt hours of electricity and over 676 tonnes of greenhouse gases over 10 years at IRT Sarah Claydon.
The total estimated energy savings that IRT will achieve over this 10-year period will be the equivalent of removing 641 cars off the road.
It’s our strategy at IRT to create a sustainable organisation, to future proof our sites and to progressively manage our carbon footprint, which is timely given the impending introduction of a carbon price.
IRT Chief Executive, Nieves Murray said these energy saving projects demonstrate IRT’s commitment to becoming a sustainable organisation and would not have been possible without funding assistance from the NSW Government.
“At IRT we are working hard to reduce our impact on the environment through a range of sustainability projects involving energy and water savings, recycling and waste management,” she said.
A number of other sustainable initiatives IRT has planned will be funded through the income generated by the large 10 kilowatt solar panel system recently installed at IRT Dalmeny.
For further information please contact:
Melissa Michie
Communications Coordinator
Phone: 4221 6653 or 0419 789 841
