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• Introduction
  • Introducing Our Report
  • Statement of Compliance
  • Introducing Us
• Snapshot
  • Highlights of the Year
  • Challenges and Opportunities
  • Performance Scorecard
  • Finance Summary
  • Workforce Profile
• Our Leaders
  • Commissioner's Review
  • Managing Director's Message
  • Corporate Executive
• Performance
  • How We Achieve Government Goals
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  • Office of Road Safety
  • Road Management
• Business Activities
  • Environmental Management
  • Enhancing Relationships
  • Developing Capabilities
  • Safety, Health and Wellbeing
• Governance
  • Principle 1
  • Principle 2 & 3
  • Principle 4
  • Principle 5
  • Principle 6
  • Principle 7
  • Principle 8
  • Principle 9
• Performance Measures
  • Statement of Certification
  • Key Performance Measures
  • Financial Statements
  • Notes to Financial Statements (PDF)
• Appendices
  • Appendices
  • Glossary
  • Acronyms

Environmental Management

Committed to Responsible Environment Stewardship

Our aims are to protect the environmental values of road reserves; minimise impacts on the natural environment, energy consumption and waste; and conserve natural resources.

Key Performance Indicators

	2011	2012	2013
GRI Achievements	B (GRI checked)	B (GRI checked)	B (GRI checked)
Scope 1 and 2 Emissions (t CO2)	28,042	28,368	27,949
Electricity Usage (MJ)	108,319,936	112,238,856	109,300,643
Fuel Usage (MJ)	46,078,344	39,885,497	47,939,701
Gas Usage (MJ)	650,600	1,737,718	1,655,049
Area Cleared (ha)	279.7	111.6	256.4
Area Re-vegetated (ha)	358.3	116.1	239.2

Note: Emissions calculated as per Department of Environment and Conservation requirements which align to the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007.

Introduction

We recognise that the management of the State road network involves a range of activities that have the potential to negatively impact Western Australia’s unique environment.

Our approach to responsibly managing our road operations is to have an informed and committed workforce guided by policy and systems. Further information can be found on our website. Our Corporate policy establishes principles of environmental protection, impact minimisation and conservation of natural resources.

The Environmental Policy is implemented throughout the organisation via management systems and processes. Our Environmental Management System addresses all business activity that has environmental aspects and risks. The system defines responsibilities and competencies, procedures and standards, auditing and review. This year a comprehensive independent audit resulted in successful recertification of the system to the international standard ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management Systems. Our environmental objectives are as follows:

• Implement a systems-based approach to environmental management
• Seek full compliance with all statutory environmental requirements
• Maintain or improve the biodiversity values of roadsides
• Minimise the impacts of noise associated with the road network
• Protect Aboriginal heritage values of road reserves
• Minimise the environmental impacts of materials used in road construction
• Maximise the efficiency of resources used by Main Roads
• Minimise impacts of roads on water quality.

Key Achievements

Transport Portfolio Sustainability Policy

With the creation of the Transport Portfolio aiming to enhance the coordination of the State’s transport system and harness the synergies of its three portfolio partners an opportunity exists to develop and deploy an integrated approach to sustainability.

A collaborative project between the Department of Transport, Public Transport Authority and Main Roads has begun delivering a Portfolio Sustainability Policy and action plan. It is expected the policy will be launched in early 2014. Further information can be found on our website.

Property Management

During the course of the year we have continued to design and deliver residential development with a minimum six star energy rating on the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme, and have recently completed installation of solar panels to a residential trial site.
We have also implemented water efficient measures through the use of Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards scheme rated fittings to wet areas, and through the design and implementation of ‘WaterWise’ landscaping and irrigation.

From a commercial perspective, construction continues at Wedgefield on a new laboratory that incorporates solar passive design, insulated roof sheet, double skin insulated walls, efficient lighting, heating/cooling systems and a variety of other water and energy savings measures. Refurbishment of the second floor of the Don Aitken Centre was also completed during the course of the year. Every element of the fit-out was considered from an environmental perspective. Furnishings, materials and finishings were assessed against national and international ratings systems to ensure minimal carbon footprint, and contaminant releases to land, air and water. New LED lighting, lighting control systems and supplementary mechanical services systems were installed. These will return substantial energy saving that will be measured over the following 12 month cycle.

Environmental Management of Road Projects

Road planning and project development is subject to environmental impact assessment. Screening and preliminary assessment identifies where more detailed field studies are required. When impacts are likely to be significant, the project will then be referred to State or Commonwealth regulators for statutory approval.

The table below indicates the number of road projects and assessment types. There were three instances of non-compliance this year, all relating to the clearing of native vegetation, which are being addressed through compliance improvement actions. There were no penalties or financial sanctions relating to our operations.

Level of Environmental Assessment	2010	2011	2012
Number of road projects subjected to environmental screening	97	83	114
Number of road projects for which environmental impact assessment was conducted	60	44	82
Number of road projects referred for possible assessment under State or Commonwealth legislation	8	2	10
Number of road projects assessed under State or Commonwealth legislation	4	1	1
Environmental Compliance
Number of environmental non-compliance instances	12	4	3

Results are only available in calendar year.

Carbon Reduction Plan – Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation

We have developed a Carbon Reduction Plan and Target which aims for 5-15% reduction on 2010 levels by 2020 for our Scope One and Two emissions and have finalised a Climate Change Adaptation Plan for our business. Some initiatives that Main Roads has undertaken include upgrading traffic signals with LED lanterns and replacing fluorescent tubes in the Northbridge Tunnel with LED tubes. Further details of the above initiatives and achievements that reduce our emissions and energy consumption can be found on our website.

Energy Usage and Greenhouse Gas

Scope 1 or 2 and 3	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13
GHG Type (t CO2)
Fuel	3,597	2,914	3,196
Street and Traffic Lights	22,894	23,400	23,031
Buildings	4,816	5,378	4,993
Air Travel	496	513	422
Fuel – Maintenance activities	n/a	n/a	5,402
Offsets	-1,753	-4,535	-1,792
Total	30,050	27,670	35,252

Scope 1 or 2 and 3	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13
GHG Category (t CO2)
Scope 1	3,160	2,803	3,052
Scope 2	24,882	25,566	24,896
Sub total	28,042	28,368	27,949
Scope 3	3,761	3,836	9,096
Offsets	-1,753	-4,535	-1,792
Total	30,050	27,670	35,252

Note: 2013 fleet emissions yet to be offset.

The level of emissions is on target to achieve our 2020 goal. Our aim this year was for our Scope One and Two emissions not exceed 30,965 t CO2 which was achieved with our calculated emission levels of 27,949 t CO2. The result is due to initiatives rolled out as part of the Carbon Reduction Plan and largely as a result of the continued roll-out of LED traffic signal lighting on the road network. Our focus for future reductions is from improvements to our street lighting.

Aboriginal Heritage

Australia has a rich heritage of Aboriginal culture, with heritage sites occurring widely across the State. Our planning and development processes include identifying heritage sites and avoiding them wherever possible. Consultation with Aboriginal community representatives is an important step in understanding the extent and significance of heritage localities, particularly when they have not yet been thoroughly recorded. This year there were 10 formal heritage meetings.

Conserving fuel

Main Roads is working together with the providers of our Integrated Service Arrangements (ISAs) to improve energy efficiency from maintenance activities. This ranges from on-the-job practice through to sustainability in procurement processes.

For example each ISA is asked to assess their purchase of new plant on a number of criteria including 20% weighting allocated to environmental. Criteria such as service intervals, fuel consumption, engine emission standards, bio-degradable oil and recyclable components are assessed.

Another example is the specification of all operational utilities include dual batteries so they switch off the vehicle and conserve fuel while still running the rotating beacons.

A reporting regime begun during the year with fuel consumption monitored monthly. Any fuel consumption that exceeds 20% of the predicted consumption is investigated. The reported fuel use during 2012-13 was almost 2.5 million litres. No reductions were able to be measured as there was no benchmark to compare against. We will aim to report fuel reductions from next year.

Electric Vehicle Trial Completed

The WA Electric Vehicle (EV) Trial, initiated and managed by local company CO2Smart and in cooperation with the University of Western Australia (UWA)’s Renewable Energy Vehicle Project team, ran from November 2010 to December 2012. This trial was an Australian first and involved the conversion of 11 Ford Focus vehicles for use in Government and private industry light vehicle fleet.

We participated in the trial and gained experience in using the EV within our vehicle fleet and understood the impact of electric vehicles on the road network. Our involvement in the EV Trial has appeared in two television news stories and a number of newspaper reports. The WA EV Trial report has now been released as of June 2013 and is publicly available at http://therevproject.com/trialreport.pdf.

We intend to continue to support EV’s as an initiative targeting transport energy security by maintaining EV’s within our vehicle fleet where practical. We will continue to provide data for UWA’s research purposes from all new EV’s added to our fleet.

Sustainability Evaluation in Major Projects

We have adopted the Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) rating tool for major projects valued at $100 million and over. This tool is Australia’s only comprehensive rating system for evaluating sustainability across design, construction and operation of infrastructure. Our commitment to the rating tool will see approximately two major projects undergo formal verification and evaluation under the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia’s rating scheme per year. An internal process for evaluating our other major projects for sustainability will be developed based on the IS rating tool.

Supporting schemes such as the IS rating tool directly links to our current approach to sustainability. We have participated in pilot trials during the development of the IS Rating Tool for infrastructure through two major projects. Further to the trials, we achieved a formal rating for the GEH project. For more information on our achievements on the GEH project, please refer to the case study. We have also registered the Gateway WA project to seek formal ratings. More information on the IS rating scheme can be found on our website.

Resource Conservation

Our main objective in resource conservation is to minimise the environmental impacts of materials used in road construction. Natural materials are crucial in road building, so when obtaining road building materials we endeavour to avoid clearing natural vegetation, particularly high value vegetation. This is achieved through strategic materials searches and extracting material from previously cleared or degraded areas where possible.

The following table details the extent and type of materials extracted over the last three years:

Materials Extracted

Indicator	2010	2011	2012
Imported road construction materials
Sand (000s t)	842	735	482
Gravel (000s t)	89	1,161	1,013
Crushed rock (000s t)	109	254	2
Limestone (000s t)	320	144	173
Aggregate (000s t)	60	48	26
Asphalt (000s t)	68	83	52
Other (000s t)	159	387	169
Kerbing, barriers, bridges and culverts
Concrete (cubic metres)	8,549	10,876	26,809
Other (000s t)	4.65	1.49	0.54

Resources Recycled

Indicator	2010	2011	2012
Waste materials to landfill
Kerbing (m)	10,591	3,640	9,779
Pavement/footpath (m2)	13,438	3,445	9,041
Existing seal (m2)	88,817	215,265	227,160
Unsuitable material (m3)	6,360	77,944	9,683
Other (m3)	10,060	8,943	767
Recycled Materials
Total (000s t)	14.66	74.08	59.09

The non-homogenous nature of road projects and wide diversity of materials used across the State mean that it is not possible to make comparisons or draw trend analysis from one year to another.

Great Northern Highway realignment, Port Hedland

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