Take action at work
- Did you know?
- Take action
- Actions for your workplace Green Team
- Building the future today - United Voice delegate Mary Shallard
- Talking about renewable energy at work - United Voice delegate Stefanie Rogers
- The First Star at work
Did you know?
- Over 80% of Australia’s emissions are produced at work - in business services, manufacturing, mining, transport and agriculture. Less than 20% of emissions are produced by Australians at home.
- Energy efficiency measures could create an additional 75,000 good green jobs in Australia by 2030. And the green building industry could support over 230,000 jobs, according to the ACTU and ACF.
- It is possible to include climate change initiatives when you bargain your union collective agreement. However the content of an agreement must relate to the employment relationship. This means that drafters must connect climate change issues to employment factors such as job security through sustainable jobs.
- Adjusting the thermostat at work by just one degree (warmer in summer and cooler in winter) reduces emissions by 10%.
- Is driving really quicker? You might be surprised. Author Ivan Illich is quoted as saying that if you add the time you spend working to pay for the car to the time you spend stuck in traffic, the average speed of car transport is hardly faster than walking!
- Regular cyclists add 2 years to their life expectancy.
Take action
- Talk to your workmates about climate change.
- Put up a poster on the noticeboard, or give workmates a United Voice climate factsheet (download printable copies here)
- Ride, walk or catch public transport to work. Even just riding or walking part of the way will keep you more alert, improve your health, and increase your engagement in your community.
- Form a 'Green Team' with fellow United Voice members at work. Workers need to be involved to pinpoint problems and create climate-friendly solutions. The Green Team needs to get proper time and money to do their work – just like the OHS committee. Once you have a few allies, you can approach management to develop a carbon reduction plan.
Actions for your workplace Green Team:
- Conduct a simple workplace energy audit and share the results with your workplace. Download a basic energy audit at www.climateconnectors.org.
- Talk to your employer about improving energy efficiency. Most businesses can save 20% in energy costs through simple efficiency measures.
- Get water flow aerators installed and halve the water use at your workplace. Producing water uses a lot of energy - heating, treating, moving and desalinating - energy that mostly comes from burning dirty fossil fuels. So saving water is also saving carbon emissions.
- Reduce waste and start a Recycling Scheme. Paper is the biggest greenhouse gas problem in the waste stream. This is because there’s a lot of it, and it rots in landfill, creating methane, which is a shocker of a greenhouse gas. You can save 1.4 tonnes of greenhouse gas for every tonne of paper recycled.
Talk to people at your workplace about
the benefits of renewable
energy.- Talk to your employer about the benefits of riding or walking to work. Some incentives your employer could provide are bike parking, showers and lockers, subsidies for cyclists or even a company bicycle fleet for work-related use.
- Identify ways to reduce your organisation’s car and air travel.
- Organise a workplace car-pool. You could use Google Maps to help plan who should ride together.
Building the future today - United Voice delegate Mary Shallard
United Voice member Mary Shallard is a leader in the Clean Start campaign. She works with other members at organising committee meetings to develop the campaign for fair hours, fair workloads and job security.
Mary is also a leader in environmental
sustainability at work. She works at a building that has recently been
retrofitted to achieve a 4 star energy rating.
"I’m proud to say I work in a building which is being completely reconstructed to be greener by the day. I feel like I’m doing something at work to act on climate change."
Mary would like to see other United Voice members get active about climate change at work.
"I think it’s worth people in other buildings asking their managers if their building is a green building. If not, ask why not? Let your company and people who work in the building know that you want to get involved in making the building better for the environment!
"My building is now a 'zero waste building'. Every floor, and there are 18 of them, has a separate bin for food and other organic material such as tea bags. The bins are lined with biodegradable liners. These bins on each floor are collected by the cleaner and transferred to larger 'food organic' bins in the basement, ready for pick up by an external contractor who takes them to a recycling plant. There's another bin system for collection of cans, bottles and plastics. It's called a 'co-mingling bin'. Cardboard and paper are stacked and recycled separately as well. Everything goes to recycle depots. Nothing from this building goes to landfill. Recycling reduces emissions from landfill and also conserves resources.
"In this building, they’ve also installed about 100 bike racks to encourage people to travel by bike, not car. By the number of bikes in the racks, it looks like it’s working too.
"We all use microfiber cloths. They are colour coded for all different surfaces. They’re good for the environment because they reduce the use of chemicals and save a bit on water.
"The tenants play their part too. There’s no all purpose rubbish bins under every desk any more. They only have a ‘paper only’ box which they empty in to the paper recycle bin on their floor. This is also good for us cleaners because we don’t have to touch smelly rubbish bins under hundreds of desks every day. It gives us more time to keep the office space really clean.
"The thing I liked the best was that as a cleaner I was involved in meetings with the tenants, the building manager and the recycling company when the new system of waste management was coming in. You learn things new things too! For example, some biro pens contains organic material, and I found out that bandages are bio degradable too. It’s great to be cleaning in a building where the building owner, management, tenants and cleaners are working together to do our bit for the environment.
United Voice Delegates (including Mary - left) lead the Walk Against Warming last December. 100,000 people marched for action on climate change including hundreds of United Voice members.
Talking about renewable
energy at work - United Voice delegate Stefanie Rogers
Renewable energy is the best solution to the climate crisis. The sun, wind and tides can create clean, safe power that will never run out. Renewable energy also means new investment, new industry and lots of new jobs.
In Whyalla, SA, Australia’s largest solar power facility is being built with support from the Gillard Labor government. 300 giant dishes will focus the sun’s energy - enough to power 9,500 homes. 200 local jobs will be created.
United Voice delegate Stefanie Rogers works at the hospital in Whyalla and is looking forward to her town becoming a shining light in solar power. She would like to see the hospital itself run on energy from the solar station.
"We already work hard to reduce our energy use by turning off lights and air-conditioning at night and weekends in areas that are not used at these times. The management of the hospital are always asking for suggestions from staff into how we can become more energy efficient and reduce our energy use.
"I would like to think that when the solar power plant is up and running all government buildings would take the next step and purchase renewable energy which would save money, reduce greenhouse gas and slow down the effects of climate change."
Read
more about clean renewable energy
The First Star at work
In the hotel industry, United Voice members are campaigning for better jobs, better hotels. This is a campaign for hotels to be proud of – where staff have fair pay, stable work, career development and respect at work. It is also about creating a hotel industry that is sustainable and committed to a safe climate.
United Voice hotel members are sharing their knowledge of the industry via The First Star. This website tells travellers about which hotels are ethical and sustainable, and which use greenwash to pretend to be doing the right thing.
The First Star vision for an environmentally sustainable hotel is one that
- Is committed to honesty, transparency and accountability, with NO greenwash.
- Engages workers and guests to help make the hotel more sustainable.
- Continually reduces its energy and water use, increases its energy coming from renewable sources, and has a plan to move towards 100% renewable energy.
- Continually reduces its waste, increases reuse and recycling, and has a plan to entirely eliminate waste sent to landfill.
Are you an ethical traveller? Find out more about the campaign and sign up here:
