Going green good for bottom line

19 August 2009

The society that we live in requires us to be responsive and alert to the issues around us - two of which include climate change and health. Cycling has a positive impact upon these issues affecting us as individuals, community members, road users and employees. The Commuting program guides workplaces through change in developing and expanding their cycling culture and equips employees with the ability to safely ride to work and reap its benefits.

Cycling to Work

Businesses and Organisations should encourage making workplaces more cycle - friendly, as part of a travel plan to reduce car trips for commuting and business.

Employers can take a number of steps to make it easy and to encourage staff to travel to work by bike, or to use a bike for business travel.

Companies should begin by having a survey which is distributed to the staff and audit the work-site to find out what changes are needed to encourage more people to cycle to work.

CASE STUDY: AB Mauri

AB Mauri is situated on the Camellia peninsula. It produces and markets yeast for bakers, winemakers and brewers. The company also provides thousands of tonnes of yeast each year for the iconic Australian brand, Vegemite. A subsidiary of Associated British Foods, it owns the Grand Avenue site from which it has operated for 30 years.

General Manager Operations and Chair of the Camellia Business Group (CBG), Chris King, says that it's a sound business to be in during a downturn. "More people buy more bread rather than eating out and they often turn away from premium to lower cost brands that require more yeast. That trend is good for our business."

There are two primary ingredients needed to make yeast; sugar extracted from molasses- a by-product of the sugar refining process, and water. Water is also an expensive element in the operations at AB Mauri. A beneficiary of someone else's unwanted by-product (molasses), the company is set to turn its water outputs into valuable inputs for its Camellia neighbours.

A fully operational water treatment plant on site uses aerobic and anaerobic bacteria to transform manufacturing effluent into recycled water. Further treatment of this water may improve its suitability for cooling towers and as an input for other water intensive industries on the peninsula. The networking connections that have emerged from the re-invigorated CBG have enabled Chris to investigate recycling options that benefit many businesses.

Organic waste that can't be put to other use can be sent to another Grand Avenue resident, EarthPower, which transforms waste into methane gas and high quality organic fertilisers used for parks, sports grounds and landscaping.

According to Chris King, sustainability makes good business sense. Treating effluent alone costs the company around $500,000 each year, so any opportunity to re-coup some of these costs through recycling will have a positive impact on the bottom line.

Conscious of the fact that AB Mauri uses a lot of energy to manufacture its yeast products and is heavily dependent on road tankers to deliver inputs, the company has managed to re-use or recycle over 95 per cent of its waste products, reducing the cost of disposal and creating potential future revenue streams.

A keen cyclist, Chris has introduced a bike subsidy program that is gaining support of others along the peninsula. Employees at AB Mauri receive financial subsidies of up to $1,000 for the cost of purchasing a bicycle through a $10 company contribution for every day they cycle to work. Like other residents in Grand Avenue, Chris would like to see the development of better cycle ways in the precinct to encourage healthy transport options for workers. Adding 15 minutes to his normal travel time is a small price for Chris to pay to come to work at least three times a week from Manly using ferry, Rivercat and bicycle.