Earthcheck

Earthcheck is an adaptable environmental benchmarking tool that measures an organisations environmental output. This is done across a variety of areas, including energy consumption, waste production and resource conservation for the core areas of an organisations operation.

Earthcheck System

Earthcheck's system is based upon the integrity and sophistication of its data sets - the system has now collected over eight years of data across thirty world business sectors. The research and data is based upon science and technology by the The Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre [http://www.crctourism.com.au (STCRC)] .

Earthcheck Benchmarking Steps

Earthcheck Benchmarking involves the following three key steps:

* MeasuringAn organisation beginning with the Earthcheck programme initially measures through the Earthcheck software three key areas of "Energy", "Water" and "Waste". This comparative data encourages organisations to self-improvement based upon performance and statistics generated from Earthcheck.
* BenchmarkingAfter measuring, the Earthcheck system is able to compare an operation's results against a "baseline"and best-practice performance rating.
* ReportingWhen using the Earthcheck system, participants receive an annual Benchmarking Assessment Report which allows an organisation to compare results against typical and best-practice levels of environmental performance.

The Sustainability Challenge

"The Sustainability Challenge" is a collaborative project developed and administered by EC3 Global. The challenge involves partnerships between the Gold Coast City Council and the STCRC.

The challenge is based on an interactive web-based programme - with students using the Earthcheck benchmarking system to monitor and find the most effective way to reduce their use of energy, water and production of waste.

The project was trialled with 13 Gold Coast schools and plans are now in motion to expand the programme across Australia. Some of the schools involved in Stage one included [Gold Coast City Council: [http://www.goldcoastcity.com.au/t_standard.aspx?PID=5719 Sustainability Challenge] 19 December 2006] :

* Bellevue Park Primary School
* Coomera Primary School
* Gilston State Primary School
* Guardian Angels Primary School
* Helensvale State High School
* Marymount College
* Nerang State High School
* Pimpama Primary School
* Robina State High School
* St Brigids Primary School
* Surfers Paradise Primary School

avings In The City

"Savings In The City" is a sustainability program developed using the Earthcheck system. The programme was designed by the City of Melbourne around 'early adopter' businesses who showed an interest in the programme. It developed guidelines and support material for eventual introduction to the broader hotel community.

The City of Melbourne wished to benchmark the environmental performance of 20 - 30 hotels as part of the Savings in the City programme, in order to provide a quantitative overview of the environmental impact of hotel operations and highlight areas of improvement.

In its pilot year the programme assisted the hotels in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by over 11,000 tonnes - equivalent to the gas emissions of 933 average Victorian Households. Following this, one individual hotel managed to accrue savings of over $50,000 AUD by benchmarking three areas of its environmental impact.

After completing two years with the programme, the hotels involved are now independently continuing with the programme.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.ec3global.com/products-programs/earthcheck/Default.aspx Earthcheck Company Website]
* [http://www.ec3global.com/ EC3 Global Homepage]
* [http://www.crctourism.com.au/ STCRC Homepage]