Sustainability Skills

Learn about sustainability

What is sustainability?

Business sustainability is a goal for most enterprises. As a micro business owner you may want to sustain an income to retirement or to hand over a viable business to your family. You might be involved in a larger company which has a responsibility … More

Skills and qualifications

Skills and qualifications for sustainability

Sustainability skills Sustainability is recognised as a key driver for new directions within manufacturing enterprises and across the entire value stream. Manufacturing Skills Australia has identified key areas of skills that can support the … More

Sustainability skills resources

Sustainability skills resources

The resources will help Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) and enterprises to design and deliver effective skills development programs for sustainability. They are intended as one source of information about the breadth and complexity of … More

Lean and environment tool kits

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has developed a series of guides, tool kits  and case studies that show the links between lean systems and environmental sustainability improvements. It recognises that companies that can deliver products and services with fewer environmental impacts have the potential to capture significant competitive advantage, provided that there are not sacrifices in time, quality, or cost. In many markets products with superior environmental performance … [Read more...]

Fuji Xerox supply chain

Fuji Xerox web site describes their Environmental Standards on paper sourcing – “To qualify as a supplier of FXA copy papers, there are a number of basic requirements that must be met and confirmed in annual declarations”. Among others these include human rights: “That the supplier will maintain compliance with the minimum conditions of the United Nations Global Compact and, if not a signatory to the Global Compact, will commit to becoming a signatory within a specified time frame." See … [Read more...]

Lockheed Martin hazardous waste management

Lockheed Martin identified a significant amount of unused chemicals going directly to the hazardous waste stream without ever being used, when they expired on-shelf, or when they were no longer needed for research or production. Lockheed Martin moved to a just-in-time chemical management system, with chemicals delivered three times a week in “right-sized” containers to meet real-time demand. At one site they achieved: chemical inventories were dramatically reduced, freeing capital tied up in … [Read more...]

Right sized equipment

Apollo Hardwoods was established using lean princples. They invested in developing “right sized” equipment which used less energy, fitted into small production cells, and allowed them to fabricate the same amount of finished product using fewer logs and generating less wood scrap. See http://www.epa.gov/lean/environment/studies/apollo.htm … [Read more...]

Rejuventation environmental management system

Rejuvenation (USA) a manufacturer of period-authentic reproduction lighting and hardware used an environmental management system based on The Natural Step and Lean manufacturing. Rejuvenation has reduced its environmental wastes and increased quality and profit. Prior to Lean implementation finished products were not inspected until the end of the line at a quality control center requiring expensive rework when mistakes were found. Through their Lean systems the quality control center was … [Read more...]

ISO 26000 Social Responsibility Guidance Standard

ISO 26000 is an International Standard giving guidance on social responsibility - what it means, what issues an organisation needs to address in order to operate in a socially responsible manner, and what is best practice. It contains voluntary guidance, not requirements, and therefore is not a certification standard like ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004. http://www.iso.org/iso/social_responsibility … [Read more...]

Santos environmental impact assessment

Santos has published an Environmental Impact Assessment for the Gladstone LNG project which identifies how it will manage potential negative community impact. It includes: Cultural heritage management plans that will be developed with relevant Aboriginal parties. The aim is to prevent any harm to cultural heritage items or areas, however if that cannot be achieved then a harm minimisation approach will be adopted. Social management plans which detail how Santos will monitor the social … [Read more...]

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This website and many of the products have been produced with the assistance of funding provided by the Australian Government; including through the Green Skills Agreement and the Clean Energy and Other Skills Package.