31
our environmental
impacts
Protecting our waterways with a Piranha!
City Care has a team of trained experts armed with a Piranha ready to respond to contain spills in our precious waterways. In this case
the Piranha is not a voracious fish but a special soak boom made of woollen fibres which soak up substances such as oil and diesel
that sit on the surface of the water. Along with the Piranha, the team's emergency response trailer holds other specialised equipment
including inflatable and disposable booms to assist City Care in supporting Environment Canterbury to clear waterways of harmful
material such as oil, diesel and water-soluble substances. Previous successes of the team included locating and containing a major
diesel spill in the Heathcote River, when 10,000 litres of spilled diesel were trapped in a pipe under a road.
e n e r g y u s e
City Care's energy consumption per million dollars of
revenue has decreased markedly from 1.332 gigajoules
(GJ)/$million in 2005 to $1.044 GJ/$million this year.
This pleasing result may have been in part due to our
focus on minimising environmental impacts through our
Environmental Plan, which includes a section on how to drive
economically. Furthermore, the total energy consumed by the
company also decreased to 103,652 GJ, compared to 109,606
GJ the previous year.
e
This is equivalent to the energy used
by 2,369 households.
f
As illustrated by Figure V, diesel continues to be the major
source of energy used by City Care at 84% of the energy used
by the company. The company's fleet consumes over three-
quarters of this energy, with the remainder used for the
running of our asphalt plant and general office operations.
g r e e n h O u s e g a s e s
Our combustion of diesel and petrol during the year created
6,731 tonnes of CO
2
emissions. Again this represents a
decrease from last year's figure of 7,128 tonnes. Furthermore,
when considered in terms of eco-efficiency the result is a
significant improvement from 86.7 tonne CO
2
/$M revenue
to 67.8 tonne CO
2
/$M revenue, making the company twice
as eco-efficient as it was five years ago.
The CO
2
created by City Care is equivalent to that consumed
by 1,223 hectares of native forest.
g
G
i
g
a
J
o
u
l
e
s
120,000
100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
Figure U: Energy Usage
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Total Energy
Energy Usage per $1M Turnover
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
Figure V: Energy Usage by Source
84% Diesel
4.6% Electricity
11.4% Petrol
Figure W: Energy Usage by Area
77.7% Fleet
18.7% Asphalt
3.6% General
G
J
G
J
/
$
m
i
l
l
i
o
n
