Case study: Event recycling

During the year we once again used our Victorian Racing and Melbourne Cricket Club sponsorships as a platform to help us achieve our sustainability goal of “doing the right thing.” Our aim was to educate consumers and get more Lion Nathan waste into the recycling stream.

At Flemington we worked in partnership with other companies to provide 400,000 biodegradable corn starch bags. The bags were branded with Boag’s and people were encouraged to use them. We helped fund the television commercials and provided 12 two-bin system recycling stations, which were located in high visibility areas like the Birdcage, front gates and carparks. We also provided recycling ambassadors for each day of the carnival to promote recycling and encourage people to use the recycling bins. Rob Gell, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and an Inaugural Fellow of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand, gave his time as an ambassador.

The results of the recycling efforts were as follows:

Recycling at the office

Our policy is to redeploy or recycle all computer equipment. Equipment no longer capable of meeting the needs of high-end applications is redeployed within the organisation where capability requirements are not as great. Equipment that can’t be redeployed within the organisation, yet is still useful, is donated to charity.

Equipment of no further use in its current state is recycled with the help of Renewable Recyclers, a social enterprise of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Australia, a non-profit organisation which employs people with mental illnesses, thereby providing them the opportunity to make meaningful contributions economically, environmentally and socially.

Our IT department has worked across the group to help business units reduce their printing requirements. Our deployment of virtual servers provides numerous sustainability benefits. These start with the server manufacturing process (fewer raw material inputs) and continue with the space and power saving of the smaller units. Virtual servers have the smarts to reduce power and heat output when less processing is needed, and because each takes one-twentieth of the space of equivalent dedicated servers, we use less power for air conditioners.

In 2010 we again joined forces with Landcare Australia, in conjunction with MobileMuster to help its “Old Phones, More trees” campaign. This campaign, started in 2007, has so far helped plant over 200,000 trees across Australia. For every kilogram of mobile phones, batteries and accessories sent in for recycling, a tree is planted in five key coastal areas to help tackle problems such as dune erosion and loss of native plants, and to restore native wildlife habitats. In 2010 around 25,000 trees were planted.