In my role as Campus Manager and Manager Facilities Development at Central TAFE from the early 1990s through to 2005, I pursued my passion for environmental conservation and sustainability. This was well before today’s sustainability push by government and citizens. It was a struggle because many people at the time thought I was wasting time on this and that it was ‘smoke and mirrors’.
In the early days I received little recognition for the work done; the work was outside my regular duties and although management was aware of what I was doing, they provided little support by way of funding and staffing.
I was permitted to work with a team of equally passionate Central TAFE site-based Facilities Officers to take on waste reduction projects; they too did this work outside their normal workload. We were able to significantly reduce the college’s environmental footprint by modernising air conditioning, building management and lighting controls. All funding for projects was obtained via external grants, totaling in the millions of dollars. We had an excellent relationship with the State Office of Energy WA; they often funded plant enhancements with a view to determining feasibility of across government implementation.
I was a member of a team that development an Energy Conservation Manual for the TAFE sector, this manual was the start of implementation of energy conservation across all colleges in WA.
We turned heads when we started winning environmental awards including:
All this success was due to dedicated band of workers, who worked behind the scenes using common sense to reduce waste and improve the bottom line. We were doing this before it became fashionable to conserve energy and reduce waste.
Slowly my project gained management recognition and they looked to my team to implement sustainability projects and reporting that was gradually being introduced across WA government. Successes included:
In 2008 a serious medical condition forced early retirement; thankfully my health has now improved and I am in remission.
My leaving the college resulted in lost opportunities:
It appears I was ahead of my time and without a willing champion to pursue the various projects they died off.
It is however heartening to see that today environmental sustainability is a buzz word, we regularly see advertisements on TV talking about energy and water conservation. Recycling, conservation and waste reduction are daily topics; let’s all do our bit and leave a planet in better shape than our generation found it!