The Water Corporation has recognised the outstanding water saving efforts of Austral Bricks Western Australia with a Gold Award.
Minister for Water, Terry Redman presented Operations Manager of Austral Bricks Western Australia, Mr Ian Coop with the prestigious Gold Award at a special awards breakfast held in May.
The awards were presented as part of the Water Corporation’s Water Efficiency Management Plan (WEMP) program, which aims to reduce the water use of businesses that use more than 20 million litres of scheme water per year.
The Minister presented 14 Platinum Awards and 35 Gold Awards to businesses at the event.
Over 344 businesses are part of the WEMP program and have saved more than 7.9 billion litres of water in 2011- 2012 - enough to fill more than 3,500 Olympic swimming pools. The businesses involved in the WEMP program account for about 37% of Western Australia's non-residential scheme water use, or approximately 34.5 billion litres per year.
Austral Bricks Western Australia was given a Gold Award to recognise a 35-50% improvement in water use efficiency in 2011-2012.
Austral Bricks Western Australia has implemented several initiatives to significantly reduce its water usage. For instance, the company has ensured increased awareness of site water consumption at its Armadale factory through regular monitoring and weekly site reports. In addition to installing retention ponds to capture storm water for reuse in the manufacturing process, Austral Bricks has also employed alternative solutions to reduce water usage for dust suppression on site.
Commenting on the award, Melissa Emery, Environmental Manager for Austral Bricks in Western Australia stressed the importance of water saving at the company and the focus on ensuring sustainability to minimise their environmental footprint during production processes. She adds that the company has been able to achieve 41% improvement in water efficiency on site since they joined the program in 2009.
