Pollution and Waste Development
Infringements
There were no significant spills or environmental infringements during the period. There were some instances of council cleanup orders being received (for things such as muddy tyres), however, none were for serious infringements.
Commercial Construction Waste
We are not able to report accurate construction and demolition waste diversion statistics for our development businesses due to difficulties with contractor reporting, however we believe diversion rates were above 85% across the businesses, in line with responsible industry practice. This is a subject of management focus.
A waste management plan is prepared for all projects requiring development approval, including all new construction and refurbishments. Diversion targets generally approached 90%.
Balancing Cut and Fill
One of the major sources of waste from industrial development projects is spoil from excavation and civil works. Our objective is generally to balance the volumes of cut and fill to avoid exporting material from site. A prominent example of this approach during the period was our Iron Bark development at Smeaton Grange in Sydney where none of the 600,000m3 of excavated material left site and 80,000 – 100,000m3 of topsoil was deposited where it would provide most benefit, primarily in a creek restoration's riparian zone.
Waste Management in Clarendon Residential Group
As follows from the statistics on materials use in Clarendon Residential, the process of building houses and developing residential infrastructure generates large volumes of waste. Strict requirements for the handling of waste and control of potential pollutants are administered by authorities in every jurisdiction in which we operate. Clarendon Residential's approach is to exceed minimum requirements for the minimum cost and seek opportunities to enhance our developments by going beyond specific conditions of consent.
Clarendon's waste management target is to divert 85% of waste generated in the construction process from landfill to recycling. While we have accurate information pertaining to the costs of site cleans, waste removal, environmental controls etc., at this stage we are not able to produce meaningful statistics to communicate our performance with respect to waste and pollution. Next year, we plan to report on our waste management performance at Clarendon.
Hazardous Waste Materials - Asbestos
Investa takes the risk associated with asbestos very seriously. When fragments of asbestos were found on one of our residential sites in Maitland, we employed specialist consultants and contractors to:
- Conduct site inspections
- Prepare a hazard materials survey, including testing of fibro samples for the presence of asbestos fragments
- Prepare a hazardous materials management plan to inform the remediation of the site
- Segregate the materials and dispose of them in the manner set out in the hazardous materials management plan and conduct remediation and further testing of the site.
Commitments for Financial Year 2008
- Standardise and raise standards in waste management planning and implementation in Clarendon Residential Group.
- Commence detailed reporting of construction materials and site environmental impacts (mass and volume) for all developments commencing site works after 1 April 2007.
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