Each year we report to NPWS on our environmental performance against a selection of measures and every year we present members with the results and a reminder about our obligations as lessees within a
national park.
The reports are due each May, reporting on the previous year from March to February. That means the results here relate to 2017 – I will be preparing the 2018 report over the next few weeks.
For the 2016 reporting year, NPWS introduced a new ratings system – using gum leaves rather than stars.
In 2017 Redwood maintained its rating of four green gum leaves out of a maximum of five. Like the year before, we received the maximum score of five gum leaves for soil and water, waste, cultural heritage and amenity, and sustainable tourism four gum leaves for water, and three for air quality and energy.
On water, the target is to use less than 200L of water per visitor night. In 2017 we used 134L, which was well under the target and under the Perisher average of 163L.
It is not clear why we do not rate five gum leave for water.
The overall energy targets for Perisher are to reduce the amount of C02 equivalent emitted per visitor night, to reduce energy used per visitor night by five percent annually and to have more than five per cent
of total energy coming from renewable resources.
For us, energy consumption per visitor night was up very slightly from 153 to 154MJ per visitor night, 0.7 per cent. Countering this, our greenhouse gas emissions are down from 17 to 18 kg CO2 per visitor night, an improvement of 5.6 per cent.
The difference is because the small increase in energy consumption was in gas and firewood rather than electricity, which produces higher carbon emissions.
Compared with all Perisher lodges, our energy consumption increased while the Perisher average fell, but we made greater proportional gains in carbon emissions.
Marion