Not-for-profit aged care provider, Peninsula Villages, is determined to reduce its carbon footprint with the recent installation of solar panels and grey water storage tanks.
The Villages’ Umina site, Springwood Village at Ettalong, has achieved a 5-star rating with each new unit being fitted with solar hot water and each cottage being provided additional water tanks for gardening use.
Peninsula Villages embraced the resource saving strategies following the launch of the Government’s renewable power incentives which provide individuals and businesses across Australia with the purchase cost of solar panels.
Chief Executive Officer, Shane Neaves, said the Village has installed three lots of 100KW solar panels on multiple roof spaces across the Umina Beach facility.
“Energy initiatives underway at Peninsula Villages have already saved approximately $25K per quarter and we foresee this increasing as we continue to make changes that will further reduce our energy consumption,” Neaves said.
“Aged care facilities consume a sizeable amount of energy, so using our roof space to generate power is a smart way to reduce our dependency on the grid.
“By making our facility more energy-efficient, these solar projects will help bring our costs down, freeing up funds that can be invested back into other areas of our operations.”
Neaves said the senior management team was also focused on how the installation will assist in reducing overall carbon emissions.
“Climate change is certainly a growing concern, and this initiative shows the benefits of using solar energy to both save our industry money and reduce our carbon footprint,” he said.
In addition to the energy saving strategy, the aged care provider has installed multiple rainwater tanks which are being used to water the communal gardens.
“We’ve had a lot of rain recently, so it’s easy to forget that Greater Sydney is in drought and fairly recently dam levels were dropping faster than they have in decades,” Neaves said.
“As a community, we need to continually look for ways to reduce our consumption.”
The reduce and reuse strategy has carried forward in other areas of the operation, with Peninsula Villages teaming up with the Rotary Club of Umina Beach to rehome the beds from Jack Aldous house that are no longer required due to residents moving into the new state-of-the-art Pozieres House development.
“Moving into 2021 we will be looking for more way to reduce, reuse, repurpose and recycle across all of our residences,” Neaves said.
Source:
Media release, Mar 15
Brilliant Logic