Sustainability

45. Seats from recycled plastic donated to Western Hospital

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:07:00 GMT

As part of an initiative that Western Health have been implementing for recycling plastic waste from theatre, Able Plastics have funded three outdoor seats.

The seats are made from reclaimed plastic and include plaques, each with its own message. The seats will be installed in the garden areas of the Western Hospital.

Able Plastics worked together with the Red Group, who facilitate the pickup of the recyclable waste and who, in delivering the finished seats, are helping us to close the lifecycle loop for some of our products.

44. Able add 4,837 trees

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:36:00 GMT

Today Able funded the planting of a further 4,837 trees with Greenfleet, this equates to an additional 1,297 tonnes of CO2 offset, will create new wildlife habitat and benefit water and soil quality.

The trees are scheduled to be planted between June and August in 2012 in Whitehurst, Foster, Victoria.

This site is earmarked for the planting of 20,000 trees of which Able will be contributing almost 5,000 trees, or one quarter of the total.

43. Metro Waste Management Group Function - Able Plastics present

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 23:44:00 GMT

This week, we presented at a Metro Waste Management Group function held at the Melbourne Museum.

The topic discussed was waste minimisation and we focused on reducing unnecessary packaging, carton packaging optimisation, considering all key environmental impacts using the PIQET system and tailoring packaging sizes for the distribution chain.

Other presentations were given by the Melbourne Museum and Chapman and Bailey.

We are joining up with the Metro Waste Management Group and are looking forward to the site visits offered and developing our network with a view to customising our products and services to the healthcare sector.

Here is the link to the Metropolitan Waste Management Group site.

http://www.mwmg.vic.gov.au/

42. Grow Me The Money Interview

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 10:19:00 GMT

http://www.growmethemoney.com.au/SuccessStories

Click on the above link to watch the Grow Me The Money interview with Able Plastics' CEO Greg Foster.

41. Able attend Melbourne Health Think Green Expo

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 02:35:00 GMT

Able exhibited at the Melbourne Health, Think Green Environmental Sustainability & Wellbeing Expo
on 13 December 2010.

Held at Royal Melbourne Hospital, the Expo showcased companies in the healthcare industry that are taking steps to be more sustainable.

On the day, Able presented a cheque to Greenfleet for $15,000 for tree planting.

39. Planting Day with Greenfleet

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 05:42:00 GMT

We're booked in to join Greenfleet in August to plant trees at Mt Rothwell.

38. Climate Change Software

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 05:41:00 GMT

While browsing through the Grow Me The Money Business Sustainability, we came across a recommendation for complimentary software that assists in setting up your team's workstations in the greenest way.

We have loaded this software onto the workstations at Able.

Link to climate change software site

40. Able's Environmental Policy

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 06:33:00 GMT

Able includes the environment as a core factor in its business decision-making.

The company aims to both minimise its environmental impact and consistently evolve towards environmental best practice. In this regard, specific focus is paid to;

resource consumption

product design

product life cycle management including recycling

environmental accreditation

community support

responsibility for carbon emissions

Able aim to fully involve its own team in continuing to reach its environmental objectives.

We will work with suppliers who can cooperate and contribute to our environmental efforts

Able aim to offer its clients products that incorporate strong environmental aspects, while at the same time delivering quality and value for money.

37. City Switch

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 05:49:00 GMT

We recently attended a City Switch presentation at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. City Switch's mission is as follows;

At the presentation, City Switch demonstrated how one T5 fluroescent lamp fitted with a reflector, can replace two T8 lamps and continue to meet occupational health and safety benchmarks. This sounded like a good idea to us, so we arranged for our environmental consultants, Ecovantage, to meet with our Floor Manager and electrician, to discuss. As it turns out, we understand that the new light fittings that are on our level are not suitable to house the T5 fluro's (with reflectors) as they don't provide enough clearance for the lamp. Neverthless, we thought it worth mentioning as others may benefit from the subsidised office efficiency program that Cityswitch are running.

Click through to CitySwitch web site

36. Able clients advised of their CO2 footprints

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 05:17:00 GMT

Each month, Able's Client Activity Report System is advising clients of their CO2 footprint. The automated report supplies a month to date and year to date CO2 figure for the client in kg's. Able then offset this CO2 on behalf of clients.

35. Greenfleet planting site - biodiverse species

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:35:00 GMT

As part of Able's Carbon Offset Program, 7,463 trees have been planted by Greenfleet near Nhill in Victoria's North West.

Greenfleet have confirmed that the following biodiverse species have been planted;

Acacia brachybotrya – Grey Mulga

Acacia euthycarpa – Wallowa

Acacia montana – Mallee Wattle

Acacia pycnantha – Golden Wattle

Callitris rhomboidea – Port Jackson Pine

Eucalyptus baxteri – Brown Stringybark

Eucalyptus behriana – Bull Mallee

Eucalyptus dumosa – Dumosa Mallee

Eucalyptus gracilis – White Mallee

Eucalyptus incrassata – Yellow Mallee

Eucalyptus leucoxylon – Yellow Gum

Leptospermum myrsinoides – Heath Tea – Tree

Melaleuca acuminata ssp.Acuminata – Mallee Hobey Myrtle

Melaleuca lanceolata ssp, Lanceolata – Moonah

Melaleuca wilsonii – Violet Honey Myrtle

34. Community Development

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:25:00 GMT

We take the view that part of being a sustainable business is to acknowledge and take on a level of community responsibility.

While our aim is to be a prosperous business, we are also in a position to support initiatives that improve health, education and opportunity. With this in mind we support the Smith Family locally ( Able support children in the Learning for Life Program on an ongoing basis) and also support Surfaid International. This June, we are making a further contribution of $1,000 to Surfaid International, who operate in Indonesia's Mentawai Islands.

Link to Surfaid International Site

33. Recycling

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 02:23:00 GMT

Able are currently arranging a pickup / recycle system for used finished products products from a major healthcare services provider. The system will entail some reorganising at the clients premises including further separation of rubbish. The used finished goods, once collected, will be returned to the processing plant where they will be extruded into plastic film. With the introduction of this system, the new lifecycle of these products will be as follows;

30. Packaging Optimisation - Part 1

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 05:21:00 GMT

With the objectives of optimizing 1. the resources used in packaging 2. the subsequent energy required for transport and 3. the space required for storage, Able has reviewed its carton sizes and configurations.

The company purchased software to assist in this task. The packing configuration of all A and B class products were reviewed and where necessary updated.

In the illustrations that follow, the effect of reconfiguring the default stacking pattern of cartons on a pallet can be seen. The image shows cartons the size of Able's examination glove cartons. The first image shows the default stacking formation of gloves that achieves 48 cartons of gloves per pallet. We have set up a new pallet configuration that increases the cartons per pallet from 48 to 52. This is an improvement in pallet utilization of over 8 %.

Above: Default pallet configuration achieving 48 cartons of gloves per pallet.

Below: Updated pallet configuration that achieves 52 cartons per pallet, an improvement of 8 % which flows directly through to savings in energy to transport and space required to store.

We were able to measure % utilization by both pallet area and pallet volume.

There were significant efficiency gains attained across the Able range of products, simply by stacking cartons in a slightly different pattern.

For a small number of items, the supplying plant has been advised to change the size of the carton to achieve acceptable configuration options.

29. Gaining perspective on sustainability in our business

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 04:56:00 GMT

A few years ago, Able started to take steps to measure and offset its environmental impacts. For some time we focussed primarily on our CO2 emissions. As time has passed we have broadened our outlook. The mind map below represents the areas that we are now addressing. We are creating a system within our planning to measure our performance in these areas.