About Pacific Hydro

PacificHydro is an Australian renewable energy development company specialising in the provision of sustainable hydro and wind power. Pacific Hydro’s head office in Melbourne employs 70 staff, and the company has offices in Australia, Latin America, North America and throughout the Asia Pacific.

Pacific Hydro needs

Pacific Hydro engaged ecovantage to undertake energy, water and waste assessments, and also a carbon emissions calculation of their Melbourne operations. Pacific Hydro’s main driver in undertaking the project was to acknowledge and understand the environmental impacts of their business. All emissions associated with the company’s stationary energy (electricity), company vehicle use, staff travel, paper use, and waste generation and disposal needed to be considered.

ecovantage solution

ecovantage prepared an energy, water and carbon report that recommended internal efficiency activities based on estimated financial and other operational costs and benefits of each activity. Operational aspects considered were lighting, heating, cooling, air conditioning, shading, indoor air quality, appliance efficiency and travel options.

ecovantage found that Pacific Hydro could save over $420 per year on their water bills with an outlay of only $100 for installation of waterless urinal technology and $30 for tap flow restrictors. Lighting also provided an area for significant improvement with an investment of $5,600 gaining savings of $1,900 per annum through delamping (removing lights from fittings), replacement of halogen down lights with compact fluorescent lights and installation of motion and ambient light detectors (photocell technology). Reducing air travel through video conferencing for long distance meetings could also reduce Pacific Hydro’s carbon footprint by 30%