Sustainable Environmental Impacts

At FastAid, Sustainability is about always getting better at doing the right things. And part of that is accepting our responsibility to do what we can for a more sustainable environment. Our Environmental Sustainability Strategy is built on three principles; measure, reduce and offset.

Whilst we appreciate the fact that we are a small business operating in a very large landscape, we understand our responsibility to do what we can to minimise our impact on the environment.

We have engaged a 100% carbon neutral energy provider, accredited under the government’s Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard, who also has been awarded Australia’s greenest power company in 2020 by Finder and previously recognised by Greenpeace for three years running. (1)

We are proud of the fact that our third-party warehouse and distribution centre in Eastern Creek, New South Wales is a five-star certified building by Green Star, an internationally recognised sustainability rating system for buildings. Green Star rated buildings use 66% less electricity (2) and 62% fewer greenhouse gas emissions (2) than average Australian city buildings, contributing to reducing our environmental impact whilst also improving the health and wellbeing of occupants. Our distribution facility is also nearing achievement of a 100% electrified forklift and manual handling fleet, contributing to a cleaner, safer and more efficient work environment.

By the end of CY2021 we are aiming for 100% alignment with the 2025 National Packaging Targets including: 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging, and 70% of plastic packaging being recycled or composted. (3) We are serious about our journey towards a circular economy for packaging, ensuring our packaging is sustainable and contributing towards reducing landfill. We are also actively working on our new LOOP concept, a cyclic first aid waste diversion program to recycle first aid kit cases, consumables, and consumable packaging waste, offering Australia a more sustainable way to do workplace first aid.

Our three environmental sustainability principles

Our Environmental Sustainability Strategy is built on three principles; measure, reduce and offset. It is a cyclic process of identification, change and improvement to enable better environmental outcomes. The old saying applies; what gets measured gets managed.

1. Measure
We work closely with our environmental sustainability partners at Carbon Neutral who conduct complex assessments to measure our carbon footprint and evaluate where energy is consumed.

2. Reduce
From the assessments conducted by Carbon Neutral, ways to improve our carbon footprint and reduce greenhouse gas emissions are identified, and carbon reduction programmes established.

3. Offset
For our unavoidable emissions we will compensate through carbon offsets by supporting carbon projects that benefit both the environment and sustainable development for local communities.

Our goal
Through applying our measure, reduce and offset principles, we will achieve 100% Carbon Neutral status by 2022.

About Carbon Neutral : Our Environmental Sustainability Partners

Carbon Neutral was established in 2001 as a nonprofit in response to the growing global concern of climate change.

In the years following, an increasing demand grew among large businesses for carbon advisory and reforestation. A new entity emerged in 2013, which as a profit-for-purpose organisation allowed Carbon Neutral to cater for the gap in the market provided and deliver corporate advisory services to larger organisations.

Carbon sequestration with associated habitat restoration benefits were sought after by organisations, this interest funded the revegetation project at the Yarra Yarra Biodiversity Corridor and allowed for it to become a large-scale program. In 2009 Carbon Neutral’s parent company Auscarbon, was the first company in Australia to produce carbon credits within the Federal Government’s Greenhouse Friendly™ accreditation framework. Since then they have been innovative in developing their own reforestation carbon offsets and Plant-a-Tree Program.

Carbon Neutral’s Yarra Yarra Biodiversity Corridor reforestation project was the first in Australia to achieve premium Gold Standard certification, a significant achievement reached through the ability to demonstrate carbon storage for 100 years. The project delivers measurable direct environmental, social, economic and heritage benefits.

Together they have established more than 14,000 hectares of biodiverse plantings, equivalent to 2,250 Melbourne Cricket Grounds, making it the largest biodiverse reforestation carbon sink in Australia.

Carbon Neutral is a market leader with a global reputation, and one of the longest standing carbon offset providers in Australia. Their services include energy and water auditing, and carbon consulting and reduction programs. They are the developer of a Gold Standard certified reforestation project.

Carbon Neutral is a recognised offset entity under the Federal Government’s Emission Reduction Fund and are a signatory on the Australian Carbon Industry Code of Conduct.

We are excited that Carbon Neutral has partnered with FastAid to measure, reduce and neutralise our organisational carbon footprint. They are working closely with us to improve efficiency and reduce our costs to deliver positive sustainable outcomes and minimise our impact on the planet.

Through applying our measure, reduce and offset principles,

We will achieve
100% Carbon Neutral
status by 2023.

Reducing waste and supporting recycling

Reducing waste is a global concern that is important to both FastAid and our customers. We are passionate about promoting a circular economy to reduce landfill and use resources wisely.

Improving packaging sustainability

We are passionate about designing packaging that supports a circular economy to reduce landfill. We also understand that we need to make it easy for consumers to recycle our packaging whilst ensuring our products are protected suitably during transport to prevent product damage, leading to waste.

FastAid is an active member of the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), who is responsible for delivering the federal government’s 2025 National Packaging Targets.

We are undertaking a packaging reviews to ensure we are aligned with APCO’s Sustainable Packaging Guidelines, which provide 10 principles for packaging design:

1. Design for recovery
2. Optimise material efficiency
3. Design to reduce product waste
4. Eliminate hazardous materials
5. Use recycled materials
6. Use renewable materials
7. Design to minimise litter
8. Design for transport efficiency
9. Design for accessibility
10. Provide consumer information on sustainability

We are working closely with our suppliers on creative and innovative ways to reduce packaging waste, from manufacture right through to distribution and final delivery to the consumer to ensure alignment with APCO’s 10 principles.

A key initiative to reduce waste is replacing our existing plastic retail packaging with recyclable FSC Certified cardboard packaging. Through our APCO membership, we are committed to removing problematic plastics from our packaging in entirety by the end of 2021 as part of a global effort to reduce landfill.

We are utilising APCO’s PREP tool (Packaging Recyclability Evaluation Portal) to assesses packaging recyclability in the Australian and New Zealand recovery systems. PREP empowers us to understand whether our packaging is recyclable, non-recyclable, or conditionally recyclable – provided consumers follow a set of instructions during disposal.

We are planning on adopting the ARL (Australasian Recycling Label). The ARL is generated using the evidence supplied by PREP. Only once a business has conducted a PREP assessment can the ARL be used on pack, which is one easy label on our packaging. The ARL is enabling and making it easier for many Australians and New Zealanders to correctly recycle packaging.

We are also investigating other innovative ways to reduce the amount of packaging used in the shipping process, all contributing towards our target of 100% carbon neutral status by 2022.

Diverting landfill and increasing recycling

In FY20, we diverted 52% of the Group’s waste from landfill, and have set an ambitious target of increasing this to 75% by 2022. This improvement will primarily be a result of internal awareness around recyclability of waste packaging in our distribution facility, changing our retail packaging to recyclable cardboard and the introduction of our new partnership with Astron Sustainability.

Our partnership with Astron Sustainability is a key part of our LOOP concept, a cyclic first aid waste diversion program where we collect redundant plastic first aid cases for recycling and repurposing, preventing unnecessary waste.

Internally, we actively encourage reusable over disposable, and promote internal recycling of paper and support of recycling initiatives such as ‘Return & Earn’ scheme.

Procurement Policies

Our Ethical Sourcing & Modern Slavery Policy ensures that we only engage suppliers that act with environmental responsibility. The policy ensures that, as a minimum, suppliers comply with all applicable laws and regulations relating to the environmental impacts of their business and that waste is minimised and items recycled whenever this is practicable.

Energy Efficiency

We understand the impact that energy production has on the environment and a proactively engaging in initiatives to reduce energy consumption and support renewable energy.

GreenPower and Energy Carbon Offsets

We have engaged a 100% carbon neutral energy provider, accredited under the government’s Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard, who also has been awarded Australia’s greenest power company in 2020 by Finder and previously recognised by Greenpeace for three years running. (1)

By purchasing 50% of our electricity requirements as dedicated GreenPower we are displacing our electricity usage with certified renewable energy that has no net greenhouse gas emissions, which is done in the form of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). The government-managed GreenPower Program independently audits our energy provider each year to ensure this is the case.

Solar Power

We are pleased to have installed solar power to our head office premises, resulting in up to 60% of electricity for the site being delivered by a renewable energy source. We are actively investigating ways to improve our solar power capacity.

Green Star Accreditation

We are proud of the fact that our third-party warehouse and distribution centre in Eastern Creek, New South Wales is a five-star certified building by Green Star, an internationally recognised sustainability rating system for buildings. Green Star rated buildings use 66% less electricity (2) and 62% fewer greenhouse gas emissions (2) than average Australian city buildings, contributing to reducing our environmental impact whilst also improving the health and wellbeing of occupants.

Electric equipment fleet

Our distribution facility is also nearing achievement of a 100% electrified forklift and manual handling fleet, contributing to a cleaner, safer and more efficient work environment. This is resulting in drastically reduced carbon emissions

1): Powershop 2020
(2): Value of Green Star: A decade of environmental benefits, Green Building Council of Australia (2013).