In late 2006 CSR’s Bricks and Roofing division made a commitment to reduce water use to 20% of its then potable water usage across all sites.

The initiatives undertaken to achieve this goal are specific to each site. The effectiveness of each initiative will be evaluated and the knowledge gained will be shared amongst all CSR sites.

As at 31 March 2008, CSR Bricks and Roofing has been able to significantly reduce water use across all sites. The initial 20% target remains and CSR Bricks and Roofing hopes to achieve this during the year ending 31 March 2009.

Recognising the need to reduce water consumption, the CSR Viridian site at Ingleburn, NSW set about identifying and quantifying water consumption patterns across the site. The site has since been able to identify projects that have delivered a 55% reduction in water usage from 2002.

Some of the projects that have contributed to this reduction include

• Recycling rinse water on the glass laminating line
• Eliminating water overflow in the cooling tower on the glass laminating line
• Installing low flow flush toilets, low flow showerheads and flow control taps

The reduction in water consumption at Viridian has been facilitated by their participation since late 2003 in the Every Drop Counts program run by Sydney Water.

The operations team at Sugar Australia, Yarraville, undertook a project to reduce fresh water consumption and trade waste discharge by recovering carbon waste water and reusing this water in the site’s carbon plant.

The project, which was 50% funded by the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment’s Stormwater and Urban Water Conservation Fund, has 3 components:

1. Utilising an auto-flush filter to remove carbon fine build up in the carbon plant.
2. Eliminating the use of potable water to maintain a water seal and remove waste from the cyclone component of the carbon plant.
3. Amend the carbon column flushing procedure to reduce the amount of potable water used in the plant.

The second and third components have been completed, currently saving Sugar Australia approximately 10,000–15,000 kilolitres of water per annum. For the first component, two filter technologies are currently being trialled. When this component is complete, an additional 15,000–20,000 kilolitres of water per annum is expected to be saved.

The operations team at Victoria Mill set a goal to reduce water consumption on site by 50% in YEM08.

Sugar cane, which is comprised mostly of water and sucrose, is a large source of water entering Victoria Mill. Through the milling process, cane stalk is crushed and washed the cane juice from cane stalks in order to separate as much sucrose as possible from the water, impurities, fibre and dirt that comprise the rest of the cane juice.

The water required for the crushing process has traditionally been sourced from creeks and underground reservoirs, while the water that is separated from the sucrose in the crushing process ends up being:

• recycled for use in steam generation
• used for irrigation of crops

after treatment as waste water.

Identifying an opportunity to reduce the amount of water taken from the creeks and underground reservoirs, the operations team at Victoria Mill installed pumps and pipes to enable the treated waste water to be used instead.

Since recycling was installed, the amount of water taken from the creeks and underground reservoirs has been reduced from 27,000 kilolitres per month to 10,000 kilolitres per month. In addition, the amount of waste water requiring disposal has been reduced from 130 kilolitres per hour (kL/h) to an average of 65 kL/h, at times reaching a low of 35 kL/h.