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energy efficient building products and renewable energy to help our customers meet the challenge of climate change.
OPPORTUNITIES
With an extensive portfolio of energy efficient building products and systems and the ongoing capacity to provide energy from renewable sources, CSR is ideally placed to help our customers meet the challenges of climate change.
CSR is also aware of the impacts of Governments’ policy responses to climate change poses to our own businesses.
We have integrated climate change into our business planning processes, including scenario analysis modelling relating to the impact and opportunities of climate change on our underlying businesses.
Sustainable products that target improved energy efficiency the built environment
CSR produces a range of energy efficient building products and systems, which have the potential to reduce heating and cooling requirements of homes and buildings, thereby reducing energy demand with the consequential reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Increasingly CSR produces these products from recycled materials which:
- reduce the demand for raw materials; and
- lower emissions and pollution during manufacturing.
Examples across CSR‘s Building Products’ portfolio include:
Bradford™ insulation
Household insulation can significantly reduce heating and cooling energy use. Bradford Gold glasswool insulation is produced from at least 50% and up to 80% recycled glass, while rockwool is manufactured from up to 20% blast furnace slag, a by-product of the iron and steel industry.
Edmonds™ ventilation systems
Energy efficient ventilation products improve air circulation and regulate thermal conditions in residential and commercial applications. Combined with insulation, ventilation systems further reduce energy costs by regulating temperatures in the roof space to allow cooling and heating systems to work more effectively.
Monier™ concrete and Wunderlich™ terracotta rooftiles
CSR rooftiles are strong, hard wearing and durable, delivering effective thermal and noise insulation relative to other materials. When combined with Bradford insulation products such as EnviroSeal roof sarking, a significant component of radiant heat is reflected.
Hebel® aerated concrete products
Hebel, which uses one quarter of the raw materials required for conventional masonry products, has received the Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA) label. GECA is Australia’s only independently assessed environmental labeling program for consumers who want to purchase products with lower environmental impact.
PGH™ and Monier™ Bricks
Bricks build in thermal mass which can reduce the need for heating and cooling, and lower electricity loads and costs. According to a CSIRO report clay bricks have less embodied energy (energy consumed in manufacture) than other building materials such as aluminium, steel, glass and timber particleboard.
Gyprock™ plasterboard
Gyprock is made with 100% recycled paper. Gyprock also offers a successful recycling service that collects and reprocesses waste plasterboard from residential building sites in New South Wales and Victoria. The manufacture and installation of Gyprock lining systems involves lower environmental impacts than can be achieved with alternative systems.
Cemintel™ fibre cement
Cemintel fibre cement is produced from renewable plantation timber fibre, sand and cement and is used to provide lightweight cladding solutions which can be engineered to achieve improved heating and cooling energy performance.
Fricker™ ceiling systems
Fricker ceiling systems are produced from recycled materials obtained from the steel production process and provide insulation benefits. The specialised paint finish is highly light reflective, reducing lighting and energy requirements. Fricker is the only Australian commercial ceilings supplier to have its products certified by the Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA) label.
Viridian™ Glass
Viridian produces a range of enhanced energy efficient glass which assists in reducing heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer, saving significant greenhouse gas emissions from reduced energy consumption.
Viridian uses significant recycled glass content in its manufacturing process, with DecorPattern using over 95% recycled glass content.
Viridian was the first manufacturer in Australia to sign a sustainability covenant with the Victorian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), the Victorian State Government and The Australian Industry Group to reduce environmental impacts and also further develop energy efficient products for the built environment.
Viridian produces a range of enhanced energy efficient glass which assists in reducing heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer, saving significant greenhouse gas emissions from reduced energy consumption.
Renewable Fuel Ethanol
CSR Ethanol is the second largest producer of fuel ethanol in Australia. We produce ethanol from molasses, a by-product of sugar production which is not a food staple.
Every litre of CSR E85 Ethanol produces about half the CO2-e emissions of petrol.
Sugar based ethanol has significantly lower CO2 emissions than grain based ethanol. According to CSR’s independently reviewed Life Cycle analysis1 every litre of CSR E85 Ethanol produces about half the CO2-e emissions of petrol.
Demand for ethanol blended fuel has increased by 500 per cent in the last 3 years, with CSR Ethanol now supplying over 250 petrol stations in Australia. With this demand continuing to increase, CSR announced in August 2008 that it will upgrade its distillery unit at Sarina, North QLD to convert all of its ethanol production to produce up to 60 million litres of fuel grade ethanol per year.
CSR is Australia’s largest renewable energy producer from biomass.
Renewable Fertiliser
Using the end product of molasses fermentation for ethanol production, CSR Ethanol has developed a range of liquid fertilisers. The two main products are BioDunder™ and Liquid One Shot™.
BioDunder, which is comprised of vegetable matter containing potassium and traces of sodium, nitrogen, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus, is highly valued as a liquid fertiliser. It has also been certified as organic and has been granted “Beneficial Use“ status by the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to recycling nutrients, liquid fertilisers such as BioDunder can reduce nitrogen volatilisation.
Liquid One Shot is comprised of the same vegetable matter as BioDunder, but with added amounts of sulphuric acid and urea to increase the sulphur and nitrogen content in final products.
Liquid fertilisers currently have a 17% market share of the local fertiliser market. The current farmer demographic and labour shortages make CSR’s complete service offering more attractive and will enable it to capitalise on significant growth opportunities in the market.
Renewable Electricity
CSR is Australia’s largest renewable energy producer from biomass. We currently generate enough renewable electricity, which, together with a small amount of external fuel, is sufficient to operate each of our seven sugar mills in North Queensland. We have two mills, Invicta and Pioneer, where a significant surplus is produced.
That surplus, which is approximately 300 Gigawatt hours (GWh) per annum is exported into the National electricity grid and is enough to power approximately 80,000 homes.
The availability of large amounts of bagasse (waste sugar cane fibre) and cane trash provides CSR with the potential for producing significant additional generation capacity. An additional 1100 GWh of renewable electricity (enough to support ~170,000 households) could be produced from identified bagasse fuelled projects, while a further 800 GWh of renewable electricity (enough to support ~120,000 households) could be produced from cane trash fuelled projects.
CSR has undertaken extensive modelling of the potential effects of the proposed scheme across its businesses and has examined various scenarios in relation to the cost impact and opportunity of carbon emissions on CSR.
Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
Given the breadth of its manufacturing and processing operations, the mix of its individual businesses, CSR will be impacted both positively and negatively by the Federal Government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
CSR has undertaken extensive modelling of the potential effects of the proposed scheme across its businesses and has examined various scenarios in relation to the cost impact and opportunity of carbon emissions on CSR.
CSR supports a broad based scheme which places Australian industry at no disadvantage to a credible equitable global scheme. We support a well designed, broad based scheme that provides for emissions reductions, without compromising Australia’s economic growth and the international competitiveness of our energy intensive trade exposed sector.
To work effectively, Australia’s emissions trading scheme trading must be embraced by all major global emitters and, in particular, by Australia’s trading partners. Without other countries’ involvement, Australia will simply export its emissions with no net benefit to the world and in doing so sacrifice Australian economic growth and loss of international competitiveness for our trade exposed sector with consequent lack of new investment and reduction in employment.
CSR believes the Scheme must hold trade exposed industry whole during transition to an international agreement and that transitional assistance should be based on trade exposure measures with an allocation of permits commensurate with financial impact.
CSR also supports maximum coverage and recognises the difficulties associated with the agriculture sector. Government needs to set out a pathway for resolving the issues and future status of agriculture.
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