 CASE STUDY Green Steps steams ahead to reduce Puffing Billy’s environmental footprint Monash Sustainability Institute’s award-winning Green Steps program and funding from Sustainability helped student intern Paul Greco discover new ways for ’s steam engine Puffing Billy Railway to reduce its environmental footprint.

SNAPSHOT Organisation Outcomes Emerald Tourist Railway Board, better known as Puffing Billy The student’s work organising Puffing Billy’s environmental Railway is a heritage steam railway in Belgrave, Victoria, data and reporting system identified a number of actions running coal-fired steam engines over 24km of track that could be taken straight away and in future to reduce meandering through the . the railway’s environmental impact. These ranged from simple measures such as turning off appliances and lights when not Project in use, to promoting recycling messages to foreign customers Sustainability Victoria provided $3500 funding for a Monash in their native languages. Information gathered while talking to University Green Steps student to spend 15 days interning at Puffing Billy’s drivers revealed the impact on engine efficiency Puffing Billy Railway helping with their environment program. of different driving techniques and ways of shovelling coal and prompted the student to suggest driver training to encourage Objectives efficient engine driving habits. Establish a process to monitor Puffing Billy’s environmental Next Steps footprint and how to reduce its impact in future, including setting green-house gas (GHG) reduction targets and Apply the results of the environmental audit to reduce GHG simple ways to reduce waste and water consumption. emissions and consider ways to promote the railway’s environmental report card to its potential customers. Challenges Green Steps Placements Puffing Billy’s biggest environmental impact – and its popular appeal – comes from the coal-burning steam engines that pull Green Steps is an award-winning extra-curricular training the railway’s carriages. Together, they consume approximately and internship program for tertiary students developed by 1200-1500 tonnes of coal annually using a form of technology the Monash Sustainability Institute. Since starting in 2000, which is by its very nature unpredictable. Without access Green Steps has successfully trained over 500 university to expensive equipment to calculate the exact level of GHG students. As well as helping organisations with their emissions emissions from coal burning, the student had to consider reduction and general environmental management, each year alternative ways to gather the information he needed, the program equips young leaders with the skills, support and including quizzing the engine drivers. confidence to facilitate environmental change and improvement. sustainability.vic.gov.au ABOUT PUFFING BILLY RAILWAY Puffing Billy Railway is a key tourist attraction in Belgrave, advice and assistance on how to reduce their environmental Victoria, which attracts over 250,000 passengers annually impact. As a government-funded organisation with an eye on from all over the world. The railway is government funded and minimising expenses, Puffing Billy Railway actively promotes employs just over 50 full- and part-time staff working alongside a culture of energy conservation and encourages staff and an army of volunteers across 12 stations (six main / staff & six volunteers to minimise water, waste, electricity and gas wayside stations). consumption wherever possible.

Sustainability challenges Sustainability goals At the project’s inception, Puffing Billy Railway had not As well as saving costs, Puffing Billy hopes to reduce reliance yet established a process to collect environmental data on CO2-emitting coal and showcase its emission reduction or measure its environmental footprint. achievements in future marketing initiatives. They will also explore opportunities to offset their remaining carbon Current sustainability practices emissions. The data collected will also allow for public Puffing Billy Railway joined Sustainability Victoria’s reporting and benchmarking against other organisations. ResourceSmart Government program in 2008, receiving

For the first time Puffing Billy Railway “now has more understanding of its carbon footprint. Paul’s work will enable us to continue management of our carbon footprint and to benchmark results against ourselves in the future. Puffing Billy CEO Eamonn” Seddon

THE PROJECT To establish Puffing Billy Railway’s current environmental of each engine. As Paul was to discover; “the information footprint, engineering student intern Paul Greco collected I was looking for pretty much doesn’t exist.” In the absence energy consumption data across the key areas of electricity, of sophisticated engine testing, the time-honoured research gas, water, vehicle fuel, paper waste and coal. Total techniques of observation and asking questions revealed consumption for each was calculated based on National its own wealth of anecdotal information. A key outcome of Greenhouse Accounts (NGA) factors to arrive at a baseline talking with engineers and engine drivers was Paul’s finding reference and this was then used to estimate GHG emissions. that “different drivers drive and fire the engines differently, affecting the amount of water and coal consumed”. With an environmental snapshot in place, Paul next set about coming up with simple ways that energy savings could be put Recommending carbon offset opportunities proved the into effect both immediately and into the future. greatest challenge of all. While general guidelines to calculate carbon offsets do exist, methods vary case by case. Carbon Challenges & issues sequestration, for example, may be calculated tree by tree Paul’s first challenge was to gather and collate multiple account or by woodland area, which is in turn impacted by complex records of energy usage located across the length of Puffing interactions and variables including climate, rainfall and soil Billy’s 24km track. Each station and office was mapped to composition. Given the limited time and absence of qualified illustrate where the various sites connected to each utility and expertise, only an estimate of sequestration rates was possible. all data was then collated month by month into a spreadsheet A more reliable calculation method remains to be established designed to allow easy comparison of future results. in future. As Paul concluded, rather than Puffing Billy striving to achieve carbon neutrality, “at this stage a more effective Calculating the GHG emissions from Puffing Billy’s coal-burning strategy would be to actively reduce the existing carbon engines proved a far from simple task, determined not by the footprint as much as possible before looking at offsetting”. volume of coal purchased, but on the combustion efficiency Results The following diagrams illustrate Puffing Billy Railway’s total GHG emissions by sector:

Next steps Paul’s investigations revealed a number of actions Puffing Billy • Waste: Promoting a stronger recycling message, could put in place to reduce their environmental impact and perhaps in a variety of languages, as well as adding GHG emissions now and in future, for example: a recycling bin for paper to the existing recycling bins for glass and plastics. • Electricity: Turning off appliances and lights after hours and when not in use will have an immediate impact. • Fuel: Using log books to find out why Puffing Billy’s vehicles drive the equivalent of the earth’s circumference • Gas: Installing insulation or adjusting heaters to run – 40,000km – almost six times a year, and applying the at less than full power. results to conserve vehicle use. • Water: Establishing the most effective method of driving • Coal: Given that coal burned to fire Puffing Billy’s and firing an engine and training all drivers to follow this steam engines is by far the largest contributor to carbon practice has potential to conserve the amount of water emissions, training drivers and firemen to operate engines consumed and to improve engine efficiency. as efficiently as possible would help to reduce coal usage. • Paper: Encouraging double-sided printing, scanning, emailing, and printing only what is needed and then only in black and white.

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Published by Sustainability Victoria. © Copyright Sustainability Victoria, March 2012 (ENV061)