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EREP helps deliver savings for the economy and the environment

The EREP program was introduced in 2008, building on EPA’s successful Industry Greenhouse Program (IGP).


Under EREP, businesses are required to show that they have assessed their operations to identify energy, water and waste saving opportunities. These opportunities are then prioritised to form an action plan. Importantly, actions that pay for themselves within three years must be implemented.


Interim results from the EREP program have found that participating businesses are expected to achieve financial savings of $90 million, from actions with a three year or better payback period.  With the implementation of all identified savings in the EREP program, this could expand to $145 million per year.

 

Annual EREP program savings
(from actions with a payback period of three years or less)
  Preliminary savings (November 2009) Updated savings (April 2011)
Energy more than 4500 TJ 5,210 TJ
Greenhouse gases (CO2-e) at least over 900,000 t 790,000 t
Water more than 5000 ML 5,700 ML
Solid Waste more than 100,000 t 124,000 t
Liquid Waste more than 900 ML NA*
Financial savings more than $70 million $90 million
Average Payback period of actions around 10 months around 10 months

* Liquid waste savings were not assessed in April 2011.

EPA has found that the most common resource efficiency actions identified in the EREP program are ‘process control improvement’ actions. These actions often have very little implementation costs and immediate resource and financial savings. Around half of the expected financial savings in the EREP program can be attributed to these ‘low-hanging fruit’ types of actions.

You can read more about the savings being delivered through the program, in the EREP Interim Results Report PDF document (PDF 416KB) and on the case studies page.


Who is participating in EREP?

A diverse group of businesses are involved in the EREP program. These include manufacturing sites, hospitals, retail centres and sporting facilities. The largest industry sector PDF document (PDF 286KB) represented is the manufacturing sector.

EPA maintains a public register PDF document (PDF 400KB) of sites participating in the EREP program. This list shows whether sites use more than 120ML of water and/or 100TJ of energy per year, triggering participation in the program.  Voluntary participants are also acknowledged on the register.

 

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