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Corporate Licences

What is a corporate licence?

More than 100 Victorian businesses hold licences for more than one site, meaning EPA manages each licensed site as a separate entity. Businesses in Victoria that typically hold multiple licences include water authorities, councils and large manufacturers.

Following amendments to the Environment Protection Act 1970, companies holding two or more EPA licences can now voluntarily combine these into a single ‘corporate licence’.

A corporate licence does not remove or change any compliance requirements, but streamlines all operating and site discharge limits and waste acceptance conditions into a single, easier to understand document. This provides businesses a consolidated understanding of their environmental requirements, reduces administrative burden and simplifies compliance reporting into a single ‘performance statement’.

Corporate licences can also include non-regulatory projects developed in partnership between EPA and business to deliver greater outcomes for the environment and business at the same time. These projects focus on the risks and opportunities which ensure long-term business sustainability and improved environmental performance.

What are the benefits?

Corporate licensing is a world first initiative that benefits business, the economy and the environment.

  • Corporate licensing will cut the number of EPA licences by up to 30 per cent.
  • Victorian businesses will save at least $15 million per annum.
  • Companies will focus their innovation and creativity on environmental improvements that deliver the greatest financial and environmental returns.
  • Companies will work in partnership with each other and EPA to deliver solutions for today’s major environmental threats — climate change and water scarcity.
  • Companies will reduce energy use, water use and waste generation.

Goulburn Valley Water – the world’s first corporate licence

Goulburn Valley Water (GVW) has been issued the world’s first corporate licence. GVW is a regional water business, managing water supply and wastewater treatment in Victoria’s food bowl – the Goulburn Valley.

Prior to amalgamation, GVW held 26 EPA licences, totalling 226 pages of licence requirements. Its new corporate licence is an eight-page document that will save the business at least $50,000 a year in administration. It also includes a range of projects to further cut costs for the business and benefit the environment, including:

  • a carbon neutral strategy
  • projects to reduce water use and trade waste by GVW customers
  • assessment of existing ways of working to identify resource efficiency and offset opportunities.

Download the Goulburn Valley Water corporate licence pdf icon (PDF file, 204KB)
Corporate licensing - a world first brochure pdf icon (PDF file, 267KB)

More corporate licences
EPA has also issued corporate licences to:

For more info

To find out more about the benefits of a corporate licence, contact EPA’s Corporate Licensing Team on 03 9695 2685 or at corporate.licence@epa.vic.gov.au, or speak to your EPA client manager.

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