Victoria’s climate is changing. This means a warmer and drier future with more frequent and intense heatwaves, bushfires and storms.
Climate change may impact existing risks or create new risks of harm to human health or the environment from pollution and waste.
This section is for low-risk business activities such as retail stores, offices, cafes and bars. You need to look at how climate change may impact the risk of harm from your activities.
If a flood, fire, heatwave, storm or other extreme weather event hit your business, it can create pollution or waste.
What could you do different to minimise these risks from occurring
Controls to minimise pollution or waste risks in a changing climate may include:
- preparing for extreme weather events
- reviewing your procedures and training following any incident
- monitoring, maintaining and inspecting plant and equipment on a regular basis. Check for leaks which may occur more often in extreme heat and heatwaves
- inspecting and maintaining your bunding and stormwater drains. This needs to be done before and after extreme events such as heavy rainfall or flooding. Bunding should be empty and stormwater drains clean. Stormwater drains are only to be used for water
- considering options for improving storage of oils, chemicals and waste to minimise any risk of water pollution. These risks might occur more often due to heavy rainfall and flooding
- ensuring you have adequate systems and controls if things go wrong. Fire alarms and extinguishers, spill alarms, emergency procedures and spill kits are a must.
Updated