Nationwide Towing & Transport has recognised for many years that it has a responsibility to consider the environmental impact of its operations and wherever possible or practical to minimise this impact.
Accordingly we have adopted the following practices:
- Recycling – all acceptable paper waste, plastics and printer cartridges are recycled.
- Water Use – rainwater tanks have been installed at both Dandenong and Collingwood depots.
- Vehicles – the average age of our vehicles is 2.5 years. Typically they are replaced every five years to ensure that we are able to take advantage of advances in technology, particularly with respect to exhaust emissions and fuel consumption. During the life of the vehicles we ensure that they are serviced in accordance with manufacturer specifications.
- Vehicle Equipment – all trucks are equipped with a spill kit to clean up any leaking fluid from the vehicles that they are towing.
- Power Consumption – our recent renovations included a complete upgrade of our air conditioning and lighting systems. This enables us to reduce electricity consumption as all areas are zoned and power is turned off during periods that the zones are unoccupied.
- Purchasing – our purchasing practice is to use environmentally friendly products such as recycled paper wherever this is practical.
Future Initiatives
- Green Energy – we are currently investigating the feasibility of installing solar panels on the roof of our corporate headquarters in Blackburn and returning this energy back to the electricity supply grid.
- Hybrid Vehicles – In October, Mr Ian McMillan attended the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show and 2007 Tokyo Truck Show, with specific emphasis to investigate innovative truck construction relevant to the Towing industry. Consequently he attended the Hino truck construction facility and the Hamura plant test track and tested their current “hybrid” model with respect to it’s suitability within our industry. Further discussions are planned over the coming months with a view to trialling this “hybrid” vehicle in our business.