Six Energy Efficiency Skill Sets are now available in the MSS11 Sustainability Training Package. The Skill Sets cover the skills needed to identify and measure energy consumption and plan energy improvements at AQF4, AQF5 and AQF8.

The Skill Sets are made up of selected units of competency from the Sustainable Operations and Competitive Systems and Practices qualifications.

The Energy Efficiency Skill Sets are:

• MSS11 SS1 Audit energy usage for a work area
• MSS11 SS2 Determine energy usage
• MSS11 SS3 Improve energy usage for a process or organisation
• MSS11 SS4 Improve energy usage for a work area
• MSS11 SS5 Recommend energy improvements
• MSS11 SS6 Reduce sustainability risk

Supporting resources for RTOs

The project will also develop resources for each Skill Set. The resources will help training providers to deliver energy efficiency training and assessment using the Skill Sets. The resources include:

• video case studies how businesses have improved their energy efficiency
• guidance on developing online knowledge assessments for the Skill Sets
• a series of webinars outlining some of the key concepts in the Skill Sets
• a webinar session for RTOs with guidance on selecting and delivering the Skill Sets.

For more information see the MSA project page.

• Facilitating Manufacturing Sustainability Training in NSW which outlines the Sustainability Skills Resources and details of the NSW arrangements for traineeships for the MSS11 qualifications.
• Facilitating the uptake of Sustainability Training which outlines the CarbonProof program and resources for carbon management systems.

See https://cops-nsw.wikispaces.com/Resources

It is about planning and managing a business for sustainability and for the specific sustinability issues affecting the sector and the business. Some businesses might be faced with customer demands for ‘green’ products and need to focus on sustainability in the supply chain. Others might have a bad reputation and need to address their community relationships.

Businesses need to be able to identify their sustainability risks and opportunities so that they invest in activities that really have an impact. The Sustainable Operations qualifications focus on exactly these skills.

The Sustainable Operations units of competency are the building blocks of the qualifications. They describe skills and knowledge for sustainability across many areas of a business.

Strategic planning

Developing and implementing strategic plans for sustainability relies on identifying potential improvements that target specific risks for the business and/or help to achieve its goals. Taking environmental, social and economic factors into account sustainability is a broad canvas to work from. So a systematic, risk management approach helps to focus the investment of time and money where it will really count.

Being strategic also means working out the best way to address the issues – by evaluating the feasibility, benefits and costs and coordinating with other business activities.

Measuring

Measuring resource and energy use and emissions is seen as a fundamental of sustainability. But it is important to work out what to measure and how to get the measurement. It might be hard to get measurements for a specific part of a business rather than the total.  But knowing the total consumption or emissions will not help to identify the specific problem areas and where to target reductions.

Measuring for sustainability is not just energy and emissions. What about measuring social sustainability improvements?  It can be really challenging and needs some thinking ‘outside the square’. Firstly to really understand the range of social sustainability issues, then to decide whether there is something tangible to measure. If not, the next challenge is to find an ‘indicator’ that can represent or mirror the rate of change (positive or negative). One example might be monitoring the rate of complaints from locals to indicate the effectiveness of community information sessions.      

Reviewing day to day processes

Most people can find ways to improve how their own work area impacts on the environment. Sometimes these are simple changes that can be done without a big budget or project approvals.  Mapping out the key steps in the process is a good start. You can then find out what impact comes from each step and decide what will be a useful improvement. In a textiles factory this might mean reducing water consumption or finding less toxic substances for fabric treatments.  In a cement manufacturing plant it might mean less run-off or capturing water so that it can be re-used.

Qualifications and levels

There are three Sustainable Operations qualifications covering skills for frontline managers, middle managers, senior managers, technicians and similar roles with some responsibility for developing and implementing sustainability in the business. For details about who the qualifications are for, and what skills they cover see:

Certificate IV in Sustainable Operations

Diploma of Sustainable Operations

Vocational Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Operations

The resources explain key concepts from the core units of competency from the three Sustainable Operations qualifications:

MSS70111 Vocational Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Operations

• MSS017001A Analyse and determine organisational risk areas in sustainability
• MSS017004A Lead sustainable strategy deployment

MSS50112 Diploma of Sustainable Operations

• MSS015001A Measure and report carbon footprint
• MSS015002A Develop strategies for more sustainable use of resource
• MSS015007A Develop a business case for sustainability improvement
• MSS015008A Develop strategic sustainability plan
• MSS015009A Implement sustainability plans

MSS40111 Certificate IV in Sustainable Operations

• MSS014001A Improve sustainability through readily implementable change
• MSS014002A Evaluate sustainability impact of a work or process area
• MSAENV472B Implement and monitor environmentally sustainable work practices

About the resources

Sustainability training and skills development programs should be targeted to specific businesses and sectors. The Sustainable Operations qualifications provide skills to help an enterprise identify practices and improvements that make good business sense and help them become more sustainable.

But sustainability training programs need to focus on the main sustainability risks for the business or sector and where improvements can make the most impact. The Sustainability Skills Resources show many different ways a business might improve their sustainability and how this can vary between sectors. They explain specific skills for sustainability and provide sector examples of sustainability issues. They will help training providers to develop training and assessment strategies and to deliver customised training programs to meet industry skill needs. 

The Sustainable Operations qualifications provide an overlay of sustainability skills for people with existing ‘core’ job skills – for example, people who are already skilled in technical, management and production areas. Therefore the qualifications will most often be delivered and assessed in a workplace environment. The resources focus on this context and target five areas of support for RTOs:

Core unit explanatory notes – a web page for each core unit. Each one explains key issues about the intent and level of the unit, evidence, concepts and terminology.

Assessment guides – a downloadable guide for each core unit. Each one provides guidance on designing an assessment; it shows an example of an assessment method and evidence based on a fictional scenario.

Guides about … – these guides cover five concepts that are fundamental across multiple units of competency and levels in the Sustainable Operations qualifications. The guides explain the basic concepts and how they might be applied across levels and in different contexts.  The guides are:

• About mass and energy balancing
• About metrics
• About carbon sources and sinks
• About root cause analysis
• About quantifying benefits and costs.

Sustainability sector guides – a downloadable guide for each of six manufacturing sub-sectors. Each guide provides an overview of sustainability issues in a process flow that is typical to a sector.  It then provides a more detailed analysis of sustainability risks for selected steps in the process.

Sector reports and links – web pages. These provide links to sector-specific information that can assist RTOs to do further research on sustainability issues in the sectors.

• a production and sustainability quiz game with product fact sheets
• life cycle mapping activity with picture cards
• fact sheets
• case studies
• animation on life cycle analysis (LCA).

See http://www.thesecretlifeofthings.com/#!home/mainPage

• Volume to Weight Calculator
• Waste assessment guidelines
• Waste recording template. 

They focus on a general business environment, however could be adapted for use by manufacturing and other sectors.

It also contains rules for who is covered by the carbon pricing mechanism, what sources of carbon pollution are included, the surrender of emissions units, caps on the amount of carbon pollution from 1 July 2015, international linking, monitoring, enforcement, and appeal and review provisions.

See: http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Series/C2011A00131