Four Ground-breaking Reports – Two Launched and Two Updated

Charitable Reuse Australia and the NSW EPA partnered on an Australian-first project to conduct a triple bottom line assessment of the reuse sector in NSW. As part of this study, our research partner Rawtec compiled a list of (then) available Environmental Conversion Factors (ECFs) for estimating carbon, water, and energy savings from displacing products through reuse.

These ECFs were peer reviewed by Lifecycles as fit-for-purpose for the project to estimate the high-level environmental impacts of reuse at a statewide level. As part of our continual improvement process, Rawtec noted that as the ECFs could not be used to estimate benefits at a more nuanced level (such as by organisation or by product level) given they were compiled from various studies with varying estimation scopes and methods, Rawtec also recommended the development of a comprehensive and consistent set of ECFs aligned with all the product item categories within the National Reuse Measurement Guidelines.

Charitable Reuse Australia engaged and funded Lifecycles to create this set of ECFs, aligning all factors to a consistent source of data, and further improving the quality of the environmental datasets in the NSW Reuse Data Study (and for subsequent studies across other states, including the Tasmanian Reuse Data Study currently underway).

Importantly, these ECFs also enable the development of a bespoke Reuse Impact Calculator – to identify detailed impacts by organisation, by product groups, by individual product items, or by other planned reuse interventions.

Check out the full Lifecycles ECF Report below, as well as the updated National Reuse Measurement Guidelines which now includes these ECFs.