Sustainability at Martin Luther Homes

At Martin Luther Homes, we have a continuous improvement approach that also focuses on environmental aspects. We are proud to have achieved several significant environmental improvements in past years. It is part of our long-term operational strategy to make our organisation greener while benefiting from funding opportunities such as government grants.

Here are some recent major projects of our Operational Sustainability Strategy:

Instalment of solar panels:

Solar power has various environmental benefits, such as saving on CO2 emissions. It also helps to reduce electricity costs. The Edelweiss and Mount View buildings already have solar-powered water heating since 2012. At the end of 2022, we installed solar panels at our aged care facility. We now have more than 100 solar panels and two inverters on-site. The solar power is fed back into the main grid. The system went live on the 15^th of December 2022.

In the first 6 months, we have saved over 25,000 kg of CO2, this is an equivalent of planting almost 500 trees. The ‘lifetime saved energy’ is 41.97 megawatt-hours (MWh). This is the energy that was generated through our solar installation instead of conventional non-renewable energy sources.

Switching to LED:

LED lights save up to 80% of the electricity bill and contribute to a better environment. We began replacing fluorescent lighting in our aged care facility in December 2022. Australian Green Solutions is our partner in making this happen. The project was completed in March 2023. Our residential aged care is now converted to almost 100% LED lights. There are also plans to upgrade to LED lights in our retirement village in 2023.

Shower head changes:

We replaced most shower heads in our aged care facility, including Care Apartments, in November 2022. The impact is a significant reduction in water usage, a cleaner environment and premium shower heads for our residents. The shower head upgrade will also be implemented in our retirement village in 2023.

Future plans: The next steps include a stronger focus on recycling and waste reduction. Part of this is the goal of going paperless, e.g. through the use of e-signature software. We will also look into a potential EV (Electric Vehicle) charging station at Martin Luther Homes to provide residents, staff and visitors with easy and quick EV charging. In addition to these plans, we will continue to look for more ways of becoming an even greener organisation.