Developing the Operational Environmental Management Plan (OEMP) for Melbourne Airport Hotel

Melbourne Airport upholds a set of standards as part of their commitment to environmental preservation and compliance with their “Operational Environmental Management Plan (OEMP) Requirements for New Operators” framework. On-site businesses are now required to prepare and maintain environmental management plans for their operations that align with the framework and guidelines.

For Novotel Melbourne Airport, this meant reviewing and managing the environmental challenges faced by most hotel operations, including significant energy consumption, waste generation, water use, and hazardous material handling alongside their regulatory requirements.

Novotel contracted Morphum to deliver the assessment of risks and provide practical solutions that ensure compliance, but importantly also improve sustainability performance and outcomes from the outset.

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A review of relevant guidelines, site plans and operational data formed the foundation to understanding the operational context of usage and assessing risks. Morphum worked closely with Novotel in co-developing mitigation measures that are both pragmatic and effective.

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With our understanding secured, our team set about implementing phases for the OEMP development:

• Roles and responsibilities for environmental management within the hotel were clearly defined to ensure that moving forward, the hotel can continue to improve their environmental impacts and meet the standards they’ve been set by the airport.
• Key environmental risks related to energy, waste, water, hazardous materials and any potential pollution pathways that existed in the processes or site itself were identified and clearly outlined in a robust risk assessment.
• Targeted solutions to help mitigate the risks were developed, with outlines for improving the handling of hazardous materials, waste segregation and optimising energy consumption.
• Programs for reporting, managing incidents and running training programs for staff were built into the environmental management plan to outline management responsibilities and steps for each process effectively and meet the requirements for operation on the Melbourne Airport site.

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With these detailed strategies, we were able to deliver tailored and practical solutions to enable Novotel to reduce operational impacts and reinforce the business’ wider commitment to sustainability.

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