Sustainable Business Strategy

(EnviroWise)

The MIA & District Community Land and Water Management Plan was developed with extensive community consultation and finalised in 1999. This Plan was renamed MIA EnviroWise and provided a means for improving land and water management across the MIA & D. Initiatives such as the education programs, on-farm  incentives, biodiversity and R&D programs were funded through MIA EnviroWise. Contributions to MIA EnviroWise were through Government funding as well as a farmer and community levy. The EnviroWise levy contributes to licence compliance, business sustainability, education and capacity building, and regional natural resource management.

The MIA EnviroWise program has been reviewed and amended to ensure it reflects the diversity of environmental challenges facing the MIA today and has been renamed the Sustainable Business Strategy. We have developed a framework for sustainable irrigation in an energy, carbon and water-constrained world. We aim to provide high standards of measurement and management of these resources.

To deliver our vision, we have identified ten key objectives that will guide and support Murrumbidgee Irrigation, our customers and the region, in order to;

• Facilitate adaptation to a more variable and difficult climate; 
• Improve the management of irrigation water, the efficiency of the delivery system and the productivity of water use;
• Maintain drainage water quality to be better than agreed standards and improve the environmental health of aquatic ecosystems;
• Reduce our emissions;
• Reduce energy use, improve energy efficiency and increase the proportion of renewable energy consumed, to the point where MI is a net producer of renewable energy by 2020;
• Minimise MI’s waste streams, and pursue opportunities to re-use or sell waste;
• Ensure that areas of remnant vegetation and wetlands of high conservation value are managed under long-term stewardship arrangements, and enhanced by ongoing biodiversity and carbon plantings, to improve ecosystem function by 2020; 
• Recognise and reinforce the social and cultural dimensions of landscape, enterprise and natural resource management, and build community pride in the environmental performance of the MIA, through active community engagement; 
• Develop new sustainable business opportunities; and
• Position the MIA to differentiate and promote its produce in more demanding and discerning markets on the basis of its environmental performance.

Read more  Sustainable Business Strategy Summary