In providing its services to the community, Gippsland Water will utilise best practice to ensure that all environmental aspects of its operations are understood and managed by its people. Gippsland Water embraces the following guiding principles for planning and implementing activities to prevent pollution and achieve sustainable management of natural resources.

Gippsland Water's commitments

Continuously improving our environmental performance by:

• meeting all of our legislative environmental management requirements, and moving our practices beyond compliance with relevant environmental legislation, where sustainable opportunities are identified;
• managing the environmental aspects of all of our activities by training our people, incorporating environmental objectives and targets into our basic planning activities, and implementing appropriate sustainable solutions to prevent pollution and minimise the environmental impacts of our business operations;
• working with our suppliers to jointly understand and be more effective in the management of environmental aspects of the products and services supplied to Gippsland Water; and
• undertaking whole-of-catchment management activities as part of an integrated approach to the sustainable management of our water resources and waste treatment activities.

Communicating with our community by:

• openly sharing and publishing information on our environmental activities and performance;
• engaging with our advisory committees and utilising other consultative mechanisms to seek community views and involvement in policy development and planning processes;
• contributing to initiatives and activities that will educate and enhance community awareness of water resources and waste management issues; and
• cooperating with all stakeholders to identify, influence and participate in sustainable solutions to regional environmental problems.