As the Manufacturing Leader at a major chemical manufacturing facility that has been through the process of identifying opportunities for lowering energy, water use and greenhouse gas production there are many lessons that I have to be shared with the wider chemical engineering community.

Australian Vinyls has been a member of the Greenhouse Challenge since inseption and has been a leader in Victoria in using community groups to "keep the bastards honest" and as a result has won numerous awards along the way, has decreased it's costs of production, debottlenecked the plant and established itself as a leading community member.

The presentation will discuss the processes that were followed, the community engagement, the training programs as well as a number of disctinct problem solving exercises to achieve the outcomes. It will focus on the leadership, strategies and principles involved and not on the engineering details.

The presentation will conclude with the "where to from here", when all the easy pickings have been taken, and what the principles involved in government engagement in research and technology changes to reach substantive gains for the wider community are, particularly in water saving programs.