Polar Enviro

Member | Tracking Since August 2024

Polar Enviro Sustainability Actions

Reducing death and injury on roads

Polar Enviro brand, OmniGrip Direct, provides road surface treatments that reduce skidding and sliding. For example, OmniGrip HF uses materials that reduces wet-weather crashes on freeway ramps by 92%. State road agencies, councils and private sector clients apply OmniGrip HF to surfaces such as bends on roads, intersections and ramps in car parks and industrial facilities to reduce the likelihood of crashes that result in injury and death. It is made to exceed government specifications for High Friction Surface Treatment and has been assessed by NTRO for compliance with specifications after five years use on public roads.

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Reducing death and injury on roads

Polar Enviro brand, OmniGrip Direct, provides surfaces that reduce skidding and sliding on roads, and assist with the visibility of road space reserved for use by vulnerable road users. OmniGrip CST is used in bike lanes, bus lanes and pedestrian crossings to reduce the incidence of vehicles and riders skidding and sliding across their coloured surfaces. Made from crushed Australian recycled-glass, it maintains its colour and skid resistant properties longer than the paint products that quickly wear away. OmniGrip CST is made to exceed government specifications for Coloured Surface Treatment and has been assessed by NTRO for compliance with specifications after five years use on public roads.

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Improving energy efficiency of buildings

Polar Enviro's Smarterlite brand provides unpowered and very low powered Exit Signs for use in new and existing buildings. Organisations with multiple sites and buildings may have thousands, or even tens of thousands, of Exit Signs across their building portfolio. By implementing Smarterlite's Environmental Exit Signs, building owners and operators can reduce their power consumption across their buildings, achieving energy savings and reducing their emissions from their buildings. Smarterlite's (Safety Path) Hyperion Exit Sign is included in the approved products register for the Victorian Energy Upgrade Scheme and NSW Energy Saving Scheme, and can be found in the online Approved Product registers for the two schemes.

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Retrofit buildings to improve sustainability and increase resource efficiency

Polar Enviro's Smarterlite Hybrid Exit Signs can be used to replace powered electric-battery Exit Signs in existing buildings. As powered electric-battery Exit Signs fail, electricians can install Smarterlite Hybrid Exit Signs to replace them, reducing the use of un-necessary electric batteries, reducing the generation of eWaste, and reducing power consumption. Our OmniGrip Direct brand's recycled glass and/or aggregate surfaces to restore and rejuvenate aged surfaces. Often concrete and asphalt surfaces are replaced during projects because of their worn and tired appearance, or because they have become slippery over time. OmniGrip ReSurface enables the embedded carbon in the existing surface to be retained by applying a thin coating of slip and skid resistance materials over the surface. It is also used in commercial building processes to avoid the use of on-site retardants and hydrochloric (muriatic) acid used to create exposed aggregate surfaces.

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Safer places and communities

Polar Enviro's Vivacity brand provides affordable lights for use with public transport and in public places to reduce risk and improve safety. The in-ground and overhead lights have been used by Councils and in private facilities to reduce risk for pedestrians and bike riders at night. Specific examples include West Tamar Council in Tasmania and Wyndham Council in Victoria providing wayfinding lighting through parks, and Yarra Trams providing additional lighting for passengers at ten tram stops in suburban Melbourne.

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Reduce the generation of waste and reuse materials

Polar Enviro's Smarterlite Environmental Exit Signs eliminate powered electric batteries from Exit Signs and reduce eWaste. By using longer-life materials, Smarterlite's Exit Signs have a life of 16-30 years (depending on model), whereas more than 90% of powered electric-battery Exit Signs are disposed of in hard waste when their battery fails (source: Exitcycle). Our OmniGrip Direct brand also creates a market for post-industrial and post-consumer glass, enabling it to be used in coloured surface treatments and hybrid high friction surface treatments to improve safety on roads and to reduce the use of short-lived linemarking products that quickly wear away.

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Enable clients to improve their resilience

Many of Polar Enviro's technologies are durable and long-lasting, enabling our clients to improve the resilience of their infrastructure during climate-related hazards and natural disasters. In a general sense, Polar Enviro works with corporate customers, helping them understand how to reduce the impact of their facilities on climate change and to improve the resilience of their safety infrastructure. Smarterlite Exit Signs have in-built redundancy, with the photoluminescent materials abled to be recharged from natural daylight or temporary light sources after lengthy power disruptions, when powered electric-battery Exit Signs will no longer work. OmniGrip DIrect's long-life surfaces have a 5+ year life exposed to the elements and heavy traffic on arterial roads. Using high-strength wear-resistant materials, they're less likely to be damaged in extreme weather. In fact, the CSIRO tested 18 year old surfaces using OmniGrip Direct's binder system and found that the OmniGrip HF installation was still compliant. Vivacity solar lighting will continue operating when power supplies are disrupted due to extreme weather. It's solar models will be recharged from sunlight, and have backup batteries to allow for periods of 'sunless' days.

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Environmentally sound technologies for developing countries

Polar Enviro's Smarterlite developed enhanced visibility photoluminunescent linemarking for use on roads and paths. Smarterlite has provided information and samples to developing nations in Africa, South and Central America for evaluation for use on their roads and paths, where electric lighting of roads may be unaffordable and headlights on vehicles not as good as in more developed economies.

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