Top Victorian Firms Win Premier's Sustainability Awards
16 April 2009
The Victorian Government has recognised local businesses and groups for their innovative work in promoting sustainability through the Premier's Sustainability Awards.
Premier John Brumby presented the winners with their Sustainability Awards at a ceremony hosted by TV personality Rove McManus at Crown Palladium in Melbourne tonight.
"The aim of these awards is to recognise Victorian businesses and groups that are reducing their environmental footprint and finding innovative ways to save resources and reduce waste," Mr Brumby said.
"The five winners are excellent examples of sustainability in action and I hope that other organisations will follow their lead as best practice examples in their respective fields."
The winners are:
- Community Award - Bentleigh West Primary School;
- Small Business Award (Sponsored by Sensis) - Sustainable Plumbing Solutions;
- Large Business Award (Sponsored by Carbon Down) - Yarra Valley Water;
- Products and Services Award - mecu Limited; and
- Built Environment Award (Sponsored by Rheem) - Lend Lease for "The Gauge".
Mr Brumby also highlighted the achievements of Sustainable Plumbing Solutions by presenting them with the inaugural Premier's Recognition Award.
"This year's awards have a particular focus on the theme of innovation, which is a key driver of sustainability," he said.
"These winners all share a vision for sustainability and the ingenuity to see it through and Sustainable Plumbing Solutions particularly stood out."
Environment and Climate Change Minister Gavin Jennings said: "The number and quality of submissions to the Awards was remarkable and demonstrates the effort Victorian organisations are putting in to improving sustainability."
"All the finalists deserve to be congratulated for the excellent work they are doing in promoting sustainability in their industries and sectors," he said.
The Awards are supported by major sponsors including the Industry Superannuation Property Trust (ISPT) and event sponsors, TRUenergy and Allira Elgo Estate.
The 2009 Premier's Sustainability Awards Recipients
Community Winner: Bentleigh West Primary School
Frogs and turtles roaming the school grounds, a wetland, a dry forest, a vegie patch - it sounds like Eden off the Nepean Highway. But there's serious learning to be done at Bentleigh West Primary School and a lot of it revolves around the environment. The school has a full-time environmental science coordinator and educates other schools and community groups wanting to make their mark. Every year it holds a sustainability expo in which pupils from grades 1 and 2 run a restaurant using produce from the vegie patch and eggs from the chooks and grades 5 and 6 shoot and edit TV programs on environmental issues. The school's buildings have passive heating and cooling, ceiling fans, solar panels, water tanks, worm farms and recycling. Not surprisingly, this is the second consecutive year Bentleigh West has made the awards' shortlist, but this is their first year as award recipients.
Small Business Winner: Sustainable Plumbing Solutions
In 2002, when Brent Papadopoulos started Sustainable Plumbing Solutions, people would say to him there was no market in rainwater tanks, greywater systems and solar hot water. Now the company is a leading designer and installer of water-saving technology. The company worked on 'Solar Systems' research and development plant at Bridgewater, near Bendigo, a showcase for new solar-hydrogen technology. Rainwater is captured from the roofs, and used for drinking, hot water supply, and some cold water supply; greywater is recycled and used for flushing, washing machines and irrigation; and surface water is captured in a swale system and diverted to a cooling pond.
Large Business Winner: Yarra Valley Water
These days, water authorities are faced with an array of new technologies when they seek to replace infrastructure or plan new connections, but the best choices and combinations aren't always obvious. Getting it right is critical, due to ongoing drought, pressure on supply from urban expansion and concern about greenhouse emissions used in pumping water. In 2006, Yarra Valley Water began a research project with RMIT University and CSIRO on water and sewerage servicing for new developments. The research compared alternative servicing options such as recycled water, rainwater tanks and greywater recycling, with traditional centralised servicing. It found alternative servicing options can produce better environmental outcomes, such as reductions in greenhouse emissions, nutrients and stormwater run-off, and lower community costs than traditional options. In 2008, the project won an International Water Association prize for research excellence.
Products And Services Winner: Mecu Ltd
One of Victoria's rarest birds has a new lease on life, thanks to the work of credit union mecu Limited. The first credit union in the world to sign on to the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative, mecu is on a mission to offset the carbon emitted as a result of its lending operations. Its GoGreen car loans offer a lower interest rate for greener vehicles, while home loans offer special repayment provisions for borrowers installing features such as rainwater tanks and solar panels. mecu also recently bought a property in Victoria's Wimmera region, containing prime conservation habitat for the South-Eastern Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, best known as the Commonwealth Games mascot, Karak. This 201-hectare piece of land allows mecu to offer a Biodiversity Offset on home loans for new buildings: if any land is cleared for construction, mecu re-plants an equivalent area.
Built Environment Winner: Lend Lease
In April last year, leading property group Lend Lease unveiled its flagship green building, The Gauge, at 825 Bourke Street, Victoria Harbour (Docklands). It is among Australia's first buildings to receive a 6-star environmental rating by the Green Building Council of Australia. It features a blackwater recycling treatment plant in the basement which recycles 92 per cent of waste water per year, an on-site gas-fired co-generation system that harnesses waste heat, redirected stormwater to irrigate landscaped areas, chilled beam cooling, parking for cyclists, and two atria to buffer against heat. Internationally, Lend Lease has signed on to a program with Bill Clinton's Climate Change Initiative, to make environmentally-friendly modifications to existing buildings in its portfolio. And this year it was included for the first time in the prestigious Global 100 list of the world's most sustainable companies.
