2009 Winners
- Industrial Eco-efficiency Award
- Corporate Sustainability Award
- Innovation in Sustainable Technologies Award
- Sustainability Partnerships Award
- Sustainability in the Built Environment Award
- Rural Sustainability Award
- Minister's Award for ClimateSmart Leadership
- Premier's Award for Leadership in Business Sustainability
Industrial Eco-efficiency Award
Mitchell Enviro Industrial Estate (website)
The Mitchell Enviro Industrial Estate at Stapylton, south of Brisbane, is Australia's first industrial estate that is 100-percent self-sustaining and carbon neutral.
Tenanted by environmentally friendly businesses, the estate has achieved the prestigious six-leaf Enviro Development certification by the Urban Development Institute of Australia. This means the estate is accredited in all six categories of ecosystems, waste, energy, materials, water, and community.
The estate features a solar power system to power the street lighting, water pumps, septic systems, and security systems so the estate can operate free of the electricity grid.
Rainwater is collected and treated to a standard approved by Council for onsite use, and run-off from the road is captured in tanks and used for irrigation.
All warehouses face north, have energy-efficient lighting, ventilation and are insulated to remove the need for artificial heating and cooling.
Three of the five warehouses were brought in from other sites, fittings are recycled and all timber is sourced from sustainable forestry plantations.
Corporate Sustainability Award
Queensland Complete Printing Services (QPrint) (website)
Sunshine Coast-based QPrint is constantly working to reduce its impact on the environment and has been achieving considerable success with a range of strategies.
QPrint uses biodegradable soy-based inks and eco-sensitive chemicals and a chlorine-free production process, and harvests sufficient rainwater for all of its printing needs. Choosing papers only from environmentally accredited suppliers, Qprint also recycles more than 95 percent of its waste.
The factory runs on Green Power from wind farms purchased by Origin Energy and low-energy lighting is used in the offices.
QPrint helped develop the Australian Printing Industry Association's Sustainable Green Print program, an environmental accreditation system for the print industry.
The printer is working towards giving away 1000 trees to schools and not-for-profit groups to plant and nurture within the local community.
Innovation in Sustainable Technologies Award
Cooee DustBloc (website)
Sunshine Coast company Cooee has developed DustBloc, an environmentally friendly bitumen-water blend that can be applied to roads at mine sites to control dust, greatly reducing the amount of water normally needed for dust suppression.
Some mines apply up to four million litres of water each day to haulage roads to control dust and maintain safe visibility. By using DustBloc, mine-site operators can cut water requirements by around 90 percent, while improving road conditions, driver safety and fuel efficiency.
DustBloc is non-toxic, safe to handle and can be stored, transported, and pumped at ambient air temperature without specialised equipment. DustBloc even mixes with salt water and bore water.
In Australia, BHP Billiton, Xstrata and Rio Tinto, as well as overseas mining companies, are benefitting from the water savings that DustBloc delivers.
Sustainability Partnerships Award
Noosa Community Training Centre (website)
A partnership between Noosa Community Training Centre, Sunshine Coast Regional Council, regional economic development agencies, waste management specialists, and the community, is resulting in massive waste reduction from the Eumundi Road Landfill Site.
The BriteSide Industries recycled goods shop has diverted almost seven-and-a-half-thousand cubic metres of material from landfill , enough to fill three Olympic size swimming pools.
Open seven days a week, Briteside provides affordable second-hand goods, boosts local employment, and educates the community about the benefits of recycling. Second-hand sales have also generated a profit of about $1.8 million.
About 500 community groups, individuals and local businesses were consulted during planning, with many providing business development support .
Sustainability in the Built Environment Award
Arup - Bond University Mirvac School of Sustainable Development (website)
Global engineering and design company Arup has created Australia's first education building to achieve a 6 Star Green Star rating - defined as 'World Leadership' by the Green Building Council of Australia. The building's innovative design reduces carbon emissions by more than 80 percent.
Bond University 's Mirvac School of Sustainable Development building minimises energy consumption through maximising natural light and combining natural ventilation with mechanical cooling. Water tanks and a greywater recycling system means less reliance on the local water supply and photovoltaic solar cells produce about 27,000 kilowatt hours of energy each year.
Other state-of-the-art sustainability features include a rooftop weather monitoring station that adjusts air-conditioning, a one-kilowatt wind turbine, and an elevator that uses regenerative lift technology to harness electricity as it descends.
Rural Sustainability Award
Camreay Holdings Pty Ltd (website)
Cane farmers, local council, and the greater Wide Bay community are benefiting from this Bundaberg-region compost business, which recycles sugar cane waste, effluent water and treats bio-solids to produce cane fertilizer.
Bundaberg Regional Council delivers effluent water and bio-solids that Camreay Holdings reuses, by thermally composting the bio-solids with sugar cane waste.
The bio-solids replace traditional fertilizer, regenerate the soil and reduce demand for pesticides. As carbon is sequestered in the soil, this reduces the need to irrigate. Since applying this compost to its own cane plantation, Camreay Holdings has boosted productivity by 50 percent.
To prevent treated effluent water travelling down the creek into the ocean, Camreay repositioned pipes and cane blocks so the water would irrigate the farm.
Minister's Award for ClimateSmart Leadership
Food Connect (website)
Innovative West End fresh food distributor, Food Connect makes sustainability a priority in every facet of its business.
To minimise greenhouse gas emissions used in transportation, all supplier farms are located within a four-hour drive from Brisbane. Food Connect pays these local farmers in advance, to encourage organic farming methods rather than the use of pesticides to reduce the risk of crop failure.
Farmers deliver produce to Food Connect's headquarters where staff pack the food into recycled boxes. The produce is delivered in fuel-efficient vans to local-pick up points known as City Cousins, where it's collected by subscribers.
Customers are encouraged to return the boxes for reuse. Food scraps are recycled, with some excess produce used to make jams and pickles and some donated to homeless charities. Unusable products are composted in a worm-farm on-site with the compost provided to farmers.
Premier's Award for Leadership in Business Sustainability
Bob and Christine Cameron (website)
Bob and Christine Cameron of Rockcote Enterprises are entrepreneurs and visionaries who have developed a strong market advantage for Rockcote by keeping sustainable principles and processes at the heart of their business.
Bob Cameron founded Rockcote at the age of 24 and over the past 25 years he and Christine have built their business into a nationally acclaimed enterprise with a $20 million turnover - recognised for its innovative "people-friendly" products and commitment to sustainability.
Rockcote's core business today is manufacturing Australia's only locally developed environmentally friendly and safe textured coatings and paints, under the EcoStyle brand.
Their organisational philosophy is showcased at the company's purpose-built Design Centre, on the Gold Coast, which displays its sustainable paint and textures range, and is an outstanding example of sustainable building.
Acclaimed for its ground-breaking green technologies, the Design Centre is totally self-sufficient in energy and water requirements - featuring solar panels, waste recycling and reuse projects.
Mr and Mrs Cameron have won a host of prestigious awards for their commitment to business sustainability including:-
- 2008 runner-up in the Prix D'Excellence Awards - Environment Category at the FIABCI World Congress in Amsterdam
- 2006 the Rockcote Design Centre won the President's Awards in the UDIA National Awards for Excellence
- 2005 Energex Award for Excellence in Sustainable Development
- 2004 for their contributions to Sustainable Development, as well as the Premier's Award for their outstanding contributions to the Built Environment.
Bob Cameron is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Christine Cameron is a former Telstra Businesswoman of the Year representing the small business sector.
Return to the department Sustainable Industries Awards homepage
Last updated: 14 August 2009