City recognised for its green credentials

THE City of Greater Geelong is in the running to take top honours at the Keep Victoria Beautiful Sustainable Cities Awards.

It is one of two municipalities in contention for the 2021 Sustainable City award.

Geelong mayor Stephanie Asher said the annual awards celebrated positive initiatives taken to act on climate change and enhance local environments.

“Being selected as a finalist for the overall Sustainable Cities Award shows the quality and depth of work we are delivering, and the positive culture of sustainable practice we have created,” said Cr Asher, who is the Sustainability Performance chair.

“Through our Sustainability Framework, we are addressing climate change and providing the best social, environmental and financial outcomes for our community.

“Sustainability is the biggest opportunity of our time and it’s imperative that it’s at the centre of everything we do.”

Four of the city’s other projects have been listed as a finalist across a range of categories, including:

Zero Carbon Buildings Program (Energy Award): The program has reduced the ecological and carbon footprint of the city’s community facilities, through renewable energy generation and energy efficiency improvements.

Measures include rooftop solar systems, energy efficient lighting upgrades, automated building control systems and upgraded heating and cooling systems.

Ramblers Road Artificial Reef ((Environment Award): The award-winning coastal protection solution has been effective in preventing further erosion, limiting the over topping of waves and stabilising and widening the beach at Ramblers Road, Portarlington. It has also delivered co-benefits in terms of habitat creation and restoration of seagrass

Bella Wiyn Birralee Family Centre (Environment Award): The centre is a 5-Star Green Star certified building, incorporating world leading environmentally sustainability standards in its design, construction and operation. Its features are backed by the commitment of centre staff, children and families to sustainable living, which includes practical learning about conserving energy, saving water, growing food, reducing food waste and recycling

Recycled Roads (Waste Award): The city’s innovative road construction projects incorporate materials collected via their kerbside recycling services. The first roads built using crushed glass as a replacement for sand are now open and other road construction projects have been completed using PlastiPhalt, which incorporates plastics destined for landfill in road construction materials. These projects are keeping tonnes of glass and plastics out of landfill and the highly efficient construction process is reducing project CO2 emissions by as much as 30 per cent.

Cr Asher said five of the city’s own 2021 Community Green Achiever Award winners had also been listed as finalists including Mik Aidt for the Climate Emergency Declaration Campaign (Education Award), Geelong Sustainability for Sustainable House Day 2020 (Education Award), Andrea Dennett for Conservation of the Hooded Plover (Environment Award), Friends of Waurn Ponds Creek for Waurn Ponds Creek Restoration (Environment Award), and Lids 4 Kids for Saving Plastic Lids from Landfill (Waste Award).

“This is great recognition of the extraordinary work being carried out by the community across climate change campaigns, wildlife conservation and waste diversion initiatives,” she said.

“There is a collective will in the region to reduce our community’s footprint and to protect the world-class biodiversity that exists locally.”

For more information on the Keep Victoria Beautiful Sustainable Cities Awards head to kvb.org.au/sustainable-cities/sustainable_cities_2021_finalists.