2006 Green Globe Award Winners

The 2006 Green Globe Awards were hosted by the former NSW Department of Energy, Utilities and Sustainability and held at Parliament House on 27 November 2006. The Green Globe Awards have been managed by the Department of Environment and Climate Change NSW since 2007.

Champion Awards

Energy Champion: Individual Award - Dr Matthew Nott, Clean Energy for Eternity

Dr Matthew Nott is an orthopaedic surgeon living and working in the Bega Valley. Matthew formed and leads a group called Clean Energy for Eternity. Dr Nott’s most notable achievement was uniting the community, with the support of Bega Valley Shire Council, to set a "50/50" energy target - that is, a take up of 50 per cent renewable energy and a reduction in 50 per cent of energy use by the year 2020.

Highly Commended - Peter Erling, PV Solar Energy Pty Ltd

Energy Champion: Business Award - EnergyAustralia’s Spare Fridge Retirement Program

EnergyAustralia's Spare Fridge Retirement Program was the first of its kind in Australia to reward customers $50 for turning in spare fridges that were no longer needed. This helped to reduce electricity use and bills, as well as greenhouse gas emissions. The program exceeded its target with more than 1,095 fridges collected from February to August 2006. Over the following five years, the disposal of these fridges will save 1,533 MWh of electricity (enough energy to power 207 homes for a year), 7,281  tonnes of greenhouse gas (the same as taking 2,146 cars off the road for a year or planting 572 hectares of trees) and reducing customers’ bills by more than $1 million.

Energy Champion: Government Award - State Records NSW, Western Sydney Records Centre,  Stage 6

The Stage 6 building of State Records NSW is located in western Sydney and is the newest and largest extension for the Government’s records repository. Environmentally friendly geo-thermal technology was used for the air conditioning system, which uses the "geo-exchange principle" of involving the earth as a heat sink and heat source, eliminating the need for more conventional equipment such as a cooling tower or a boiler.

Already, the use of geo-exchange air-conditioning, combined with energy efficient lighting and the passive design features of the building, have saved 500 tonnes of carbon dioxide since it opened in October 2005. With no water cooled equipment such as cooling towers, this arrangement has also saved over 4,000 kilolitres of water in the first year of operation.

Water Champion: Individual Award
Joint winner: Andrzej Listwoski - Sydney Olympic Park Authority
Joint Winner: Grahame Pepper - University of Sydney

Andrzej Listwoski is the Water and Energy Manager at the Sydney Olympic Park Authority. He has played a major role in planning and operating the first large-scale integrated urban water reclamation and management scheme on the precinct, which collects and treats stormwater and sewage. This recycling scheme produces water to surrounding parklands, residences, sporting and commercial venues.

Grahame Pepper is the Water and Energy Manager at the University of Sydney. He has saved over 1.2 billion litres of water - enough to resupply the University for another three years - by pioneering the development of a comprehensive monitoring system that integrates meter data with custom-made consumption and cost reports.

Water Champion: Business Award - Country Water,  Strategic Community Approach to Water

Country Energy assumed responsibility for providing water and sewerage services to the community of Broken Hill in the far west of New South Wales in 2005. The new water division, Country Water, faced the unique challenge of providing water services to communities in the driest part of the state. Country Water adopted a segmented strategic approach to educating and communicating water efficiency messages throughout these communities. Key to their success has been education, communication and community partnerships to create practical and effective solutions to local water issues.

Water Champion: Government Award - Kogarah Council

Kogarah Council has embarked on a comprehensive review of its water management practices.  Achievements relate to three areas of their water cycle management initiatives:

• Wastewater – the Beverley Park Water Reclamation project, identified as the most sustainable way of producing irrigation water for its Golf Course, sports fields and public facilities replacing up to 750 KL/day of potable water.
• Stormwater Management - their Water Management Policy promotes best practice principles on new developments. Community based programs include installation of Rainwater Tanks in all Schools as well as Catchment Crusaders, an interactive stormwater education program for year 4 students. The Water Quality Management Strategy has also implemented Georges River Watchers, a volunteer water monitoring group.
• Water Consumption - the Council has a strong commitment to Sydney Water’s Every Drop Counts Business Program and the NSW Government’s Water Savings Action Plan. 

Highly Commended: Sydney Olympic Park Authority

Leadership Awards

NABERS Office / ABGR Leadership Award - Investa Property Group

Over the past 12 months, Investa has rated 35 of its buildings using the ABGR scheme and 33 using the new NABERS Office Water. Investa has improved the efficiency of its buildings, educated its tenants on the importance of achieving better ratings and addressed many of the commercial barriers to better ratings faced by many of its buildings and tenants.

Highlights include increasing ABGR ratings across its property portfolio from an average of 3.34 to 3.68 Stars (75% of properties were rated at 3.5 Stars or above); achieving a first time portfolio NABERS Office Water rating of 2.87 Stars; reducing water consumption across its property portfolio by 238,235 kL/yr since 2003/04 by improving water efficiency from 1,159kL/m2 to 832kL/m2 in 2005/06; reducing electricity consumption across its property portfolio by 3,069 MWh; reducing gas consumption across its property portfolio by 12,149 GJ.

Investa has avoided 16,176 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions and its Investa Greenhouse Guarantee ensure ratings higher that four stars for tenants occupying up to 50,000m2 of office space.

Highly Commended: Mirvac Group

Renewable Energy Leadership Award - AGL

AGL has pursued renewable energy opportunities at both the generation and retail end of the electricity supply chain. In the year to June 2006, AGL sold GreenPower accredited energy to 34,768 customers – a significant increase relative to the previous year. Over the year, AGL sold around 50 GWh of GreenPower accredited energy to these customers. In addition, AGL will purchase around 573,000 Renewable Energy Certificates in 2006. As a result of strategic acquisitions, nearly 37 per cent of AGL’s generation capacity is renewable and produces no greenhouse gas emissions. AGL is in the process of constructing Australia’s largest wind farm at Hallett in SA (95 MW) and developing Australia’s largest hydro project in 25 years at Bogong in Victoria (140 MW).

Strategic Urban Water Management Leadership Award - Manly Council

Manly Council has won this award for its Water Cycle Management Program (WCMP). The program facilitates waterwise empowerment and community stewardship in the uptake of sustainable alternate water resources. The program to date has effectively reduced Manly's drinking water consumption from its highest use sites by 60% from 2001 and seen the community of Manly achieve a substantial reduction in drinking water consumption (Sydney Water 2006).

Highly Commended: Kogarah Municipal Council and Sydney Olympic Park Authority

Water Recycling and Conservation Award - Springvale Colliery, Springvale / Delta Water Transfer Scheme

Springvale Colliery, situated about 150km west of Sydney, utilised longwall methods of extracting coal and currently supplies approximately three million tonnes per annum of coal to Delta Electricity’s Western Power Stations. This system, known as the "Springvale-Delta Water transfer Scheme" has a design capacity of 30Ml per day and has averaged a transfer rate of 15.55Ml per day since commissioning 6 months ago. This equates to over 3,000,000,000 litres of water returned to the Sydney water supply catchment.

Highly Commended: Eraring Energy and Sydney Olympic Park Authority

Best-Performing Water Utilities Leadership Award

This Award acknowledges the top ten performing Local Water Utilities for sewerage and water supply services for 2004-05.

Water Supply Excellence Sewerage Excellence

Excellence Awards

Savings Action Plan Excellence Award
Joint Winner: Blue Scope Steel
Joint Winner: Auburn Council

The BlueScope Steel Port Kembla Steelworks Water Savings Action Plan aims to reduce water consumption by 2.5 ML/day. This is seven per cent of total water use and 15.5 per cent of dam water use once the Sydney Water recycling project at the Wollongong STP fully is fully commissioned.

Auburn Council’s Water Savings Action Plan provides a comprehensive strategy to improve the Council’s water management and water efficiency of public amenities. The plan identifies measures that are aimed at reducing Council’s annual water usage by nearly 50 per cent, saving over 97,000 kL of water with direct savings of 270Gj of energy.

Research, Education and Awareness Excellence Award - Randwick City Council

Randwick Council’s Sustaining our City program provides a comprehensive package of energy and water saving community education initiatives. Major components over the last 12 months include:
• a 20 percent water and energy reduction target adopted by Council late in 2005
• an ongoing series of Sustainable Living Workshops for householders
• distribution of 55,000 energy saving globes to residents over three months
• Open Days for residents on reducing water consumption
• organising Randwick’s second EcoLiving Fair for World Environment Day
• working with University of New South Wales (UNSW) on solar and water saving projects and educational initiatives.
• new energy and water data collection and presentation processes for Council.

Premier’s Sustainability Excellence Award - Mirvac

Established in 1972, Mirvac has more than 30 years experience in the property industry. Mirvac have successfully integrated the concept of sustainability into its corporate philosophy. It has implemented a range of sustainability measures which has saved in excess of 14,600 tonnes of greenhouse gases. It has also invested in water saving measures such as recycled water for irrigation.