Two Sydney eastern beaches councils – Randwick City Council and Waverley Council – have been nominated as finalists in the prestigious Banksia Sustainability Awards.
The awards, now in their 25th year, are presented by the Banksia Foundation, which is considered Australia’s pre-eminent organisation recognising and promoting innovative sustainable development and practice.
Waverley Mayor Sally Betts said Randwick and Waverley Councils were making the eastern beaches ‘a showcase of cutting edge sustainability programs’ through their own programs and a collaborative partnership.
“Over the past five years, we have coordinated many regional environment programs to help us reduce waste, water and energy consumption and save money.
“I am delighted that both councils are being duly recognised for sustainability excellence at a national level. We congratulate our friends in Randwick on their well deserved nomination.”
Waverley Council has been nominated as a finalist in the Banksia Awards because of a range of innovative projects involving water reuse and solar power, energy-saving retrofit and car-share programs and school partnerships, which save Council and the community money. Waverley is on track to cut their carbon footprint by 30 percent and is one of the first councils to take part in LED lighting trials.
Randwick Mayor Tony Bowen said it was fantastic for the two neighbouring councils to be recognised as leaders in sustainability.
“While there’s always a bit of friendly rivalry between councils, in all seriousness these award nominations show how the east is setting a high benchmark in sustainability and it’s the community that benefits because of the range of high quality and engaging services provided by local government.
“I’d like to congratulate the staff at both Waverley and Randwick councils for their commitment to sustainability and wish them luck in the awards.”
Randwick City Council has been nominated for achievements including involving 20,000 residents in sustainability initiatives, increasing waste diverted from landfill by 20 percent, and saving 500 millions of litres of water annually. The Council has also doubled renewable energy generation during the past 12 months.
