The Sustainable Business Network Awards took place in Auckland on November 22. Who won big? Here are the winners.
New Zealand’s largest infrastructure project, The City Rail Link (CRL) has taken out the Supreme Sustainability Award at the 2018 Sustainable Business Network Awards.
CRL has busted through construction and infrastructure industry norms to land the Supreme Award – the NZI Transforming New Zealand Award – with the CRL project proving the infrastructure industry can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and its environmental impact while developing Auckland’s much-needed public transport infrastructure. The project will ultimately result in ongoing reduction in both congestion and carbon.
Taking a long-term view and calculating a whole-of-life footprint of 100 years for the project, the CRL put sustainability at the core of every decision from the outset.
A success factor behind being able to achieve CRL’s goal of zero waste to landfill has been supporting and educating the contractor companies and their employees to avoid, reduce, reuse, recycle and recover as much waste as practicable. CRL tracks against its projections all energy, water, materials and waste that is generated on site.
Rachel Brown, CEO Sustainable Business Network, says: “New Zealand’s construction industry contributes 40 per cent of the total waste going to landfill in Auckland and CRL has proven this doesn’t have to be the case.
“To have the largest civil infrastructure project ever built in New Zealand start with a goal of zero waste means CRL has the potential to show the wider sector the real value of integrating best practice throughout design and construction. It’s a great showcase for what can be delivered. The CRL will be a tremendous part of Auckland’s public transport infrastructure. It will help demonstrate how New Zealand can move to a low carbon, circular and more accessible city. City Rail Link exhibits best practice that provides an excellent model for other businesses to follow.”
New to the awards in 2018 is the Millennials on a Mission award. The inaugural winner was Olie Body, whose extraordinarily witty and engaging organisation Wā Collective also won the Communicating for Change category and was a finalist for the Supreme Award.
Body’s mission is to period poverty, period waste and change the way society talks and acts about menstruation.
She founded social enterprise Wā Collective, which sell gold standard menstral cups. Every menstrual cup sold subsidises one for someone in need. Each cup lasts 10 years, saving around 2500 disposables from reaching landfill. The team is sustainable in all aspects of the business, from compostable packaging to second-hand postage material.which has prevented 465,000 disposable menstrual products from entering our landfills this year alone. In the process she has saved menstruators $160,000 that they would otherwise be collectively spending each year. The enterprise was started after Body discovered that one third of NZ students have skipped class due to a lack of access to menstrual products, and furthermore, New Zealand sends 357 million disposable menstrual products to landfill each year. They can take up to 500 years to decompose.
The third Supreme Award finalist was Ethique, the winner of the ‘Going Circular’ category.
Ethique avoids the need for plastic packaging and only produces solid bar alternatives to liquid shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, body lotion and self-tanner. The company is growing 300-400 per cent year-on-year with solid exports to USA, Australia and Asia.
Its innovative approach to beauty care products has prevented 500,000 plastic bottles from being disposed of in New Zealand and will reach one million by the end of the year. Ethique calculates that on average, one of its 60g conditioner bars saves 14L of water, compared with the same amount of liquid conditioner, including packaging.
See below for the other category winners:
Sustainability Superstar Sponsored by Enviro-Mark Solutions
Winner: Tracy Brown, DairyNZ. Commendation: Dave Maslen, NZ Merino Company
Communicating for Change Sponsored by Cadence Communications
Winner: Wā Collective. Commendation: Countdown, The Rubbish Trip
Hardwired for Social Good
Winner: Kilmarnock Enterprises. Commendation: Sudima Hotels
Partnering for Good Sponsored by Alsco
Winner: Take My Hands
Going Circular Sponsored by Auckland Council
Winner: Ethique. Commendation: NZAgbiz
Efficiency Champion Sponsored by Ricoh
Winner: City Rail Link. Commendation: Auckland District Health Board, Fonterra Pahiatua
Smarter Transport Sponsored by WSP Opus
Winner: Yoogo Share. Commendation: Waste Management NZ
Revolutionising Energy Sponsored by EECA Business
Winner: emhTrade. Commendation: Red Stag Timber, solarcity
Transforming Food Sponsored by Yealands Family Wines
Winner: Our Land of Milk and Honey. Commendation: Kai Ika
Restoring Nature Sponsored by Department of Conservation
Winner: Auckland Whale and Dolphin Safari. Commendation: Tahi, Te Whangai Trust
Millennial on a Mission Sponsored by Ministry of Youth Development
Winner: Olie Body, Wā Collective. Commendation: Maddison McQueen-Davies – Share a Pair, Olivia Philpott – Watercare
For more, visit sustainable.org.nzhttp://sustainable.org.nz
