Green Globe Awards 2018 shine a bright light on winners

NSW government’s Green Globe Awards on Thursday night last week again proved they are the event of the year on the state’s sustainability calendar. But they performed even more important secondary roles.

They shone a bright and deserved light on the people working as hard as possible to transition our economy to a more sustainable platform and they energised and thrilled another packed house of supporters and industry members keen to soak up optimism and inspiration for another year of hard slog.

From contestants in the built environment, this year it was Stockland and its indomitable general manager sustainability Davina Rooney who took out one of the most important awards overall – for consistency (and who could argue with the importance of steadfastness in this flip flop policy world, both public and private?)

Rooney (who was a panel member at Tomorrowland 2018) stepped up to the podium to accept the 10-year Sustainability Achievement Award for long-term environmental achievement.

green globes — Anika Molesworth with award for Young Sustainability Champion, photo: Quentin Jones

The judges for this award did what so few people would like to see more often: they checked the track record of winners from the 2008 Golden Globes to see if they had lived up to their sustainability promises over the 10-year period.

Stockland reportedly hit the mark, the judges said: ”Their record is based on achievement, going beyond mandatory requirements to achieve the most Green Star rated retail centres and retirement living villages, and the most Green Star rated residential communities in Australia.”

Mirvac won the Built Environment Award for the Bay Centre property located in Pyrmont, Sydney. The building has a 6 star NABERS Energy rating.

Top award, the Premier’s Award for Environmental Excellence was awarded to ClearSky Solar Investments, a Sydney not-for-profit investment company that’s raised around $3 million for solar power installations.

Read: On why Victoria is picking sustainability as a vote winner and why others should pay attention

“This company is one of the state’s environmental business success stories based on the fact that solar power makes good sense economically and environmentally,” minister for the environment, local government and heritage Gabrielle Upton said.

The company also won the Climate Change Leadership Award and the Community Leadership Award and was a finalist in the Innovation category.