City of Sydney Business Awards | Sustainable Business

What we've done for a more sustainable awards

The City of Sydney became the first carbon neutral council in Australia in 2008 offsetting their emissions and purchasing
The emissions from the hosting of our website with Anchor have been offset with international renewable energy credits
ANZ have been ranked the number one bank globally on corporate sustainability performance by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index
Doltone House have convened a green team to improve their own practices and helped us conduct an audit of the emissions for the Awards Dinner. The Doltone House venue is a refitted historic building lowering it's footprint and recycles its cooking oil, cardboard and glass

Online nominations and SMS and online voting reduced printing
Materials and information have been made available for download or viewing online
The majority of our printing has been double-sided and on Australian paper with 40-80% recycled content and FSC or ISO accreditation
Judging and our own communications and meetings have been by email and phone. Two judges received their materials on reusable USB drives
Faxes have been sent and received via an online faxing service Ozefax
Wherever possible, the organisers have shared transport, limited unnecessary trips and reduced use of excess lighting
Gala Awards Dinner table centrepieces and trophies were made out of materials rescued from landfill thanks to Reverse Garbage and will go back to Reverse Garbage rather than being thrown out
Performers for the Awards Dinner were local artists requiring no extra amplification and, for our graffiti artists, reusing old materials
Food for the Awards Dinner was seasonal and Australian grown. Pork and fish was chosen for shorter cooking times and low embodied emissions
The Lord Mayor and our MC, James O'Loghlin travelled to and from the Awards Dinner in a hybrid car
A further two guests at the awards received a free ride home in greentomatocars
The Gala Awards Dinner went without printed tickets, name tags, and goodie bags or gifts

the electricity used by Doltone House's Jones Bay Wharf and offices over the 24-hour period of the Gala Awards Dinner is being matched with accredited 100% GreenPower thanks to EnergyAustralia
Our finalists function on 1 August and judges meeting were held at the City of Sydney and powered by 100% GreenPower

We logged and measured our use of fuels, gas, water, staff hours, waste, internet and telecommunications, staff and guest travel, office supplies, print advertising, cleaning costs and food
Carbon Planet processed the information collected in the audit to measure the number of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions generated
A total of 34 tonnes of emissions were caused by the awards with food the biggest source of emissions. Download our summary audit report
The equivalent number of demand-side abatement certificates have been purchased and surrendered on the NSW Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme to cover our emissions. Demand-side abatement offsets are generated by activities that reduce emissions by reducing electricity consumption

Our suppliers, partners, sponsors have been part of our efforts
For the first time in 2008, finalists were asked to provide details of their own environmental efforts with each entry read by one of our two sustainability judges
We also introduced the Lord Mayor's Sustainability Award in 2008
A sign on each Gala Awards Dinner table listed what we have done to reduce and measure the environmental impact of the evening
We asked our voters whether environment played a part in their purchasing and 77% of them gave a resounding "yes"
We also asked our nominee businesses if they plan on adopting environmental initiatives (78% yes) and whether they've already undertaken environmental initiatives (67% yes)
We gave our guests for the Awards Dinner details of public transport options for the night and hybrid taxi services

Any questions about our environmental efforts?

Email Eleanor@sydneybusinessawards.com.au