Regional councils and community groups have been recognised in the Victorian Premier's Sustainability Awards.
Community group St Kilda Mums, Geelong Mums and Eureka Mums has won the state's top honour in the Victorian Premier's Sustainability Awards – the Premier's Recognition Award – for its program recycling, reusing and re-homing babies and children's gear, sharing the joy of parenthood and saving the earth's resources.
The group also won the Community Award category.
St Kilda Mums was established in February 2009. Six years later, the expanded network of St Kilda Mums, Geelong Mums and Eureka Mums is going strong.
Voluntary groups of parents collect and sort donations of baby and young children's essential nursery equipment, clothing, prams and strollers, car restraints, highchairs, toys and books.
These items are then re-distributed by Maternal & Child Health Nurses and Family Case Workers from dozens of welfare agencies to families in need across metropolitan Melbourne, Geelong and Ballarat and beyond.
Sustainability Victoria chief executive Stan Krpan said the awards celebrated Victorians who had made a difference to the environment by implementing sustainable measures to better manage their waste, water and energy consumption.
Barwon Health won the Premier's Regional Recognition Award for their innovative Food Services Central Production Unit Recycling Initiatives program.
Winners in the 2015 Premier's Sustainability Awards are:
- Built Environment Award: Goulburn Broken Greenhouse Alliance - ‘Watts Working Better’ project that is replacing over 13,000 energy inefficient lights, reducing energy use and saving landfill across nine Victorian regional councils.
- Community Award: St Kilda Mums, Geelong Mums and Eureka Mums - ‘Recycle, Reuse, Rehome’
- Education Award: The University of Melbourne - ‘The Growing Green Guide for Melbourne’ that is a free, comprehensive and practical guide to the construction of green walls, roofs and facades.
- Environmental Justice Award: Darebin City Council - ‘Darebin Solar Saver’ that makes solar power more accessible to low income residents by enabling households to pay them off through council rates, interest free over 10 years.
- Environmental Protection Award: Robert Bosch Australia - ‘Reclamation of Copper from Prescribed Industrial Wastewater’
- Government Award: Goulburn Valley Waste and Resource Recovery Group and Moira Shire Council - ‘Overcoming Barriers to Effective Household Kerbside Garden and Food Organics Recovery’ that is a small rural council’s introduction of an integrated, well-researched service to remove organic waste from landfill and develop sustainable, productive uses for it.
- Health Award: Monash Health - ‘Cleaning without chemicals in Healthcare’
- ]Innovative Products or Services Award: Living Fundraisers - ‘Closet Cleanout’ that is an initiative to help schools and organisations raise money through ethical fundraising and ships unwanted clothes and goods to developing countries.
- Small and Medium Enterprises Award: Yarra Valley Estate that is a conference, wedding and accommodation centre that conducts certified sustainability programs spanning energy, water, waste and community development.
