Ash Bolt
Geelong has been recognised as Victoria’s most sustainable city at Keep Victoria Beautiful’s annual Sustainable Cities Awards last week.
The City of Greater Geelong took out four awards, including the top gong – Sustainable City of the Year.
It also won the energy, environment and waste awards in the council category.
Mayor and sustainability performance portfolio chair Stephanie Asher said the council was proud the City had been recognised for its initiatives to protect local environments.
“We’re thrilled to win the overall Sustainable Cities Award because it recognises how hard we’re working to keep the Greater Geelong region sustainable and liveable,” she said.
“Our community wants to see the City proactively showing leadership to reduce our environmental impact, prevent waste, and protect our world-class biodiversity.
“These projects are good for the environment but also make economic sense over the long-term. Whether it’s using crushed glass to build roads, putting solar on City facilities, or installing an artificial reef at Portarlington, we’re leading the way on sustainability action at the local government level.”
Keep Victoria Beautiful chief executive Sabina Wills said Geelong was commended for its range of projects designed to protect the environment.
“Greater Geelong demonstrated great collaboration with the local community, business and industry to deliver a diverse and exciting array of projects highlighting a very strong commitment to developing and implementing sustainable practices and strengthening their local communities well-being,” she said.
The City took out the energy award for its Zero Carbon Buildings Program, which included installing rooftop solar systems and other energy efficiency improvements on council buildings.
It also won the environment award for its artificial reef at Ramblers Road in Portarlington to prevent further erosion and the waste award for using glass and plastics collected through kerbside recycling to build roads.
In the community category, Bellarine Friends of the Hooded Plover’s Andrea Dennett won the environment award for her work to protect threatened bird life.
“Andrea has shown real leadership and commitment over almost 14 years to nurture and care for threatened birds and protect our precious coastal habitat,” Cr Asher said.
“Andrea has brought people together and shown we all have a part to play in protecting our beloved hoodies.”
The region also had several other strong entries in the awards.
The City-run Bella Wiyn Birralee Family Centre in Drysdale was highly commended for its Sustainability Champions of Tomorrow program, while Mik Aidt was also highly commended for the community education award for his climate emergency declaration campaign.
Other Geelong finalists included Geelong Sustainability in the education award for its Sustainable House Day 2020, the Friends of Waurn Ponds Creek in the environment award for its work to restore the creek and Lids 4 Kids in the waste award.
