NSW sustainability awards line-up heralds a brighter future
Sydney, October 25th 2022 – The 2022 Banksia Foundation – NSW Sustainability Awards finalists gathered in the EY Building’s top floor to participate in the awards night. SDG Align is proud to be amongst those whose bold and diverse initiatives are paving the way towards a brighter future for New South Wales. We congratulate the winners in all the categories and will keep improving on our impact!
What is driving us:
By 2050 over 68% of the global population will live in cities. Australia is the exception with already well over 80% in five large cities. The Australian built environment is responsible for 36% of the Australian GHG emissions. With over 600.000 businesses and over 1.2 million employees it is the largest employer of Australia.
What we set out to achieve
We are on a mission to make sustainable development a business habit by supporting business owners to align with the Sustainable Development Goals, leveraging the network of associations and large corporates to make an impact.
We have achieved 4 partnerships of which 3 are NSW based association declarations, 2 association customers. Our vision is to expand this to a widely used platform for all association to maximize impact on SMEs in NSW and beyond.
Finalists and winners
“The quality and number of entries this year is impressive. It’s even bigger and better than we expected, which demonstrates the growing passion and spirit of our innovators across NSW,” says Ms van Egmond, CEO of the Banksia Foundation.
SDG Aign congratulates all winners and finalists on their contributions to positive change. A special shout out to the winner in the NSW Small and Medium EnterpriseTransformation Award Category: Swag Australia
Swag Australia is the parent company to the brands, The Swag and Veggie Saver. The Swag and Veggie Saver are intelligent, 100% natural, non-toxic, patented produce bags, scientifically proven to keep fruit and vegetables fresh for two weeks or more crisper of the fridge.
A full list of the finalists and winners can be found here
Next generation changemakers
The NSW Minister’s Young Climate Champion Award, presented by the Treasurer, The Hon Mat Kean MP celebrates sustainable leadership by our young NSW innovative generation, who are our inspiration for the future. Among the finalists for this Award are five Year 6 students from St Columba Anglican School, Port Macquarie. These sustainability warriors took it upon themselves to act by proposing to increase the koala habitat in their school grounds.
“Our changemakers of NSW are dedicated to improving life on the planet. We’re excited to recognise their leadership and innovation, and celebrate their successes,” adds Graz van Egmond.
The Chair of the Judging Panel observed “it’s not only large organisations striving for change; everyone has a role to play. It’s fantastic to see so many young innovators creating an inspirational path for others to follow.”
SDG Align is also working with next generation changemakers. Check out how Deona helped us prototype our AI tool!
Business continuity: a challenge for SME business owners due to global shift towards sustainability
Business owners are challenged by adapting to the challenges of the global Covid pandemic, a war on talent, increasing material prices due to global logistics and supply chain challenges, changing rules and regulations towards more environmentally friendly production and distribution and shifting consumer demand towards sustainable products and services. Short term challenges that require long term vision and strategy to deal with. Not to mention cross sector collaboration and innovation. The majority of the 600.000 businesses are micro-, small- or medium sized. They are not equipped to cope with the rapidly changing environment and have their hands full with the short term.
Larger corporations however are able to look further ahead. They have the resources and capabilities to develop at least the 2-5 year strategies needed to adapt. They are (slowly) aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals and see the economic benefits as well as the positive effects they can have on the environment and society. They have the capacity and capability to direct resources towards this systemic transformation.
The UN Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) however are beyond the reach of the majority of these small businesses as they do not have the capacity and capability to invest in aligning with the goals.
