Council cleans up two awards for their sustainability efforts

Northern Beaches Council won four significant awards this week, recognising achievements in environment, customer service and procurement areas.  

Council won two awards at the Keep Australia Beautiful NSW Awards. The first was an Environmental Communications Award for the Swap this for That campaign – an initiative which supports the delivery of our Single Use Plastics Policy by educating the community to swap plastic water bottles, bags and coffee cups for reusable alternatives.  

Council also won the Response to Climate Change Award for Building Resilience into Infrastructure Assets, a joint project with the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA) and included a case study of the Fairy Bower amenities building which was destroyed in the June 2016 storm and designed and rebuilt to be more climate resilient. Council was also a finalist for the Overall Sustainable Cities Award.

Our customer service team was also recognised by the National Local Government Customer Service Network as the winner in Innovation in Service Delivery.

And Council's Procurement Manger, Lisa Neal, was awarded the prestigious  2018 Outstanding Procurement Professional at the Local Government Procurement Awards for her focus on delivering the highest quality service in pursuit of what is best for Council and the community.

Northern Beaches Mayor Michael Regan said it was wonderful to be acknowledged for the good work Council does every day.

“I’m so proud that Council has been recognised in such a significant way, all in one week," Mayor Regan said.

"The Swap This for That initiative works towards eliminating the big four – plastic water bottles, straws, bags and coffee cups. There are several elements of the campaign including the production of a video which has been viewed over 64,000 times.

“Two thousand residents have also taken a pledge not to use single use plastics and anecdotal evidence shows they are still continuing the pledge so we’re getting the message out there.

"The judges also agreed, saying it’s the most outstanding waste management initiative they have seen.

"What a fantastic acknowledgement of the staff across the organisation, doing incredible work every day for our community. A huge congratulations to Lisa Neal and all those in our great customer service team."

Council would like to also congratulate the Surfrider Foundation Northern Beaches for being awarded the Sustainable Projects Award for their Ocean Friendly Program which aims to stop excessive plastic entering our waterways.