Clean Up Australia Chairman and Founder, Ian Kiernan AO, joined Auburn and Parramatta City Councils for the launch of Streamline, a new sustainable business program designed to reduce water and energy use and minimise waste production in Sydney’s industrial heartland.
The councils have been successful in securing a grant of $1.3 million from the NSW Environmental Trust and are now working with a number of key partners including: Department of Environmental Climate Change and Water (DECCW); Sydney Water; Bicycle NSW; Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF); Make Stuff Happen and NSF Consulting.
Streamline will help businesses in the Camellia and Silverwater areas of the Duck River Catchment achieve financial, social and environmental sustainability. More than 45 businesses have so far registered to participate in the program - Auburn and Parramatta City council aim to increase the number of participating businesses to 100.
Mr Kiernan, who started his Clean Up mission 20 years ago in Sydney Harbour (which saw 40,00 Sydneysiders participate), was a special guest speaker at the launch event at Rosehill Gardens. Key to Ian’s involvement is his commitment to helping local government achieve such important goals. Kiernan explains, “the catchment is as important as the harbour itself and I am delighted to see well managed councils collaborate to do something about such an important asset. As evidenced by Clean Up Australia, the action of people translates into real action from Government and it’s critical that we put yesterday’s behaviours and technology behind us and adapt to a changing world.”
Kiernan lives by a simple formula: E=1, which translates to the Environment is Number 1. He sees what he describes as “environmental Nazis” coming out of our schools who are very aware and not fools to green washing, so it is imperative that business take sustainability issues seriously. Kiernan believes Streamline is just the tool to achieve sustainable growth of the local area.
Encompassing an area of about 39 square kilometres, the Duck River Catchment is home to more than 1200 businesses including Rosehill Racecourse and the Shell Clyde Refinery, the longest operating oil refinery in Australia. The first program of its kind in the area, Streamline will give businesses the opportunity to participate in a range of initiatives designed to offer real solutions for managing waste and reducing energy and water usage.
Streamline Activities
Sydney Water has partnered with Auburn and Parramatta City councils to offer water efficiency assessment as part of the Every Drop Counts Business Program. This program is targeted at businesses that use between 10 and 80 kilolitres of water a day. Fernando Ortega, Manager Business Customer, Products and Performance at Sydney Water, is a proud advocate of the Sydney Water Pilot Partnership Program. “The success of Every Drop Counts was as a result of working with over 420 large businesses, including council. Smaller businesses present more of a challenge but the program will target 50 businesses in both Parramatta and Auburn over the next year providing them with free water assessments” says Ortega.
Businesses will also be provided with a general environmental assessment of their operation including an energy assessment through the NSW Government’s Energy Efficiency for Small Business Program including a free walk through electricity assessments to businesses registered in Streamline.
David Trewin, Senior Manager Sustainable Business, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water, sees this initiative as the “main gain in town”. “A tailored action plan and a rebate of up to $5,000 for making energy efficiency improvements for those with electricity bills up to about $20,000 per year, helps organisations to look systemically at environmental management” says Trewin.
The program’s general environmental assessment will provide small to medium size businesses with benchmarks against which they can measure improvements in their sustainability performance and provide a practical resource to help them meet council’s regulatory requirements.
Guy Reynolds, Senior Engineer of BluGlass, is one such participant in the program. As a local manufacturer in the Duck River Catchment area, and being an eco-tech company who wants to live by the rule rather than pay lip service to it, they are committed to reducing the amount of waste and waste transport they are responsible for as a company. "The waste exchange works really well for us because a lot of the companies we would use to process the amount of waste we have are located in the area and the Streamline project has connected us to them" says Reynolds.
Other activities to be implemented as part of Streamline include a business mentoring program, a sustainable transport program supported by Bicycle NSW, and capital works improvements within the Duck River Catchment.
The Streamline website: www.streamline.org.au has been created to provide education and resources to participating businesses and share the progress of the program with the wider community.
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Image Details: Councillor Jack Au, Auburn Council, Ian Kiernan, Chairman and Founder of Clean Up Australia and Parramatta City Council Lord Mayor Cr Paul Garrard at the Streamline Launch.
