2008 Melaleuca Awards for Environmental Excellence announced

FRONT FROM LEFT: Jo Kieboom - COOLmob; Baylee Walters, Margo Sullivan and Delvina Daniels - Mataranka Primary School; Robert George and Peter Jigili - Lajamanu Community Government Council. BACK FROM LEFT: Ian Kew - Darwin International Airport; Leon Schulz - NT Recycling Solutions Pty Ltd; Brent Whitworth and David Jan - Greening Australia; Glenn McFarlane - Conservation Volunteers Australia.

The Power and Water Corporation, Melaleuca Awards for Environmental Excellence, were announced this afternoon at a ceremony at Parliament House.

The Awards which have been presented since 2003, recognise the environmental initiatives and efforts of the community across Territory schools, businesses, community groups and individuals.

The judging panel, which included experts in environmental management and science, were again impressed with the quality of the submissions this year.

The winners are:

Commercial/ Industry Category:
Darwin International Airport and Greening Australia NT.
A long standing partnership between Darwin International Airport and Greening Australia NT has led to the creation of a 15 hectare conservation reserve on the airport grounds. A three year project, thousands of trees have been planted to create a wildlife corridor along Rapid Creek displaying the Territory’s unique flora and fauna.

Small Business Category:
NT Recycling Solutions Pty. Ltd.
A small company that recycles paper and cardboard, NT Recycling Solutions has collected and processed more than 4,970 tonnes in a year. They estimate that each tonne of recycled paper and cardboard saves about 13 tress 2.5 barrels of oil, 4100kw hours of electricity, four cubic metres of landfill or 31,780 litres of water.

Schools Category:
Mataranka Primary School
The school’s senior class identified rubbish through the canteen as a major problem and created ways to reduce it. Students took over running the canteen, introduced healthy food on washable plates and cutlery and fed food scraps to the chickens and worm farms. Their efforts resulted in the number of bits of rubbish a day reducing from around 160 to only 10 or 20.

Community Category:
Jo Kieboom of COOLmob.
Jo has been involved with COOLmob since 2001 and been a driving force behind its activities including being part of the creative team that made 10 highly recognisable TV ads featuring ‘Coolgirl’. Thanks to Jo’s efforts COOLmob has become a successful behavioural change project reducing greenhouse gas emissions by about 2 tonnes a year for every household each year.

Chairman's Prize:
Lajamanu Community Govt recycling project.
Lajamanu community has reduced litter by more than 60,000 bottles and cans thanks to a program encouraging people to ‘manta lartarku’ – pick up cans. Working with senior Lajamanu women, a graphic designer produced a poster to highlight the message, the local store provided a 10c incentive for every can and bottle collected.

Environment Grant
Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA)
In addition to the main Awards, a special category is also presented, Environmental Grants. This category encourages groups or individuals to present environmental initiatives or projects to be considered for a grant.

This year, a grant of $4,000 has been made to (CVA) to further their work on invasive ant surveys at locations around Nhulunbuy. In partnership with CSIRO, CVA teams will locate nesting colonies of Yellow Crazy Ants and African big-headed Ants for future eradication. Both species are highly invasive and have a significant impact on biodiversity.

All category winners were presented with a unique glass sculpture created by local designer Jon Firth. Jon's kiln formed glass has been acquired by collectors all over the world and been presented to a number of world leaders by the NT Government. His stained glass work also adorns churches in and around Darwin as well as many private homes.

Contact:
Judie Brennan, Media Manager 0401 117 599