Awards reflect focus on sustainability

The corporate sector’s focus on sustainable business practices has been reflected in the attention paid to environmental management, occupational health and safety and corporate governance awards.

These awards do not have the same cache as others, but they are becoming more prominent.

Three Western Australian companies won national awards this year for their achievements in the field of occupational health and safety.

Kwinana engineering and fabrication business Ausclad Group won a Safework Australia award for best workplace health and safety management. It has implemented a management system to support a company wide focus on good health and safety practices, reflecting the view that a safe workplace is a productive and efficient workplace.

Boyup Brook farmer Peter Bradford also won a national Safework award for best workplace health and safety practices in a small business.

At the big end of town, BHP Billiton subsidiary Worsley Alumina won the 2007 MINEX award, the mining industry’s highest accolade for safety and health excellence.

In the field of environmental management, Perth company National Lifestyle Villages was one of two WA winners in the national Banksia awards, in the built environment category. The company also won a water efficiency housing award at the national HIA Boral GreenSmart awards.

NLV has introduced a range of practices to ensure that its retirement villages operate in an environmentally friendly manner, with strategies to minimise use of power and water and maximise recycling.

Its Bridgewater village in Mandurah is the first in WA where all of the homes have passive solar access and rainwater tanks.

In the mining sector, Alcoa won the annual Golden Gecko award for the rehabilitation of its Jarrahdale bauxite mine.

It spent $25 million rehabilitating 638 hectares of land, following 35 years of mining activity.