The Northern Inland Sustainable Business Network (NISBN) is conducting a Sustainability Master Class to help local organisations get greener. Run in conjunction with the Armidale and District Chamber of Commerce, the workshop style session will take place between 5 – 7pm on Tuesday 27 July at the Armidale City Bowling Club. Chamber Co-President, Matt Meehan is encouraging all local businesses with an interest in being greener, reducing their environmental impact, and saving money to come along. “This is a great chance to talk to other local organisations about what is working for them and why,” he said.
The Sustainability Master Class has been designed to cater for New England organisations of all sizes and industries. Local Sustainability expert, Mahalath Halperin will lead the hands-on, interactive workshop. “Attendees at this workshop will do more than listen. There will be hands-on activities. Everyone will leave with some processes to enhance sustainability that they can implement the very next day,” she said. “It often comes down to behaviour and not much capital outlay. A whole lot of little things add up to make a big difference.”
NISBN is delivering the Sustainability Advantage program in northern inland NSW. Local organisations within the program are able to learn from each other as a network and tap into the latest Government advice and incentives. A diverse mix of 14 prominent organisations have already signed up, according to AusIndustry’s Regional Manager for Northern and Central NSW, Tim Cotter, who is on the NISBN Steering Committee. “It will help them to diagnose how sustainable they are and equip them with practical techniques with which they can adapt their operations to meet the sustainability challenge,” he said. “The Master Class is being supported by a number of pro-active local organisations which, as Sustainability Advantage participants, are regional role models,” Mr Cotter said.
Armidale City Bowling Club CEO, Phil Wheaton said that initiatives within his organisation have already yielded benefits, including the raising of awareness among Club members about the advantages of sustainable practices. “Sustainability Advantage is another step forward for us, towards ensuring our community, staff and Board of Directors are fully aware of the importance of reducing our environmental impact,” he said. “Recycling is a major issue for us. We’ve introduced ‘Pat, the Worm’, a worm farm that composts Club scraps. Members can come and get worm juice for their gardens. It’s been a massive hit.”
Arthur Kirk is Managing Director of Forsyths, a leading business and financial advisory organisation in the region. “We see sustainability as a leadership issue and an opportunity. The obvious challenge for us was to reduce the amount of paper that we use. The amount of paper that we now produce and retain for our client purposes has decreased by around 85 percent over the past three years. Electronic data management and communication is also the way the world is moving and we want to be at the front of that,” he said.
For Uralla’s Phoenix Foundry, Sustainability Advantage does not simply mean reductions in environmental impact and operational expenses; it is an opportunity to demonstrate that change has occurred. “Changing the image of foundries is important. It is a dramatically cleaner industry than it was 20 years ago. We monitor emissions and odours,” said Phoenix Foundry’s Chief Financial Officer, Monicka Baird. “We’ve introduced printer cartridge recycling and printing on both sides of pages. Lighting and water use is now more efficient, and we’ve worked on how we can re-use waste sand from moulding. Some technologies have only become available in the last few years. Being in Uralla, we need to be pro-active in finding sustainability solutions and educating our employees.”
Caption: Phoenix Foundry’s Chief Financial Officer, Monicka Baird; Armidale and District Chamber of Commerce Co-President, Matt Meehan; Managing Director of Forsyths, Arthur Kirk; sustainability expert, Mahalath Halperin; and Armidale City Bowling Club CEO, Phil Wheaton; with (seated) NISBN Sustainability Advantage Project Officer, Lauren Zell and NISBN Steering Committee Member, Tim Cotter.
July 2010.
AusIndustry’s Regional Manager for Northern and Central NSW, Tim Cotter has announced the establishment of what he described as an exciting new opportunity for the region’s businesses. The Northern Inland Sustainable Business Network (NISBN) aims to provide an unprecedented level of connectivity between local businesses. The network will provide businesses of all styles and sizes access to key Federal and State Government departments and agencies, delivering access to support, resources and potential funding and incentives.
“My role with AusIndustry is to try to find businesses who can access Government assistance or incentives. I am currently looking at a series of programs with funding opportunities totalling $240 million,” Mr. Cotter said. “Trying to cover the New England North West, to find businesses that can access this support has proven to be extremely difficult. So, my intention is to collaborate with other State and Federal agencies to create a central point, where businesses can access the types of funding, grants, resources and the latest sustainability information available to them.”
“The Northern Inland Sustainable Business Network (NISBN) has been formed in order to build a central resource of information for businesses in these trying times. It is about helping them to help themselves become more sustainable operations, both environmentally and financially,” Mr. Cotter said.
With a business network, there is strength in numbers and Mr. Cotter is urging all businesses in the region to join the network, via a membership form at www.nisbn.org.au. To build momentum, membership for the current financial year is completely free for businesses. “This is a network for all businesses, from a small business, a florist, a takeaway shop, right through to manufacturing and larger employer operations, such as abattoirs and health providers.”
The collaborating organisations behind NISBN will host a series of major regional business networking events, seminars and workshops. “We’ll be not only informing but also educating businesses on the importance of sustainable business practices,” he said.
The first NISBN event will be a free business forum from 1pm to 4pm in the Armidale Town Hall, run in conjunction with the Sustainable Living Expo on Friday 25th September. The Sustainable Business Forum will be presented in partnership with AusIndustry, Industry & Investment NSW, the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water, Country Energy, Regenesis and TAFE NSW - New England Institute. Please register for this event by Wednesday 23rd September here.
“A variety of educational and informative speakers will be giving presentations to local business people about their options for sustainability. The keynote speaker will be founder of VIM Sustainability, Mr. John Brodie, who has been a sustainability consulting and construction professional since the 1970’s. We’ll bring together a wealth of information about the sorts of grants, subsidies and potentially the sorts of off-setting options that Northern Inland NSW businesses may be eligible for,” Mr. Cotter said.
“Through the Northern Inland Sustainable Business Network, we are looking to help businesses to set themselves up as a more sustainable business. So, we want them to look at where they can save on energy costs, save water, and so on. We’re really looking for them to have environmental and economic benefits from NISBN,” he said.
August 2009
A big win in reducing the environmental footprint of the TAFE New England Institute is great news. Institute Director, Mr Paul Callaghan, said, “I am very happy with the achievements made by the Institute in reducing energy, water and paper consumption over the past two years.
“The 2008 data has now been analysed and the results are a clear indication of the effort all our staff have made to address the concerns of the environment”. During 2007 and 2008 the Institute has achieved a reduction of 12% in its carbon footprint, 9% reduction in electricity, a massive 50% reduction in fleet car travel, 40% in hire car travel, 24% reduction in paper use and a 10% saving in domestic gas use. These reductions in carbon producing activities are very welcome.
“As well the Institute has made a major investment in reducing water consumption”, Mr Callaghan continued. “At Tamworth Campus we have installed a rainwater collection and reticulation system. Together with implementing waterless urinals, this has reduced the campus water use from 25 mega litres per annum to 4 mega litres. Tenterfield and Coonabarabran Campuses also benefited from improved water usage systems. Due to our great success in this area we are committing additional funds to double the collection capacity across the whole Institute, with Gunnedah and Boggabilla targeted to receive improved systems in 2009.”
Mr Callaghan was exceptionally pleased with the commitment show by staff in this area. “In the current economic and environmental climate it is difficult to achieve economies such as we have without the dedication and wholehearted support of the staff at our eleven campuses. Having achieved such great success has spurred us on to reduce our environmental footprint even more. We have two major projects being implemented in 2009, supported by the Department of Environment and Climate Change. These projects will dramatically reduce electricity consumption at Tamworth and Gunnedah campuses.
“The recently announced funding from the Federal Government to assist the Institute with further sustainability initiatives will help us achieve even greater savings. These initiatives are aimed at a 30% reduction in electricity consumption - a signficant 1200 tonne reduction of consumption of carbon dioxide. Overall this would reduce the New England Institute of TAFE’s carbon footprint by a massive 38%,” Mr Callaghan explained.
Mr Callaghan also referred to changes in training conducted by the Institute. “Environmental awareness and practices are being introduced in our educational programs as industry demands improved outcomes in this area. We aim to be a leader in environmental sustainability efforts of the New England and North West region.”
July 2009
The consistent presentation of the NISBN brand is important to build recognition and reinforce the message that NISBN is presenting. This guide sets out formats and specifications for presentation of the NISBN logo and how references to NISBN should be made.
The NISBN Logo must only be used by NISBN members. Any use of the logo should first seek approval of the NISBN Steering Committee.
The logos can be downloaded below by clicking on the link and then selecting "Save Image As".
