Sustainability rewarded

The Great Southern Institute of Technology won the Albany Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s inaugural Green Business award on Friday night.

Picture by Laurie Benson: Great Southern Institute of Technology’s Lidia Rozlapa, South Coast Natural Resource Management’s Bill Hollingworth and GSIT’s Neil Augustson and Sue Dawes with their awards.

GSIT spokeswoman Bev Baxter said the award, sponsored by South Coast Natural Resource Management, was close to the hearts of the staff and students at the institute.

“We’ve got a real environmental sustainability culture at the institute where staff and students are encouraged to follow guidelines,” she said.

“We have a sustainability committee which initiates projects and people are encouraged throughout the institute to come up with ideas for saving the planet in our own small way and they go before the committee.

“Ideas are put forward and any savings we make from our initiatives are then ploughed back into further sustainability projects.

“We save dollars while we’re doing our part to save the planet.”

Projects undertaken include the use of photo-voltaic panels to power buildings, rainwater tanks used for toilet flushing, garden reticulation, filtered water refill stations and drinking fountains to cut down on the use of PET bottles.

Ms Baxter said in the next couple of weeks the institute would hopefully install a wind turbine to act as a mini power station, as well as installing more drink fountains.

She said the institute teaches sustainability throughout all its courses.

“This underpins all the courses we teach at the institute but as well as this we deliver the diploma of sustainability and we have conservation and land management courses as well which also are directly focused on sustainability,” she said.

marc.simojoki@albanyadvertiser.com