Last week’s biennial 2023 Tweed Sustainability Awards celebrated people who made a demonstrable difference by protecting or enhancing the natural environment.
The awards were presented last week at the Tweed Regional Gallery to people who planted thousands of trees, championed marine conservation, avoided food waste, saved wildlife and created regenerative carbon farming, just to name a few of the laudable activities of the winners, who received both trophies and certificates at the ceremony. A total of 25 nominations were received this year, more than double the number received for the previous awards in 2021.
The winners for each category were:
- Regenerative Agriculture: Woodland Valley Farm (2nd year running)
- Wildlife and Habitat Conservation: Fingal Head Coastcare
- Tourism and Hospitality: Joint winners: Kirra Dive and Pipit (two winners for 2023)
Special recognition: Tweed Eco Cruises and Potager - Sustainability – Education: Stokers Siding Public School
- Sustainability – Business: Summerland Credit Union
Special recognition: Husk Farm Distillery - Sustainability – Adult: Beverley Fairley
- Sustainability – Community: Murwillumbah Farmers Market
- People’s Choice: Agape Outreach Inc
Launched in 2019, this is the third time the biennial Tweed Sustainability Awards have been run, showcasing a number of outstanding winners and nominees who demonstrate the passion Tweed residents have for prioritising the preservation of our environment.
Mayor of Tweed Shire Chris Cherry said it was a privilege to recognise environmental champions who have overcome challenges and continued with their cause to achieve great outcomes.
‘The Tweed is the most biodiverse local government area in NSW with more than 200 flora species and more than 100 fauna species classified as threatened or on the brink of extinction,’ said Cr Cherry.
‘We want to recognise these business and environmental champions for their crucial contribution to protect and enhance our natural surroundings.
‘There is some truly inspiring work being done and we thank all the winners and nominees for rolling up their sleeves and making a significant effort to enhance the Tweed’s environment and ensure their successful practices leave the smallest footprint possible.’
Judges’ highlights and observations
Regenerative Agriculture: Woodland Valley Farm, Fernvale
Jodie and Fabian from Woodland Valley Farm have gone from strength to strength with their farming and food business, building on the activities that saw them win this award category two years ago. They have continued to fence and revegetate the waterways on their land and trialled a multispecies pasture improvement program that has led to the sequestration of more than 350 tonnes of additional carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalents in their soil and participation in the Australian Government Emissions Reduction Fund. They have moved to a fully off-grid farm setup and sell 86% of their eggs without any egg carton packaging.
Wildlife and Habitat Conservation: Fingal Head Coastcare, Fingal Head
Fingal Head Coastcare’s nomination exemplifies holistic, place-based management that is deeply embedded and integrated in the surrounding community, with exemplary community partnerships. The group planted more than 2,000 trees in the past two years and contributed more than 4,000 hours restoring the Fingal headland in collaboration with the Tweed Byron Local Aboriginal Land Council. Plantings have been supported by installation of nest boxes and access improvements, and the group has systems in place to ensure the long-term sustainability and continual improvement of their operations. Fingal Head Coastcare is a deserving winner of this award for delivering integrated land management across restoration, education, community education and working together with First Nations peoples.
Tourism and Hospitality (two trophy winners): Kirra Dive and Pipit
Kirra Dive, Tweed Heads
Judges decided to award trophies to the leading nominations in both Tourism and Hospitality, and special recognition certificates for Tweed Eco Cruises and Potager where the scoring was very close. Judges commended Kirra Dive for their outstanding integration of cultural and conservation standards in their business. Judges were impressed by Kirra Dive’s strong commitment to education, creating opportunities for other industry operators, community and tourist groups to learn about and contribute to marine science and conservation.
Pipit Restaurant, Pottsville
Judges were impressed by Pipit’s strong sustainability framework which is brought to life in multiple ways throughout their restaurant business including seasonal menus featuring local produce from more than 38 local suppliers, and extensive efforts to avoid waste including the embedding of fishbones and grill ash in ceramics. Pipit is also supporting efforts to eradicate pest animals in their selection of game meats. Diners are engaged in the restaurant’s sustainability story at their table – in Pipit’s words, ‘fostering that direct connection is how we hope more people start to care’.
Sustainability – Education: Stokers Siding Public School, Stokers Siding
Judges were impressed by the extensive opportunities for students to learn about and be in nature. The school’s programs include students’ designing, installing and maintaining fences to keep native wildlife safe from introduced pests. Water bug surveys, frog hotels made from recycled materials and bee hotels to help repopulate the local native bee population are soon to be joined by a new program to help connect with local Indigenous community members to build a native seed bank for future generations.
Sustainability – Community: Murwillumbah Farmers Market, Murwillumbah
Judges commended the work of the Murwillumbah Farmers Market on multiple fronts to reduce food miles, encourage sustainable practise in suppliers and bring food farmed and produced sustainably to the local community. They also ‘walk the talk’ and have reduced waste at the markets by 75% and provide wash stations onsite to help with this.
Sustainability – Business: Summerland Credit Union, Kingscliff & Murwillumbah
Judges were impressed by how advanced and sophisticated Summerland’s sustainability practice has become. To go from gold certification in the Sustainability Advantage program to achieve B Corp certification in March 2023 shows that Summerland Credit Union measures up to arguably one of the most rigorous third-party sustainability certification standards available, supported by all the good work and data to record the impact of their journey so far which includes 21% reduction in CO2 emissions over the past two years, (including petrol, diesel, electricity, flights and paper usage) despite continued business growth. Judges were impressed with Summerland’s clear vision for next steps and for deepening the engagement on sustainability and climate change risk in key parts of the business.
Sustainability – Adult: Beverley Fairley, Kynnumboon
Beverley’s nomination stood out for the contribution her work is making to create lowland and riparian habitats on her property. These habitats are critically threatened communities that have been almost removed from our landscape and are important for carbon storage, water quality improvement and landscape connectivity. Beverley has planted 12,000 native plants, expanding on 20 years of restoration work on this sugar cane land.
People’s Choice: Agape Outreach Inc, Tweed Heads South
Agape Outreach Inc won the People’s Choice Award, voted by the community. A total of 1,180 votes were received in support of the 25 nominees. Agape Outreach rescued and redistributed more than 92 tonnes of food in 2022 and has excelled in both environmental and social sustainability, supporting those most in need in the community.
Find out more about the winners at tweed.nsw.gov.au/tweed–
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