Amcor, PanAust, Wesfarmers, Hepburn Community Wind Park Co-op and Bantix Worldwide have been announced as winners of the Australian Sustainability Awards.

 

Wesfarmers was named the Australian Sustainability Award 2011 Company of the Year from finalists that included: AGL, Amcor, Fuji Xerox and National Australia Bank.

 

The judges found Wesfarmers to be responsive to engagement on issues of concern to the ethical investment sector. It also boasts a formal Ethical Sourcing Code, an extensive energy efficiency drive, sustainable packaging as well as a diverse and well-integrated community partnerships programs.

 

Amcor earned itself the Environmental Award because the judges saw it as a “world-leader” on course to reinvent packaging. It was a company using the principles of environmental sustainability to reposition its product in customers’ and suppliers’ minds they said.

 

The other finalists included: AGL, Australian Paper, Coles, Fuji Xerox, Investa Property Group and National Australia Bank.

 

The Social – Community Award went to PanAust. The judges were impressed with the care and attention paid to its mining-related community development and engagement process - made more challenging by operating in Laos, one of the world’s most underdeveloped countries.


Hepburn Community Wind Park Co-op took out the Infrastructure Award and distinguished itself by using a co-operative model to develop infrastructure in a way that was able to be scaled-up to potentially another 50 sites.

 

Other finalists included: Cardno and Sinclair Knight Merz.

 

The inaugural New Enterprise-ASA went to Bantix Worldwide. Its mosquito repelling device tackles a major global health challenge. The judges also said that like other good technology companies, it has plans for commercialising a pipeline of new inventions.

 

Barefoot Power was named the Small Company of the Year. It has a simple technology-replacement business model that is on track to bring affordable renewable-energy lighting to five million of the world’s poor, across 20 countries - replacing unsafe and high-emissions kerosene according to the judges.

 

The 2011 Erik Mather Sustainability Champion was named as Nathan Fabian from the Investor Group on Climate Change.

 

He differentiated himself by becoming a key player in the very public debate on pricing carbon, when many others had withdrawn according to the judges

 

Finalists included: Ann Byrne from the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors, Jon Jutsen from Energetics, Amanda McCluskey from Colonial First State and Louise O’Halloran from the Responsible Investment Association Australasia.