NSW Environmental Protection Agency NSW Government
 

2023 Sustainability Partnerships

The 2023 Sustainability Partnerships program sought to partner with organisations that want to act on climate change.

Our focus is on enabling and supporting best practice and building collaborative processes to ensure any actions we take are meaningful, feasible and cost-effective

A successful partnership is rooted in shared understanding, transparency, and clear communication. We have devised a series of criteria and intended outcomes outlining what we hope to achieve through partnerships.

  • Focus on gaps in climate change action and not duplicate existing efforts
  • Improve the EPA’s understanding of industry and regulated community needs (e.g. agricultural sector, waste sector local government)
  • Support pilots that meet one or more policy or funding gaps, which could inform future programs for the EPA.
  • Improve community perception of the EPA’s role in climate change
  • Strengthen the EPA's regulatory role through the continued implementation of its Regulatory Strategy and Policy (Listen, Educate, Enable, Influence).

Our 2023 Sustainability Partners

  • Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM)​ – This will be the first project to ever quantify the additional emergency departments (ED) workload, costs and resource implications from climate change across EDs accredited by ACEM, which account for the majority (75%) of all ED presentations across NSW.
  • Boomerang Labs​ – A specialist program for circular economy startups, providing the skills and support required to scale and commercialise.
  • Charitable Recycling​ – This project will develop a methodology to measure data on reuse, taking into account the environmental, economic, and social impacts associated with reuse.
  • Civic Future Labs​ – The Circularity for Climate program supports NSW CEOs with Net Zero targets to address decarbonisation pain-points through co-designing and piloting circular strategies that leverage value chain collaboration, ecosystem partnerships and advanced technologies.
  • Dairy Up​ – This project will build on the work and relationships with Farms that Dairy Up to capture additional data on pasture/crop, soil and animal levels to estimate more robust net Carbon emissions and balances in NSW dairy farms.
  • Green Music Australia ​– through the Green Action Program, its second in partnership with the EPA, Green Music will help participating NSW music businesses to better understand, monitor and improve their environmental impact. Green Music will also convene a Music Product Stewardship Alliance, bringing the sector together to see how it get better manage its waste collectively.
  • Hunter Joint Organisation​ –An emissions data management program will be developed to accelerate emissions reduction activities for council-owned landfills in the Hunter. The project brings together measurement, reporting, and communications to better understand landfill emissions profiles and inform climate mitigation strategies.
2022 Sustainability Partnerships program

Phasing out single-use plastics in NSW

The NSW Government has a commitment to ban certain problematic plastics, such as single-use plastics and address the problem of plastic waste.

We are working with a diverse range of partners to support the ban of single-use plastics, increase awareness and shift attitudes towards single-use plastics. Over time we will work with partners to address other sustainability and environmental issues.

Our 2022 Sustainability Partners

  • Girl Guides NSW​ will install waste sorting stations at their 15 campsites. They will also launch an education program for members to learn about and support the plastic bans in NSW and reduce plastics pollution. Girl Guides is seeking to become more sustainable as an organisation and this is an important first step.
  • Green Connect​ will create a community of people who use gathered and donated fabrics and items, to make reusable bags and other alternatives to single use plastics.  They are extremely creative and have fantastic ideas like making party packs. These party packs will have reusable decorations that can be rented out for parties, a great alternative to streamers and other decorations that are used once and disposed of.
  • Green Music Australia​ will work alongside with the music festival sector and music venues across NSW to develop awareness and action toward sustainable operations in the NSW music industry, with a focus on transition from single use plastics.
  • KU Children's Services​ will audit the plastics used in their kindergartens across the state to better understand their own use and how they can be more sustainable. They will trial alternatives and deliver education programs to raise awareness and gain support for the changes across their business and families.
  • Meals on Wheels NSW​ will raise awareness about the plastics ban among their clients, members and volunteers. It will encourage everyone involved to make sustainable changes to this valued community service and achieve their net zero by 2050 target.
  • Men's Sheds​ are community hubs where a conversation between mates over coffee or in the workshop could result in a real change in behaviour. This project will see men across NSW talking about problem plastics, the single-use plastics ban, alternative solutions and opportunities in their communities.
  • NSW Environmental & Zoo Education Centres (EZEC). This project will engage 20 schools to deliver education focused on waste, plastics and sustainability. It will look at how they are using plastic and make changes through the delivery of plastic reduction programs.
  • OzGreen​ will target food organisations and vendors at festivals on the North and Mid-North Coast to raise awareness about the plastics ban changes, gain business support, implement waste reduction programs, and help drive positive behaviour change across the community.
  • Plastic Free July​ will partner with us to deliver a year-long behaviour change campaign to drive support for the plastics ban. Plastic Free July is an international movement that seeks to avoid plastics. This work will extend their reach into NSW and encourage communities to reduce single use plastic waste.
  • Southern Cross University. Using the University's research and teaching capability, an education program will deliver initiatives including an innovation challenge for high school students and a Hackathon for university students, tackling real life business challenges around single use plastics and the circular economy.
  • Surfing NSW​ are riding the wave of change with us and getting their community on board with the plastics ban. They'll use events and social media relevant to local communities and ocean lovers to raise awareness, and provide support to local boardriding clubs to implement strategies to support the bans.
  • Tafe NSW / Addison Road Community Organisation. Addi Road will engage artists to produce culturally appropriate content to drive change around the reliance on single use plastics and problematic plastics among non-English speaking communities. It's a fantastic project that will involve the help of 10 language groups.
  • Take 3​ are focused on targeting the social media feeds of NSW residents and raising awareness about the plastics ban. The online campaign for small business and their customers will use storytelling to encourage behaviour change through small actions to create large scale change.
  • The Great Plastics Rescue​ will work with impacted businesses and organisations who have excess light-weight plastic bags. They'll work with businesses to collect and reprocess the stock, and will  promote participating businesses as Champions of Change.
  • University of New England. The University aims to shift social norms through their podcast program that's already doing an excellent job at educating listeners and driving change in our community.
  • University of Newcastle. The University will create a sustainable cookbook about reducing food based single use plastics. It's a fantastic way to get students and the broader community to consider the actions in their own kitchens and how they can reduce the impact of problematic plastics on our environment.
  • University of Wollongong. This project will drive a cultural change among staff and students at the Wollongong campus. The funding will support a waste audit and installation of plate and cutlery return station and organics bin to educate and champion change among students on campus.