Eco Check Your Business!
Since launching more than four-years-ago, Tourism Noosa’s innovative Noosa Eco Check has worked with more than 500 locals and business owners to check their green credentials. Jolene Ogle investigates the program that is good for the environment as well as the bottom line.
When it comes to operating costs, every business wants to save money and if you can save the environment at the same time then that has to be a great thing. In Noosa, businesses are learning to co-exist within nature and programs like Tourism Noosa’s Noosa Eco Check 2.0 are helping business owners learn how best to care for the environment around them, all while saving money.
Noosa Eco Check is the second part of the award-winning Welcome to Noosa program and so far, 566 businesses, students and volunteers have completed the online program. Environment and Sustainability Manager Juanita Bloomfield said Noosa Eco Check 2.0 was all about inspiring the local tourism industry to be more environmentally
friendly.
“The program suggests strategies to become more sustainable with 31 new ideas for businesses undertaking the program,” she said.
Since completing the program, businesses like Kanu Kapers Australia have begun to adopt eco-friendly practices
that are helping them reduce their impact on the local environment. Kanu Kapers Australia has become a fully sustainable business with no single-use plastics and an aim to be fully carbon neutral.
They are using natural and locally-sourced cleaning products, only rain and bore water on their business premises and their guests can experience the pristine natural environment of the Everglades with self-propelled kayaks.
As Juanita explains, Noosa Eco Check 2.0 is an informative program covering topics including energy, water, waste, purchasing, sustainable gardens, conservation and corporate social responsibility.
“Participants receive a personalised Sustainability Action Plan to help guide them on how to implement these strategies in their own businesses,” she says.
Noosa Eco Check 2.0 also includes 17 case studies from local businesses including IN Noosa Magazine, Noosa Council and RACV Noosa Resort. Since completing the program, RACV Noosa Resort have prevented 75,000 plastic straws and 7,000 plastic bottles from entering landfill by removing them from the resort and installing filtered
water stations.
They have also replaced 5,000 lights with LED resulting in 50 per cent less power usage combined with a $70,000
saving on the electricity bill after introducing a new system.
RACV Noosa Resort manager Darren McClenaghan is an avid supporter of Noosa Eco Check 2.0, encouraging other businesses to complete the online program.
“It’s important we all play our part and protect the environment from a business perspective. It just makes sense and you can save a bucket load,” he says.
Boost your business’s green credentials by completing Noosa Eco Check 2.0. Learn better ways to manage waste, how to reduce your impact on the local environment and how to operate sustainably.
To register, visit noosaecocheck.com.au or email info@noosaecocheck.com.au to find out more.
