Saturday 28th May 2005
A close call for winners of the Sustainable Business Challenge!
Record entries made judging extremely tough for this year's Environment Bay of Plenty Sustainable Business Challenge
held at Kiwi 360 on Friday night. Forty nine businesses entered the awards and over 200 business people attended the
gala presentation. Business Commentator Rod Oram delivered the after dinner address.
Tauranga businesses Compass Community Village and Avalon Training Centre won the stage one and two business categories
respectively, with Rotorua company Wildland Consultants winning the stage three business category. Standing out for
their advanced sustainability initiatives was Ohiwa Holiday Park, near Opotiki, who was awarded the supreme award for
their sustainable business achievements.
According to Calum Revfem, regional manager of the BOP Sustainable Business Network (SBN) "The fact that entry numbers
were high made judging particularly tough this year which is a move in the right direction to making business awards a
more creditable acknowledgement for winners. It also emphasizes the growing awareness to become sustainable. All of the
winners had a system in place to identify, monitor and improve their sustainability performance."
Education Tauranga, an education providers cluster group, won the Sustainable Economic Development award with the
Innovation category being awarded to Action Stations - an environmental education business running unique New Zealand
educational tours.
Run by SBN, the awards recognise the achievements along the sustainable business journey at each stage, one, two and
three, sustainability innovation and sustainable economic development. A panel of expert judges from around the country
assessed the entries and undertook site visits to make the awards.
The awards were supported by Environment Bay of Plenty, the major sponsor, as well as the TrustPower, New Zealand Trade
and Enterprise, Rotorua District Council, RIOCH, Tauranga City & Western Bay of Plenty District Council's.
Results SBC 2005:
Stage one
Finalists: Compass Community Village, Opus Consultants Tauranga, Wave Design and Marketing
Winner: Compass Community Village
Stage two
Finalists: Avalon Training, Fulton Hogan BOP, Rainbow Resort
Winner: Avalon Training
Commendation: Fulton Hogan BOP
Stage three
Finalists: Comvita, Action Stations, Wildland Consultants
Winner: Wildland Consultants
Sustainable economic development award
Finalists: The Junction, Education Tauranga, Central Engineering Group
Winner: Education Tauranga
Commendations: The Junction and Central Engineering Group
Innovation award
Finalists: Sealed Air, Action Stations, LFC Flooring
Winner: Action Stations
Supreme award
Winner: Ohiwa Holiday Park
***
Bay of Plenty Sustainable Business Challenge 2005
Launching March 3&4, Entries Close April 29, Awards Night May 27
Sustainability made simple