Banksia Environmental Awards SEMS to aid sustainability improvement year after year.

The 2009 Banksia Awards will lead by example in proving that their Awards event can be run in a more sustainable way than the benchmark set in 2008. How? By using the dynamic, industry-specific software, Sustainable Events Management System.
Previously, it has been difficult for even small companies to measure the sustainability of events, given the levels of suppliers and stakeholders involved. However, thanks to Sustainable Events Management System (or SEMS) this is a thing of the past, and organisations running small meetings right through to multi-location national conferences can now easily set standards to reduce their total ecological footprint.

Executive Director of the Banksia Foundation, Graz van Egmond said: “At Banksia it is extremely important to us to be seen as leaders in the field of sustainability.  We need to set the example of best practice in everything we do.  SEMS allows us to do just this with the Banksia Presentation Night.  SEMS’s easy-to-use design and comprehensive nature means we can be confident of producing one of the most sustainable events in Australia year on year.”

Sustainable Event Solutions Director Jane Fullerton-Smith said:  “This is the way forward for events. SEMS benchmarked the sustainability of the 2008 Awards in areas such as energy, waste, water, community participation, advertising, freight, theming, and production and allows Banksia to set sustainability targets for the 2009 Awards.

SEMS is an easy-to-use software solution, developed specifically for the events industry, that provides education, implementation and performance measurement ensuring a sustainable best practice pathway for events.
Additional Benefits  of SEMS

• Educates the event team and supply chain.
• SEMS POLICY WIZARD assists to develop a sustainability policy or guide without external consultation.
• Ensures your event complies with policy.
• Makes sustainable best practice easy to understand and identifies best practice alternatives.
• Allows for comprehensive education across the entire event management and delivery process.
• Credibly calculates the carbon footprint of an event and delivers the results in an automated report with SEMS ‘CARBON MODULE’. No external consultation necessary.
• Provides analysis of sustainability performance measurement and reports.
• Results clearly identify potential areas of immediate and future improvement.
• Actively engages the supply chain so as to measure sustainability of all supplier services.
• Optional pre and post event auditing is also available.

Sustainable Event Solutions will release the first industry benchmark for sustainable event management in 2009. SEMS is consistent with the only Government Standard for sustainable event management “British Standard 8901”.
See for yourself at: www.sustainableeventsolutions.com.au/sems

Sustainable Event Solutions Contacts:
Tim Wearne         +61 2 9361 0082    0419 299 277  / Jane Fullerton Smith         +61 2 9361 0082   0403 867 548
Banksia Foundation contact:  Owen Probert     owen@banksiafdn.com     03 9699 5070

About the 2009 Banksia Awards

This award is made to: 

• An employee of small or large organisations

• Member of government

• Member of an NGO

• Organisations

• Individuals

Environmental action does not happen in a vacuum. It emerges as a result of people with vision and innovative thought. It requires long-term commitment. It needs people who are relentless in the pursuit of their goals, never allowing obstacles to dissuade them. It requires leadership to inspire others to see the possibilities and join to work towards a common goal.

Each year, the Banksia Environmental Foundation Board of Directors work tirelessly identifying the potential recipient of this prestigious award. Candidates are sought from around the world in all the various disciplines associated with the environment. A short list is compiled and each candidate is judged on how they have made an outstanding, long lasting and broad ranging contribution to sustainable development on an international level.

Consideration is given to the various challenges they face and how they have dealt with them. Most importantly they are evaluated on their ability to engage others, create awareness, form partnerships, protect our environment and promote sustainable development.

They must also demonstrate commitment to environmental excellence, be an inspiration for others and provide an example which will be or has been of international significance.