Welcome to 'Sustainability at Stockland', our quarterly newsletter to keep you updated on Stockland's sustainability activities and performance. This February 2011 issue reports on some of the work we have undertaken with our retail tenants and students in the wider community. These stories highlight the importance of community engagement to instill hope, inspiration and positive change for sustainability.
We are proud of our continued support of the Our Faces, Our Stories literacy and mentoring program. Launched in 2008 with Fairfield High School, this unique program connects Stockland employees with students, many of whom are refugees.
Our employees spend time getting to know their student and seeking to understand their challenging life experiences.
The students are encouraged to explore their cultural origins and experiences by capturing their journey in written stories and art. This experience empowers the student to share their own unique life stories. Many of the students have endured significant difficulties and hardships, however their stories are always inspiring and full of hope.
"To have seen so much, lived so much, lost so much so early in a life is at the same time incredible and inspirational" - Robert Mulas, Principal, Fairfield High School.
For our employees, the opportunity to be involved in a program of this nature is an eye opening and valued experience that has resonated within each mentor.
Download "Our Faces, Our Stories" (pdf)
Stockland Green Hills has been working with retailers to save costs and manage their environmental impacts by running Retailer Sustainability Workshops. It is the first time retailers have been engaged directly on sustainability issues.
The workshops are part of a pilot program managed by the NSW Environmental Trust. The program aims to integrate environmental sustainability into day-to-day management while educating retailers about ways to save costs and reduce their own electricity and water consumption and the amount of waste generated in their stores.
Up to twenty retailers from the centre attended the workshops and heard presentations from Stockland sustainability experts, Green Hills staff and representatives from the NSW Environmental Trust.
Retailers have reported that they are currently undertaking or investigating water, energy and waste initiatives. It is anticipated that the dialogue will continue beyond the workshops and that Stockland can help retailers implement initiatives in their own businesses. Following the success of the pilot workshops at Stockland Green Hills, the NSW Environmental Trust will roll out the program to other shopping centres and managers.
This year we partnered with OzGreen to engage young people to tackle critical sustainability challenges. The PlanetSAVERS program builds leadership capacity among the whole school community - students, teachers and parents - to undertake action and inspire others to do the same; empowering them to become leaders for positive social change.
Over 550 students from seven schools surrounding Stockland Balgowlah, Stockland Jesmond and Stockland Wallsend, participated in workshops to identify ideas, initiatives and actions to reduce their personal, family and whole of school carbon footprints. This group will be the mentors and managers of PlanetSAVERS within their own school community.
The workshops identified a range of initiatives including solar panels, sustainable canteens, hemp uniforms, school veggie gardens, worm farms and composting, recycling programs, water tanks as well as whole of community education programs utilising a range of media.
To help address the initial need in Queensland, we have donated $250,000 to the Premier's Disaster Relief Appeal. Stockland Rockhampton has also donated $30,000 to the Mayoress Rockhampton Region Flood Appeal, specifically to assist with rebuilding community and recreation facilities. We are also dollar matching employee donations to the Disaster Appeal through our Workplace Giving Program.
At this stage, financial donations are the most practical way to provide support. We are currently exploring other ways we can help affected communities over the coming weeks and months. Please see our webpage for updates on how we are doing this.
