By Tony Moore
Brisbane has been named Australia's most sustainable city for 2014.
The award comes from the Keep Australia Beautiful organisation, which judged Brisbane the best in three areas: sustainable city, removing litter, and energy innovation ideas.
Brisbane has been named Australia's most sustainable city.Credit: Brisbane Times
The litter removal award – the Dame Phylllis Frost award - recognises Phyllis Frost, a Victorian philanthropist who raised millions of dollars for charities and formed the first Keep Australia Beautiful Council in the 1960s.
Brisbane's Field Services chairman Cr David McLachlan said Brisbane City Council was proud to be nationally recognised as a leader in sustainability.
"Some of council's major achievements in these two areas include our ongoing educational initiatives for litter prevention, the installation of public place recycling," Cr MacLachlan said.
He said the award also recognised the council's 100 per cent Green Power project and Fleet Environmental Plan.
The council has for some years provided power to all its buildings from energy sources which buy from alternate sources of energy.
This year it has also proposed a sustainable energy project to supply one major water chiller system to a number of inner-city businesses with cheaper air-conditioning.
The council reduced litter across the CBD and Fortitude Valley by 50 per cent in 2012-2013, Cr McLachlan said.
"In 2013, Brisbane City Council won the Dame Phyllis Frost Litter Prevention category, acknowledging council's dedication to a clean, green and litter free city as shown in the 50 per cent reduction of litter across the CBD and Fortitude Valley," he said.
"This year we entered and won this category again, as well as entering seven others including Community Actions and Partnerships, Environmental Protection and Innovation and Resource Recovery and Waste Management.
"I'd like to thank Keep Australia Beautiful for naming Brisbane City Council as the winner in two categories, as well as the Overall Australian Sustainable City 2014."
Brisbane City Council competed for the national title against the Brimbank City Council in Victoria, the City of Bunbury council in Western Australia, Canberra Urban Honey in the Australian Capital Territory, Glenorchy City Council in Tasmania, the City of Holdfast Bay in South Australia, Manly Council in coastal Sydney and the City of Palmerston in the Northern Territory.
Keep Australia Beautiful is Australia's national peak body on litter prevention.