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Winner Division B, Overall Winner
Byron Shire Council: "Bow wow leash me now!" dog owner behaviour change campaign
Leash-Up was an innovative community engagement project aimed at increasing dog-leashing compliance in public spaces to reduce the risk of dog attacks on koalas.
Rather than going straight to an education campaign, Byron Council adopted a social marketing approach, guided by the theory of behaviour change, to engage with dog owners and understand attitudes and social norms. This understanding enabled development of a targeted and engaging campaign, focusing on dog leashing as a measure of behaviour change, which was tested on the target audience before being deployed via television, social media and signage.
Read more in the case study
Winner Division A
Muswellbrook Shire Council: Sustainable futures - Muswellbrook connect program
Commencing in 2017, the Sustainable Futures project works by encouraging the community to choose more sustainable options, including reducing consumption and waste, being water and energy efficient and living sustainably.
To engage with the community, Muswellbrook Connect was proposed for March 2020. However, a fortnight before the event COVID-19 hit, so council quickly adapted its strategy for engaging the community and developed three short, five-minute videos each week focussing on what to do at home, including using leftovers to make exciting meals, how to compost and create worm farms, enriching a garden bed to grow vegetables and great walks in the Muswellbrook Shire.
The project was then expanded to include online workshops, which have proved to be popular, having a higher attendance than past face-to-face workshops.
Winner Division C
Penrith City Council: Supporting sustainable choices scheme
This scheme was launched by Penrith Council on 12 October 2020 to help increase education and awareness around sustainable products while diverting disposable nappies and sanitary items from landfill. The scheme involved a rebate for cloth nappies and reusable sanitary products, an online workshop hosted by a cloth nappy expert, an educational webpage and social media campaign. The rebate component of the scheme was accessed by more than 360 people and is estimated to divert 262,790 disposable products from landfill over the next two years.
Highly Commended Division C
Blue Mountains City Council: Connect to nature program
Blue Mountain City Council’s Connecting Children and Communities with Catchments and Creeks Program is an outdoor experiential learning program that has adapted nimbly to recent catastrophic events, including the 2019-20 black summer bushfires, unprecedented flooding and COVID-19.
Council turned these challenges into opportunities, successfully engaging more than 3,000 students from 25 schools, together with teachers, parents, grandparents and community conservation volunteers, in hands-on actions to mitigate climate change and stormwater impacts, protect biodiversity and drinking water catchments, and build community resilience in the face of natural disasters.
In addition to fostering water literacy and a sense of connection and guardianship to place, the program has helped to transform grief, despair and hopelessness into a feeling of empowerment and making a difference locally and globally.
Highly Commended Division C
Parramatta River Catchment Group: Changemakers in the Parramatta River catchment
The changemaker course was developed to provide the community with skills in developing place-based change activities and increase the number of volunteers in the Parramatta Riverkeeper network.
Promotion of the project featured a long-necked turtle, which is an iconic species of the Parramatta River, with the byline "Sticking your neck out for change in the Parramatta River catchment". As part of the project, a leadership course was run over 10 weeks for volunteers wanting to make a difference to waterway health.
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