WA start-up wins international sustainability award

A new Western Australian sustainability consultancy, SUSOP, has won an international award recognising its innovative approach to helping resource companies improve their contribution towards achieving sustainable development.

The company was awarded the Sustainable Technology Award by the Institution of Chemical Engineers in Manchester, UK, late last year. The award recognises a project or process that best demonstrates innovation in waste reduction, recycling, re-use or the lengthening of product life cycles. SUSOP Managing Director Stevan Green and Development Manager Dr Glen Corder were at the ceremony to receive the award.

Green says all the facets of sustainable development are relevant to the resource industry.

“Resource companies are concerned about reducing waste and becoming more water-wise and energy-efficient,” he said. “They are also increasingly concerned with having a more positive impact on the communities in which they operate.

“Many organisations have high-level principles on sustainability. A key challenge, however, is how to effectively translate these principles from the boardroom into the standard operating practice on site. Our SUSOP risk and opportunities framework is a new technique that meets this challenge. We make it easier to design for sustainable development.

“Ultimately, the aim is for SUSOP to become a standard against which organisations can have their own sustainability tools accredited.”

Emerging out of a three-year collaboration between industry and research partners through the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Resource Processing, the SUSOP approach is rigorous and robust, and integrates with existing risk management systems.

SUSOP has worked with companies in Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia, as well as internationally, including West Africa and South America. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of JKTech, the technology transfer company for the Sustainable Minerals Institute at The University of Queensland.