Melbourne's brightest environmental stars announced

The RR&R Challenge sent out the call to Melbourne businesses to reduce, re-use and recycle the amount of waste produced in offices. The challenge was met and the big winners were announced at a prize-giving ceremony at the Hard Rock Café.

The overall winner of the night, claiming the top award for reducing, re-using and recycling was financial advisors, the Australian Financial Planning Network (AFPN).

Service team manager Pip Hughes said they were delighted to win the award, and have their efforts recognised.

"Paper usage and waste is the main issue we tackled here at AFPN. With all of our copiers and our heavy reliance on faxes and writing plans, our major focus was to dramatically reduce the amount of paper we use," Hughes said.

"We feel very strongly about the importance of global sustainability and environmental awareness and if more offices in Melbourne could follow suit then perhaps we would be on our way to making a difference."

Sustainable Building Design company Cundall impressed judges with its commitment to reducing power usage and consumption and won the award for excellence in reducing waste.

Spowers, an architectural business, specialising in environmental design, won the award for excellence in re-using waste. Spowers showcased its capacity to re-use with simple but effective practices involving re-using scrap paper as notebooks and staff taking down coffee mugs to the local café.

The RR&R Challenge is the first step in the VECCI and EPA Victoria Grow Me The Money campaign for the Melbourne CBD. Grow Me The Money is a voluntary program for Victorian businesses, aimed at improving the environment and bottom line costs for businesses.