The Endeavour Foundation Noosaville Learning and Lifestyle hub supports adults with disability who are looking to learn new things, socialise and access their local community. The hub joined Business Chamber Queensland’s ecoBiz program in 2020.  Site Manager, Julie Elford, saw an opportunity for the hub to learn more about sustainability to make significant savings and encourage a sustainability focus among her team and the people they support.  

Julie says, “The people we support and our staff had an interest in our service becoming more sustainable, reducing costs and giving everyone the opportunity to learn more about sustainability.”   

“ecoBiz increased our awareness of the environment and educated us in reducing waste.” 

The Business Chamber Queensland ecoBiz sustainability team visited Endeavour Noosaville, carried out an audit and gave Julie and her team some fantastic tips. “They really left no stone unturned and went through our bins to look at how we could reduce waste. ecoBiz increased our awareness of the environment and educated us in reducing waste and in turn we have reduced the imprint our service has on our environment,” Julie adds. 

The Endeavour team implemented the ecoBiz team’s recommendations and the results have been impressive. 

• Reduced energy intensity by 39% 
• Reduced waste intensity by 40% 

Recycling brings meaningful rewards

The Endeavour hub has reduced the amount of waste going into their bins by focusing on recycling, which has a wonderful flow-on benefit for the people they support. By recycling more, both at Endeavour and in their own homes, they’re making extra money to spend on their favourite activities by going through the Containers for Change program.   

The Endeavour stars shine

The ecoBiz Star Partnership system is a way to highlight and reward those businesses hitting significant sustainability targets. To earn a star a business must show a 10% reduction in water, waste or energy use. The Endeavour Foundation Noosaville earned their star through a series of initiatives including: 

• Using fans and open windows to capture natural breezes, making the building cooler and reducing reliance on air-conditioning. 
• Becoming more conscious of recycling and what items to recycle. 
• Using a more sustainable temperature on air-conditioning in winter and summer months. 
• Collecting and recycling cans and bottles. 

The ecoBiz team have helped Endeavour Noosaville become more sustainable through simple, easy-to-implement ideas. Just as importantly, their sustainability drive has brought the team and the people they support together with a common, worthwhile goal. 

Julie sums it up perfectly:  “We’re all able to do our part in helping to reduce waste in the environment and both the people we support and our staff love finding new ways to be sustainable.”