Environmental Sustainability
Clean Up Australia
Every year hundreds of thousands of Australians get stuck in and clean up their local environment by collecting and removing rubbish.
Sunday 4 March 2012 marks the annual Clean Up Australia Day. As a major supporter and official airline of Clean Up Australia, we would like to encourage our community to get onboard and help clean up our local environment - locate your nearest site.
For 21 years, hundreds of thousands of Australians help clean up their local environment on Clean Up Australia Day (CUAD). Since 1989, starting from a simple idea to clean up Sydney Harbour, Clean Up Australia Day has grown to become Australia's largest community participation event.
Qantas holds a 15 year partnership with Clean Up including the provision of flight services and site support for the annual event. In addition to CUAD, together we have launched Clean Up Fix Up - a grant program providing much needed seed funding for long term sustained clean up efforts in the local community.
Centre for Sustainability Leadership
The Centre for Sustainability Leadership, whose other partners include the United Nations Environment Program, is a not-for-profit which is empowering young people in Australia and beyond to make their communities more sustainable by developing a network of environmentally and socially responsible future leaders.
Over the past five years, the Centre has run its annual Fellowship Program, which equips a select number of Australians with the skills, knowledge and networks they need to be sustainability leaders. Now, with the help of the Qantas Foundation, the Centre is developing the Online Future Sustainability Leaders Program so that many thousands of young people can access the Centre's valuable training and support, which is set to launch in April 2011.
For more information visit Centre for Sustainability Leadership.
Fauna & Flora International Australia
Fauna & Flora International Australia (FFI) is the world's oldest established international conservation organisation. FFI's work spans the globe with over 100 projects in nearly 40 countries, mostly in the developing world. FFI proudly stand up for biodiversity and aim to show just how relevant it is to all of those who share the planet. FFI's Patron is Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II and the organisation has a number of honorary ambassadors including Sir David Attenborough and Stephen Fry.
The Foundation's ongoing support of FFI contributes to the long-term conservation of the Great Sandy Biosphere in the Burnett Mary region of Queensland, including Fraser Island and the Great Barrier Reef. The program involves an innovative and multi-faceted conservation strategy engaging local non-profit organisation, community groups, local councils, businesses and the skills and knowledge of local Indigenous communities. In 2012 our funding will assist FFI develop indigenous workforce capacity in the local Burnett Mary region by employing traditional natural resource management techniques.
Great Barrier Reef Foundation
The Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF) is an Australian non-for-profit organisation which exists to raise and provide funding to support research which will contribute to the environmental protection, enhancement, preservation and conservation of the Great Barrier Reef.
The Qantas Foundation partners with the GBRF by funding its ZooX Fund which support a wide range of projects aimed at preserving the future of the Great Barrier Reef in the face of Climate Change. In particular, the partnership includes:
- the publication of the Oxford Economics Report which looks at the cost and impacts of a total and permanent bleaching of the GBRF to the Cairns region and the broader Australian community.
- launching a number of projects which will look at:
- assisted migration and re-colonisation of temperature-tolerant corals from the northern GBR to the southern reefs.
- the acidification of the Reef waters and its impacts on coral and Reef habitats.
- developing an integrated information system for the Reef and its adjacent catchments. - lncreasing its engagement with the wider public, the private sector, the Queensland & Federal Governments, relevant local governments and businesses based in Queensland.
For more information visit the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.
Landcare Australia
Landcare is a grass roots movement that harnesses individuals and groups under the ethic of caring for the land. It had its genesis in initiatives to improve agricultural productivity through sustainable land management. The movement has grown from this to a broader focus on sustainable management of all of Australia's natural resource assets and now encompasses individuals and groups across the whole landscape from coastal to urban and remote areas of Australia.
With over 6000 Landcare and Coastcare groups nationwide there is likely to be a group near you. United by a shared desire to create positive change in their communities volunteers work together on projects such as revegetation, weed removal, stream bank stabilisation, litter removal and dune stabilisation.
In 2012, The Qantas Foundation key projects along the Murray Darling Basin extending from north of Roma in Queensland to Goolwa in South Australia and includes three quarters of New South Wales and half of Victoria. The four projects identified in this basin will focus on rehabilitation and revegetation of the riparian ecosystem and protection of wetlands and wildlife habitats while engaging with local communities through education and participation events.
