DESCRIPTION: The Sustainable Business Directory is a free and publicly available listing of businesses within the City of Melbourne that identify themselves as being businesses furthering environmental sustainability. The following description is taken from the web page describing the Sustainable Business Directory:
Melbourne is a city with tremendous sustainable business capabilities and growing strengths in all environmental industries.
The Melbourne Sustainable Business Directory features businesses based in Metropolitan Melbourne that are contributing to a more sustainable world. This is either through what they do (ie through the provision of environmental management services) and/or by the way they operate as a business (ie environmentally sensitive products/ processes).
The free Directory promotes these businesses to a growing market of informed individuals and companies wishing to purchase goods and services that are sustainable, improving their environmental behaviour and performance and thereby creating new markets.
Sustainable development can be defined many ways. Essentially it is about sustaining the economic, social and environmental options available to people now and in the future. The markets of the future are being reshaped through a growing consumer and organisational emphasis on triple bottom line sustainability.
The City of Melbourne and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) are proud to present the Melbourne Sustainable Business Directory.
A copy of the Sustainable Business Directory is available as a web based by clicking on the underlined title, or at http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/sustainablebusiness
A media release issued following the launch of the Sustainable Business Directory on 7 July 2000 details the Directory's function:
Melbourne's first Online Sustainable Business Directory Launched
The first Melbourne Sustainable Business Directory is available online, after being launched by Lord Mayor, Cr Peter Costigan today.
A joint project between the City of Melbourne and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) is available online, to read and to register a sustainable business, at www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/sustainablebusiness.
Cr Costigan said that the directory was another step towards Melbourne becoming a Sustainable City. "One of the major aims of the Council, outlined in City Plan, is to ensure Melbourne is a Sustainable City. We are working in partnership with residents, business and community organisations to achieve this."
"The Melbourne Sustainable Business Directory was developed by the City of Melbourne in partnership with ICLEI. The directory highlights Melbourne's tremendous sustainable business capabilities and growing strengths in the environmental management business."
The directory lists businesses that meet strict criteria, including:
* Being located within the Melbourne metropolitan area
* Members of the Environment Institute of Australia
* Promoting sustainability through environmentally responsible products or providing environmental management services
According to the Chair of Council's Environment Committee, Cr David Risstrom, the pilot project is continually being improved. "New criteria are being set as we improve the definition of "sustainable business". We are encouraging new businesses to register online and promote themselves and Melbourne as environmentally friendly. "To maintain the integrity of the site, we are not accepting any advertising and listing on the site is free, but conditional on meeting the criteria that have been set."
