Working with a First Nations community in Noosa
News and Announcements
News and Announcements
One of Smartgroup’s Carbon Offset Program partners, Greenfleet Australia, is working on the Noosa Restoration and Reconciliation Project to restore crucial native forest, while having positive social and cultural benefits for the local Traditional Owners.
The Greenfleet team is working across the Noosa Hinterland to restore around 1,100 hectares with biodiverse native vegetation on land that is being cleared of hardwood and softwood plantation forest, and restored as national park.
Perhaps the most exciting part of the project, is the significant combination of climate action with steps toward reconciliation.
The Traditional Owners of the Sunshine Coast are the Kabi Kabi people, with Greenfleet announcing that they’d signed an Indigenous Land Use Agreement with them for the project.
It’s a wonderful opportunity for Greenfleet to work directly with the Traditional Owners on restoring the land to its former glory. In addition, it’s a chance to build on the award-winning work already progressed in the region by the Noosa Parks Association along with the support of the local shire council, Noosa District Landcare, Noosa Parks Association, and the Queensland Government.
The Noosa Restoration and Reconciliation Project promises to have a profound and lasting impact for the region and the community.
Greenfleet is restoring native forest to the area, which promotes tremendous biodiversity, and at the same time, climate protection.
The restoration also involves the creation of key habitat for koalas, whose numbers have dwindled in Queensland - to the point where these animals are now endangered.
Greenfleet CEO, Wayne Wescott, says:
“This project has the potential to mitigate the impacts of climate change at an incredible scale - sequestering hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO2 emissions. Combine that with a direct revenue stream for Traditional Owners, jobs on the ground and bringing Kabi Kabi people back to Country. It’s a rich and sustaining partnership that Greenfleet is very proud of.”
Photo credit: Noosa Landcare
Greenfleet is working with the Aboriginal Carbon Foundation, who are verifying the benefits identified by the Kabi Kabi community as part of the project.
Aboriginal Carbon Foundation CEO, Rowan Foley, says: "We believe that Greenfleet will support Traditional Owners in looking after Country – so it’s very much a win-win situation here.”
Greenfleet will work directly with Traditional Owners, giving Kabi Kabi people more opportunities to reconnect with their natural environment, which is no small thing, as they have seen the loss of so many different animals and native trees in the past.
We’re so proud to support Greenfleet’s amazing work through our Carbon Offset Program. We launched the program in 2008, with Greenfleet as our very first partner. Since then, we’ve expanded the program partnerships, but we’re still just as thrilled to be continuing to work with Greenfleet now, as we were in the beginning.
Our program is chiefly supported by our vehicle leasing customers, who make regular contributions through their salary packaging. Ongoing donations from Smartgroup and our customers have now topped over $11 million since the beginning of our partnership with Greenfleet.
This tremendous support has allowed us to directly contribute to more than 63 different projects with our environmental partners.
You can help take part in important projects like the one being undertaken by Greenfleet at Noosa. To learn more, click here.
Our Carbon Offset Program is just one of the many initiatives highlighted in our Sustainability Strategy, which outlines the important role we can play in creating A Smarter, More Sustainable Tomorrow for our employer clients, end-customers, and communities, while recognising our team members as the engine that makes this commitment possible. To read the full report, click here.
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia. We pay our respect to them, and to Elders past, present and future.
Photo credit: Ruth Huckstepp / Noosa Landcare