Judging Process

I was involved in the Banksia Environmental awards for a number of years when my company sponsored an annual Environmental Research Award. This award recognized those who could demonstrate a significant contribution to understanding or resolving local or global environmental problems through research. The opportunity to be a judge and to contribute through this process to greater awareness of environmental issues and to recognize the work on and possible solutions is a great honour. The Banksia Foundation and the Awards have for twenty five years had a very clear focus and have played an incredible role in educating both the public and industry on the importance of environmental sustainability.

I began judging for the Banksia Awards in 2006. At the time I worked for Parks Victoria where I focused on maintaining and enhancing the health of our precious wetlands and waterways. Each year I looked forward to reviewing the range of entries in the Banksia’s water category. Having been the recipient of a fellowship to study water management overseas while completing my PhD in environmental engineering, it was inspiring to see the level of leadership and innovation right here at home!

Our environment sustains us. Every individual and every business depends on it, either directly or indirectly. It is essential to our wealth, health and happiness. Yet this contribution is often undervalued or simply not accounted for. I believe we must value nature and the ecosystem services a healthy environment provides, which is why I’ve recently established as an independent knowledge broker. I help clients, primarily land and water managers, explore and communicate the benefits of the environmental works they undertake and the natural assets they manage.

The Banksia Awards do this too by helping promote and examine the contribution people and businesses make to managing our environment sustainably. I still enjoy reviewing and providing feedback, along with my fellow judges, on the many ways entrants maximise the environmental and community benefits of their actions. These initiatives should be applauded and encouraged, which is why I’ll continue to support the Banksia Awards through the judging process.

Bobby Ali-Khan was previously a Director of the GECA Board from 2008 to 2014. Her extensive consulting background covers business strategy, change management and workplace performance evaluation, relating to corporate organisational structures and facilities management, specialising in business effectiveness and productivity in the Built Environment. Bobby has represented and implemented organisational ESD policies and programs across the government and commercial building sectors. Bobby’s various corporate positions have also involved creative and detailed design development, environmental planning and compliance, project management and workplace solutions for commercial mergers, office fitouts and base building design.

A passion for environmentally sustainable product specification, as well as an understanding of materials and manufacturing processes, has come from a career starting in architecture, evolving to facilities management consulting, and over eight years in manufacturing and sustainability. Leading design teams across Europe opened up global choices in best practice products for multinational clients like Texaco / Caltex, the World Bank, Qantas and many more organisations that were conscious of indoor environmental quality and their environmental footprint well before the formation of the Green Building Councils, when ecolabels were and are the trusted choice for sustainably manufactured products.

Bobby has represented GECA on the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC), is a member of the Facility Managers Association (FMA) of Australia, Property Council of Australia – Retirement Living Manager of the Year Judge 2013, GBCA Green Star Accredited Professional, and 2014 Banksia Award judging panel member for the ‘Product Sustainability – through design, manufacture and use’ award category which GECA helped create to recognise product sustainability as part of its awards for 2014. It included new products as well as improvements in process or design that improve the sustainability of existing products.