Natasha Mulcahy wins Women in Sustainability award

Natasha Mulcahy was the first winner of the Women in Sustainability category at the Sustainability Awards, held on 7 November 2019 at The Star in Sydney.

Knauf sponsored this brand new category.

The Gala Night was a glamorous occasion during which the 17 winners were announced. Click here for a list of the winners in all the categories.

Natasha (Sekisui House Australia) is the Sustainability Manager for West Village, the $1 billion urban renewal project in Brisbane’s West End. Natasha’s passion for creating liveable cities has influenced all facets of West Village.

She has been a senior member of the development team since the 2.6 ha site, a former Peter’s Ice Cream factory, was acquired in 2014.

Natasha was instrumental in the negotiation of sustainability requirements with government and has driven all sustainability initiatives at West Village. In 2017 Natasha achieved a 6 Star Green Star Communities rating for the project, the highest recognition for master-planned precincts in Australia and demonstrating world leadership in sustainability.

Natasha’s leadership has driven the team to apply innovating thinking to sustainability challenges within a crowded, cost-driven marketplace. West Village residents now benefit from an embedded energy network providing a 30kW solar system and delivering 100 percent carbon offset energy to residents at a 25 percent discount to market rate.

“Winning this award is a tremendous honour and a great opportunity to highlight our approach to sustainability at Sekisui House. We embrace the Japanese philosophy of ‘Satoyama’ – the idea that, when carefully managed, mutual benefits can be gained by connecting people with the natural environment. For me personally, I rely on the support and skills of our whole development team to achieve sustainability outcomes, and so this award is wonderful recognition of the team’s results and will certainly inspire the team into the future,” Natasha said after receiving the award.

“It was a great opportunity to sponsor this category this year,” said Knauf Australia Managing Director Gavin Burton.

“We have a strong female presence at Knauf and there are many women working in sustainability in the industry as a whole. We naturally want to be involved in initiatives that acknowledge the hard work people are doing in sustainability, and it resonates with our own sustainability ethos of keeping the environment and society in mind with everything we do,” Gavin said.

“I wish to thank the organisers for putting together a fantastic event!”

Knauf also attended the third annual Sustainability Live conference that preceded the Gala Night. The conference program included a series of renowned panelists who dissected this year’s most important industry issues. It was a good opportunity to network and talk about our sustainability policy and offerings.