Solar my School wins highest design and innovation honour

8 September 2020

Waverley, Randwick and Woollahra councils’ multi award-winning Solar my School program has won a Good Design Award in the Australia’s international Good Design Awards.

The Australia’s international Good Design Awards is the nation’s highest honour for design and innovation and was announced today during the 2020 Good Design Week.

Solar my School won the award in the Service Design Public Sector Services category in recognition for outstanding design and innovation.

Dr Brandon Gien, CEO of Good Design Australia said receiving a Good Design Award is a significant achievement given the very high calibre and record number of entries received in 2020.

“These inspirational winning projects give me hope and optimism that our design community will continue to innovate, no matter how challenging the world around us is,” said Dr Gien.

“There’s no doubt it has been a really tough year for everyone so it’s nice to be able to share some good news for a change.”

Solar my School is a free local government initiative founded in 2016 by Waverley, Woollahra and Randwick Councils as part of the 3-Council Regional Environment Program to help schools access the commercial, environmental and educational benefits of renewable energy. The program is designed to overcome key barriers for schools to install solar power by making the process easy and seamless with independent support from start-to-finish.

The Good Design Awards Jury praised Solar my School, describing it as “A great initiative to help make it easier for schools to adopt solar power”.

“It's a purposeful topic with a good use of design to target children in complex issues. The project has been clearly successful. Well done,” the Jury commented.

Mayor of Waverley, Paula Masselos, congratulated Solar my School for its continued innovation and dedication to sustainability.

“Solar my School is helping our local schools and schools in other parts of Sydney power their learning facilities with locally produced clean energy to reduce their carbon footprint and running costs,” said Mayor Masselos.

“The program continues to teach the next generations of young people about the importance of renewable energy to the world we live in.”

Mayor of Randwick, Danny Said, noted that Solar my School has gone from strength to strength these past three years and is an initiative Randwick Council is particularly proud of.

“It has been one of Randwick Council’s goals to increase renewable energy uptake in our local government area and this program is a practical and vital way to encourage schools to embrace clean, green and locally produced electricity,” said Mayor Said.

“Its low cost, high benefit model has proven to be incredibly successful and I’m not surprised to see the number of schools that have embraced the program continues to grow and spread across Sydney.”

Mayor of Woollahra, Susan Wynne said solar energy is a perfect fit for schools because their energy needs are primarily during the day, and the guidance that Solar My School offers has been invaluable in helping them navigate the switch to green power.

“This recognition is well deserved – we are extremely proud of the success of this initiative, and of the 3-Council Regional Environmental Program’s ongoing leadership in the sustainability space,” Mayor Wynne said.

“Woollahra Council is focused on reducing emissions and mitigating the effects ofclimate change, both through our own actions and also community education so we are delighted at how well this initiative has been embraced by local schools.”

The annual Good Design Awards is Australia’s oldest and most prestigious international Awards for design and innovation with a proud history dating back to 1958. The Awards celebrate the best new products and services on the Australian market, excellence in architectural design, engineering, fashion, digital and communication design, design strategy, social impact design and young designers.

More than 55 Good Design Awards Jurors evaluated each entry according to a strict set of design criteria which covers ‘good design’, ‘design innovation’ and ‘design impact’. Projects recognised with a Good Design Award must demonstrate excellence in good design and convince the Jury they are worthy of recognition at this level.

In Sydney’s eastern suburbs, 35 schools have made the switch to solar through Solar my School with many more to come. Solar my School is working with over 100 schools across Sydney in 10 other Council areas.

For more about Solar my School, visit solarmyschool.org.au

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Media inquiries: media@waverley.nsw.gov.au or 0416 075 532