Doing our bit for the environment

Here at Qantas Super, we believe that simple changes can have a big impact.

That’s why we made a promise last October to help plant a tree for each member that made the switch to receive information from us by email, instead of post.

More than 200 members took us up on the offer, so on a bright, sunny March day, seven members of the Qantas Super team donned their sunhats and gardening gloves and made the short journey from Mascot to Sir Joseph Banks Park.

Located along the Botany foreshore, Sir Joseph Banks Park is a significant nature reserve. The park provides natural habitat for native flora and fauna species in northern Botany Bay, including the endangered Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub, and a number of other vulnerable native species.

We spent the day lending a hand to Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA), who are working with Bayside Council and NSW Ports to revitalise the area and ensure the survival of its beautiful flora and fauna. The work conducted on the day will help facilitate the planting of thousands of trees in the area.

“Sir Joseph Banks Park is an incredibly important pocket of bushland in the middle of an otherwise urbanised Sydney,” said CVA team leader, Teresa Gustowski.

“By planting more native seedlings throughout the park, we are creating habitat and allowing native resident species such as the yellow-tailed black cockatoo, long necked turtle and blue tongue lizard to not only survive, but thrive!”

The Sir Joseph Banks Park project is just one of many the CVA team is working on.

Launched in 1982, CVA has welcomed hundreds of thousands of volunteers from across Australia and the world to help protect and enhance our environment, and ensure it is here for future generations to enjoy.

“CVA works with a range of different project partners…to identify natural areas that would benefit most from volunteer engagement,” Teresa said.

“In most cases, there are threatened species, either plant or animal, present on our work sites that are in particular need of protection.”

“It was nice to be out of the office doing something different. It was a challenging day, but really rewarding to give back and know that we were doing our bit for the environment.” – Qantas Super’s Celeste Green