City of Parramatta’s environment strategy and food organics and garden organics (FOGO) education program have been announced as winners at the 2025 Local Government NSW (LGNSW) Environment Awards.
Council’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy 2024-2033 won the ‘Innovation in Planning, Policies and Decision-Making’ category, while the ‘Feed it to FOGO’ program took out the ‘Behaviour Change in Waste’ category.
Lord Mayor, Martin Zaiter said global cities around the world were renowned for prioritising the health of both their people and the environment.
“Council is committed to improving Parramatta’s local environment and making the area more sustainable and these award wins are humbling achievements,” Lord Mayor Zaiter said.
“Our local population is expected to grow with more than 450,000 people calling Parramatta home by 2050 and we need to make sure that we keep this the best place to live, work and play.
“Through our innovative and creative ‘Feed It To FOGO’ education campaign and robust Environmental Sustainability Strategy, we are on our way to realising our bold vision to transform Parramatta into a global City.”
The Strategy supports Parramatta’s vision as a sustainable, resilient and regenerative City by tackling emissions reduction, waterway health, biodiversity and waste minimisation and was created with the help of the community.
Council’s ‘Feed it to FOGO’ education and awareness campaign was rolled out in April 2024, prior to the launch of the FOGO service in November 2024, to help residents learn more about the service and how to FOGO through a suite of educational materials including videos and pamphlets in English, Simplified Chinese, Hindi, Korean and Arabic on Council’s website and social media content.
“The Environmental Sustainability Strategy was developed for the community by the community – it has been shaped by our community who told us more green and accessible public spaces was one of their top priorities,” Lord Mayor Zaiter said.
“Our Feed It To FOGO campaign also showed how innovative we are when it comes to keeping our community informed and educated, particularly on changes to a key service such as rubbish collection and recycling.
“Winning these awards proves that collaborating with our community and giving them the tools to adapt to change has us in great stead moving forward.”
Council says it is also increasing its corporate and community carbon emissions reduction targets to 75% from 60% by 2038.
Follow link to view the full list of LGNSW winners.
