This week, we gathered with our friends and colleagues at the stunning Silverwater resort in San Remo, to celebrate the incredible and thriving business community in our region at the 2018 Bass Coast Business Awards.

It's been a huge 12 months for us at Norte, we put the pedal to the metal and set out to really make a difference and demonstrate that business can make a huge impact on people, places and our planet.

We were absolutely thrilled to be announced as the winner of the Environment and Sustainability Award and the runner up in Business Excellence and Marketing and Promotion awards.

Environmental Sustainability is at the core of what we stand for and we have worked to embed sustainability at the centre of how we work at Norte and we continue to take steps to continuously improve our practices. We have found that incremental change is far more achievable than attempting to be perfect.

Since we started out, we have been increasingly concerned for our natural environment, and particularly, our impact on it, and also heartened by our ability to influence change and lead by example. This realisation has driven us to enact  tangible and meaningful actions in order to be a genuine contributor to this critical area.

Here's a little bit about what we've been working on:

• In 2017 we made a public commitment to reducing our impact on the environment and increasing our proactive approach to promote responsible and sustainable practices through our Leave It Better philosophy.
• We introduced a program to support the Forest Garden Program at Trees for the Future through the planting of 5 trees for every product sold.
• Between January and August 2018 we have funded the planting of over 3400 trees.
• This important initiative promotes sustainable development, provides a pathway out of poverty for families in Sub-Saharan African countries and supports our wonderful customer base to make conscious purchasing decisions.
• We undertook a business carbon impact assessment to identify our carbon footprint, implemented a range of actions to reduce our footprint and purchased carbon offsets for the remaining impact. We are now operating as carbon neutral.
• We continued our commitment not to use animal down and continue to seek the best possible products to keep you warm and comfy whilst minimising our impact.
• We introduced components of recycled materials (PET) in the production of our jacket insulation. Using recycled content promotes the importance of re-use and re-purposing and reduces the amount of new materials that need to be manufactured to make a product.
• We eliminated all single use plastics from our delivery process and introduced new recycled and recyclable materials in our shipping packaging.

Our love and respect of our natural environment only continues to grow, a good day for us is rugging up in our own Norte gear, taking a walk along our rugged coast line and picking up rubbish from our local beach or park. We'll continue to look for ways that Norte can be a positive influence and active member of our region efforts to improve our environment.

We know that absolutely none of this would be possible without the amazing love and support of our customers. We love how you've thrown your support behind Norte, behind our Leave It Better commitment, and how you've embraced us in your own outdoor adventures.

We're grateful for the recognition within our region and just as grateful for the broad support from our loyal and fabulous customer base across the country and beyond.

Thanks a million, much love

Amy and Casey - Norte Team