Since the industrial revolution, 375 billion tons of carbon has been emitted into our atmosphere and repairing this damage is no small feat. Environmental scientists estimate that it will take the planting of 1.3 trillion trees to sequester the earth’s legacy carbon. This seemingly impossible task becomes manageable upon the realisation that all it takes is for every person on earth to plant 166 trees. As part of CVM’s Replenish & Reforestation strategy, our non-for-profit ‘Project 166’ was formed in 2021. Project 166 acquired 1,200 acres of over-farmed and arid land in Oman Ama, QLD, with the goal of planting 166,000 trees as part of a reforestation and carbon sequestration initiative. CVM is a proud supporter and active participant in the project, contributing to its ongoing activities and sustainability efforts.  The Project also offers an invaluable education and inspiration for our staff through talks, sharing resources and university engagement and partnerships.

OUR IMPACT SO FAR… 

7800+ TREES PLANTED 

2.8 ACRES PROTECTED 

22 PLANTING CAMPS

The recent completion of stage two upgrades at Kawana Aquatic Centre marks a significant milestone for one of the Sunshine Coast’s busiest aquatic facilities.

Operated by City Venue Management, the centre has undergone a multimillion-dollar redevelopment that includes new amenities, expanded outdoor spaces, and enhanced accessibility features.

The upgrade forms part of Sunshine Coast Council’s $14 million investment to improve community sporting infrastructure and meet the growing demand for aquatic facilities across the region.

New facilities include:

• expanded public amenities
• additional car parking
• a new café and social spaces
• improved accessibility infrastructure including a Changing Places facility.

The improvements allow the centre to support more than 200,000 visitors annually, while expanding opportunities for learn-to-swim programs, competitive training and community recreation.

For City Venue Management, the redevelopment reflects a shared vision with local government partners to deliver modern aquatic facilities that support community wellbeing and sporting excellence.

City Venue Management continues to explore innovative ways to improve sustainability across its aquatic and leisure facilities, including the gradual rollout of solar energy solutions at selected venues.

Aquatic centres are energy-intensive facilities by nature. Heating pools, running filtration systems, and maintaining comfortable environments for visitors year-round places significant and consistent demand on energy infrastructure. Integrating renewable energy solutions such as solar power offers a meaningful opportunity to reduce that consumption while supporting long-term environmental goals.

Through collaboration with facility owners and local government partners, City Venue Management is supporting initiatives to incorporate solar infrastructure into aquatic centre operations where feasible. The rollout spans nine facilities across the region, encompassing a combined solar capacity of approximately 677 kilowatts.

Each site has been assessed individually, with system sizes tailored to the scale and energy profile of the facility. Installations range from smaller community pools through to major multi-use aquatic and health club complexes. Where conditions allow, systems are designed to maximise self-consumption, meaning the energy generated onsite is used directly by the facility rather than exported to the grid.

Collectively, the installed systems are projected to generate over 900,000 kilowatt hours of clean energy annually, with an estimated lifetime carbon saving of more than 15,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent across the portfolio. These figures reflect the scale of impact that a coordinated, multi-site approach to renewable energy can deliver.

Two additional facilities are currently progressing through final stages, with solar integration pending. Once operational, these sites will further strengthen the organisation’s renewable energy footprint.

While each facility presents unique infrastructure considerations, City Venue Management continues to assess opportunities to integrate renewable energy solutions as part of its broader sustainability strategy. By embracing environmentally responsible technologies and working collaboratively with site owners and partners, the organisation is working to ensure that aquatic and leisure facilities remain both valued community assets and environmentally conscious operations for the long term.

Environment

As an organisation we believe that our reason for being has a tremendous positive impact to the people and communities that we serve. We help create safer, more fulfilled communities through our core focus of learn-to-swim classes, operating community leisure venues, and being a major employer throughout Southeast Queensland. Our environmental journey over the past few years has laid a strong foundation, driven by passionate teams and a commitment to doing better. However, we recognise that much of our current activity is tied to legacy initiatives—and now is the time to evolve. These activities across our operational footprint inherently have an impact to the planet’s sustainability. As an organisation, we are committed to offset any negative impact and protect the planet and deliver a positive environmental legacy for future generations as we operate and grow our business. Building on what we’ve learned, we are entering a new phase: one that is intentional, data-informed, and aligned with our long-term vision for environmental leadership. As part of our sustainability journey, along with the support of our senior leadership team, industry experts, and environmentalists, our team has continued in 2023 – 2022 working on a coordinated & structured framework around four key focus areas to drive our sustainability goals to align with our objectives of being Net Zero by 2040. Understanding our current carbon footprint & providing the road map to ultimately achieve net zero has been an important factor this year for City Venue Management. 

We recently engaged with a sustainability intelligence organisation to calculate our complete climate footprint, including Scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP). Whilst this process is ongoing, the benefit to execute our net zero plan by 2040 becomes more achievable with quantifiable data driving our decision making.

Social

While we aim to reduce our environmental impact, we strive to be a positive force within our local region. In fact, our whole business serves society. We’re helping create safer, more fulfilled communities through our venues, and we’re a major employer throughout South East Queensland — providing jobs for hundreds of people of all ages and backgrounds.

Corporate Governance

We constantly strive to be an ethical, responsible organisation. Which is why corporate governance is more than a guide — it’s woven into the very fabric of our business. Our values, behaviours and beliefs come from the very top, and our senior management lead by example. We’ve also embraced the value of an exceptional advisory board, made up of experts from both our industry and the wider business community. With their support, we can focus on moving in the right direction, in the right way.