Just more than two and a-half years later, the general manager of Sustainable Wanaka has turned it into a job for more than 60 businesses.
Ms Williams takes maternity leave from her job in three months' time, secure in the knowledge that during her time away, the townsfolk will continue her mantra of "reduce, recycle, reuse".
"When I look through everything I think, `Wow, we've really achieved a lot,' so I do feel proud," Ms Williams said in an interview with the Otago Daily Times.
Representatives from 64 tourism businesses met recently to celebrate the end of Sustainable Wanaka's 30-month tourism project.
The project was set up after Lake Wanaka Tourism received a $105,000 grant from the Government's $1.2 million Environmentally Sustainable Tourism Project.
The goal was to nurture at least 22 tourism businesses towards more economic and sustainable practices, but Sustainable Wanaka overachieved and brought 64 businesses on board.
Sustainable Wanaka's tourism contract with the Government has now ended, but Ms Williams hopes her successor, when that person is appointed, will be able to attract more funding to keep the project running.
Six towns received charters from the Government project and Wanaka had been one of the highest-performing towns, she said.
"Not only is the number of businesses high; on the whole, they are high-performing participants in terms of the amount of change achieved in their operations . . . these vary from cost savings for energy savings, [to] producing less waste, guest education, going plastic-bag-free, [and] car pooling," she said.
Social sustainability was as important as any environmental issue but was often overlooked, she said.
Businesses had consciously addressed sustainable employment through paying fair wages, and tackled workplace stress and burnout by ensuring people took time off.
The plastic-bag campaign had enjoyed a particularly high profile and had been embraced by the wider community: 40% of local shoppers now rejected plastic supermarket bags, she said.
The project was jointly supported by the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry for the Environment, and was offered to all members of Lake Wanaka Tourism as well as members of bed and breakfast group, @ Home New Zealand.
Sustainable Wanaka is a charitable trust.
It continues to support the community with its Eco Design Advisers programme, which has another two years to run.
The trust is also actively seeking more contracts to fund its Sustainable Tourism Advisers programme and other projects.
