greening council operations

In 2008 Council operations used 474ML of water and energy equivalent to around 51,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. A range of initiatives aim to reduce our environmental footprint across all of our properties, and ensure we efficiently use resources and follow a ‘zero waste’ policy.

Our City Properties

Our properties account for over half of our greenhouse and water footprints. These are our commercial buildings, our libraries, our depots, our community centres, our childcare centres, and our pools. We have set a target of a 48% saving in greenhouse gas emissions across our portfolio and we have allocated $13million over the next three years to make this happen.

Our building energy efficiency program looks at a range of efficiency and decentralised energy options including solar hot water, solar electricity panels, sensor lighting, intelligent control systems air conditioning and trigeneration technology to generate ‘green’ power.

The launch of the Surry Hills Library and Community Centre, shows how a public building can lead the way in sustainable design and environmental initiatives. This building uses a plant atrium to naturally improve and filter air, uses outside louvers to ‘track’ the sun and control glare and heat levels during the day, uses rainwater for toilet flushing and plant irrigation and is built using sustainable materials.

We are also using the essential services upgrade of Town Hall as an opportunity to introduce energy and water efficient equipment throughout the building and solar panels on the roof.

The City's Properties Division is introducing reporting software that will allow live on-line monitoring of asset performance, empowering staff to reduce energy, water and waste generation.
- Solar Panels Town Hall
- Data on City Properties
- All City staff are encouraged to cycle or use public transport
Fleet

To reduce the greenhouse footprint of our vehicle fleet we are:
- Upgrading our pool cars to Toyota Prius’s;
- Converting large vehicles to smaller;
- Purchasing one of Australia’s first hybrid trucks and
- Becoming a founding member of the C40 Electric Vehicle Working Group at the recent C40 Summit in Seoul
Water

There is an extensive program underway of installing water efficient fittings and fixtures throughout our buildings, and many of our community buildings and depots now have water tanks installed.

In our parks, our focus has been to minimise water needs where ever possible and then over time, replace mains water use with non-mains sources such as stormwater or recycled water. The City already has over 40 park water reuse projects that are completed or in the design phase, with the upgrading of Sydney Park wet lands being an exemplar.

greening council operations

Our City Properties

Fleet

Water

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