Thank you to everyone that provided feedback during recent community engagement activities to review the Corporate Emissions Reduction Plan. Take a moment to view the full findings report.

Next steps are to complete analysis of the data and draft the Plan for public exhibition in early 2025.

Background

The Corporate Emissions Reduction Plan (CERP) guides Council's efforts to reduce the impact of carbon emissions from our activities, services and facilities, while also supporting the community to take positive action to respond to climate change.

It provides direction for Council to become a certified carbon neutral organisation, includes actions taken by staff to reduce emissions and embeds collaboration across Council departments, the community and with other Councils in our region.

Community feedback helped shape the current Corporate Emissions Reduction Plan 2020-23. The CERP is now due to be updated and will identify actions to help us achieve zero net emissions by 2028.

Success so far

Since adoption of the CERP 2020-23, a number of sustainability initiatives have been delivered.

• Purchasing 100% renewable energy - from 2021, Council has been a part of the Victorian Energy Collaboration (VECO), which has resulted in the generation of 100% of Council's electricity from wind farms. This change led to a reduction in nearly 60% of Council's annual greenhouse gas emissions.
• Purchasing electric vehicles - Council’s passenger vehicle fleet has undergone a partial transition, with a number of zero emissions vehicles in the fleet and full transition expected to be achieved in the next 4 to 5 years.
• Energy efficient facilities – we have undertaken several energy efficiency upgrades across our facilities, including installing LED lighting, upgrading heating and cooling and new insulation. We have also made improvements to our aquatic centres including pool blankets, more efficient pumps, automatic doors and an upgrade to more efficient fans.
• Getting off gas – 60% of our small facilities (child care centres and community halls, for example) have been electrified, meaning that all gas appliances and systems have been changed to electric.
• Solar installations - we have rolled out solar panels on more than 75 Council buildings, helping to reduce our carbon footprint, cutting costs and moving away from traditional energy sources.
• Continuous improvement - as part of climate leadership, a culture of climate action has been embedded across the organisation and is seen as an all-of-staff responsibility.