Mount Alexander Shire Council has adopted a detailed plan outlining the path it now intends to follow to achieve zero net carbon emissions for its operations by 2025.
Local councillors last week unanimously voted in favour of adopting the new Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality 2020-2025 with Cr John Nieman moving the motion in favour and Cr Bronwen Machin providing a seconder.
“All in all it’s an excellent document,” Cr Nieman said.
“It’s about innovation and perceiving different ways of doing businesses,” Cr Machin said, naming regenerative farming as one prime example offering significant scope to help meet the aims of the plan that’s part of the wider agenda to tackle climate change.
“There is a fabulous opportunity to invest in regenerative farming, which has one of the biggest capacities for drawdown of carbon that exists,” Cr Machin told last week’s council meeting.
Councillor and farmer, Calder ward’s Tony Cordy also spoke in favour.
“I really strongly support the road map to carbon neutrality,” Cr Cordy said.
“I’d like to see council work with the local community and build on the excellent work being done within our community to see what we can do locally before we go outside.”
The roadmap sets out interim targets and work plans to improve the council’s environmental performance across multiple areas including buildings, transport, lighting, waste management and procurement.
Part of it includes the council’s signing on for the Local Government Power Purchasing Agreement for 100 per cent renewable energy.
“We are one of 48 Victorian councils who have formed Australia’s largest renewable energy buying groups and intend to switch to 100 per cent renewables from December 2021,” mayor Cr Christine Henderson said.
“By signing up to this program we will reduce our total annual emissions by 29 per cent in 2022.
“We are proud to be leading the way with other Victorian councils who are showing what can be achieved at the local government level.”
The council has replaced almost 900 street lights with low-energy LED lights, installed solar panels on many of its buildings and delivered a range of community waste education programs. It has also purchased hybrid vehicles for its Parks and Gardens teams.
“The roadmap includes further ideas to continue this work, such as upgrading more streetlights to LED, transitioning council’s fleet to electric vehicles and improving the energy efficiency of council buildings,” Cr Henderson said.
Many actions outlined in the roadmap are forecast to deliver a dual benefit of reducing emissions while also achieving big cost savings.
The council and Mount Alexander Sustainability Group also plan to launch an online community engagement tool toward designing a Z-NET Community Transition Plan.
It’s aimed at providing a forum for anyone interested to share their ideas to help address the issue of climate change and reduce emissions, with more information at www.mountalexander.vic.gov.au/EnvironmentalProjects.
