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City of Wollongong

Council combating climate change

Wednesday 3 November 2021

Reflecting on climate change

We know that climate change is a real issue facing our community, now and into the future.

We’ve been taking big steps to help combat climate change and reduce our emissions, so that we can collaborate with our community to tackle the challenges of climate change together.

This week saw world leaders gather to attend the 26th anniversary of the UN COP26 Summit (Climate Change Conference)., We’re taking a moment to reflect on what steps Council has taken towards managing climate change for our community on a local level.

Council’s decisions and planning are guided by strategic documents and research. Over the past few years, we have;

  • In 2017, Council joined the Global Covenant of Mayors initiative, an international alliance of cities and local governments who share a long-term vision of promoting and supporting voluntary action to combat climate change.
  • Declared a state of climate emergency recognising the need for urgent action from all levels of government to address and combat climate change.
  • Completed emissions profiles for both the Wollongong Local Government Area and our own operations to identify areas for improvement.
  • Adopted science-based emissions reduction targets of net zero by 2030 for Council operations and net zero by 2050 for city-wide emissions.
  • Joined the Cities Power Partnership in 2020. In this Partnership we have committed to five pledges relating to renewable energy, sustainable transport, energy efficiency and working together. This year we Council joined the Sustainability Advantage program which will support us to integrating sustainability principles and practices across the organisation.
  • We have adopted two key documents which guide both Council operations and our community in working towards a sustainable and climate healthy city, the Sustainable Wollongong 2030: A Climate Healthy City Strategy, and the Climate Change Mitigation Plan 2020-2022 (CCMP).

Wollongong City Council General Manager Greg Doyle said that each of the steps Council has taken add up to achieve a greater whole, and that the work and effort that we’re putting in to reduce emissions is vital to the local community.

“We know climate change is something that our community is facing now and into the future,’’ he said.

“Council plays an important leadership role in helping our community move towards the ‘new normal’ of a zero-carbon future. We are fully embracing the challenge of working towards our climate mitigation targets of net zero emissions by 2030 for Wollongong City Council operations and supporting the community to do the same by 2050.

“We have a responsibility to ourselves and upcoming generations to do what we can to minimise our impact on the environment. Council is continually looking for ways to reasonably resource and implement green and low emission technology and initiatives for our community’s long-term wellbeing.”

Through Council’s major strategic and on-ground works, we have begun to reduce the impact of our emissions from operations and assist our community to reduce theirs. Through the Sustainable Wollongong Strategy, the CCMP and other related supporting documents, several key projects have been delivered or are currently being implemented which will result in emissions savings of at least 35,000 tCO2-e annually and also result in other benefits for the community.

These strategic documents and initiatives mean ...

Diverting food waste from landfill

We’re recently rolled out FOGO to unit complexes with 30 units or more and existing green-lidded bin! At the same time, we’re giving our community a pat on the back for picking up FOGO, as we’ve diverted thousands of tonnes of food waste out of landfill over the past year since its introduction.

We’re greening our city

We’ve been busy planting record numbers of trees through Council’s Urban Greening Strategy and Natural Area programs which helps to provide shade and cool our city.

We’re supporting our residents to convert their verges to gardens with the implementation of our new verge garden guidelines and grants. By making the change and adding a water-wise verge garden you can save around 20,000 to 40,000 litres of water per year.

Greening our community’s transport options

Electric Vehicle charging stations will become more popular with the adoption of the Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Stations on Public Land Policy and negotiations with EV charging station providers for installations on public land. The Policy helps to address range anxiety caused by a lack of EV charging stations and supports the uptake of sustainable transport options.

Council is also supporting the use of greener technology and transport through its continued introduction of hybrid vehicles into Council’s fleet, and possible electric or hydrogen powered vehicles and equipment into the future.

We’re creating more people powered movement through our improvements to our cycling networks throughout the city. We’ve upgraded cycleways and shared pathways, created new pop-up cycling routes and installed more bike racks and the city’s first bike repair station at North Beach Wollongong to make riding easier for our community. We've also got more people moving with our continued development of Cringila Hills Recreation Park and the Grand Pacific Walk stretching from the Royal National Park to Lake Illawarra.

Reducing our city’s energy consumption

We’re negotiating a 100% green energy Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) that joins us with other NSW Councils looking to source green energy. If this agreement moves forward, we’ll be using green energy to power our large Council sites such as Leisure Centres, pools, community centres and libraries, and streetlighting. By doing this, we’ll reduce our overall greenhouse gas emissions by almost 15,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year.

We’ve been busy changing bulbs and brightening our city by upgrading our streetlights to more energy efficient 17W LEDs. To date we’ve changed more than 5295 lights!
Older sports field lighting is also being replaced with LEDs as systems reach their end of serviceable life, such as at the Lakeside Leisure Centre tennis courts and the Guest Park, St James Park and Judy Masters sports fields.

Solar panel installation on Stewart Street car park, along with other solar photovoltaic panels across Council building and facilities are helping drive the energy needs of Council. The 549 panels installed on Council’s Administration Building carpark are expected to generate 316 MWh of energy a year, and will be used to partially power the 6 Star Green Star Performance rated Council Administration Building, with any excess energy created exported to the grid.

Making Wollongong more sustainable

Council now has a Sustainable Events Guide and checklist to support event organisers in delivering more sustainable events and reduce their environmental footprint. It covers waste, energy, transport, food and water, promotional material and more.

We’ve continued to review and update Council’s Climate Change Adaptation Plan which allows Council to plan for and manage any unavoidable impacts of climate change to our local area. We’ve also started the development of our next Climate Change Mitigation Plan in order to help reduce and prevent our greenhouse gas emissions.


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