Wyndham City has successfully earned its Climate Active carbon neutral accreditation, going that step further to reducing greenhouse gas emissions that result from Council's operations.
'Carbon neutral' means to reduce emissions where possible by investing in new technology or changing the way we operate. Any remaining emissions can be offset by investing in projects that reduce carbon emissions by the same amount that Council's own operations still produce.
Carbon offset units are generated from activities that prevent, reduce or remove greenhouse gas emissions from being released into the atmosphere. When the offsets purchased by an organisation equal the emissions produced they are carbon neutral.
Emission reduction initiatives have been achieved mostly by:
- Installing solar panels on council facilities
- Joining the Victorian Energy Collaboration's wind farm project
- Utilising our procurement channels to purchase lower carbon products
Wyndham City Mayor, Cr Jennie Barrera, said the accreditation was a significant achievement on Wyndham's overall journey to becoming a zero-carbon city.
"We set a target in the Resilient Wyndham strategy to become a zero-carbon city, to get there our first step was to become carbon neutral across all Council operations by 2023 (excluding the tip, known as the Refuse Disposal Facility)," she said.
"We achieved this milestone in 2023 and submitted successfully for accreditation this year."
"We've delivered some big projects to help us gain this accreditation - such as the Wyndham Solar City Project that began in 2015, which resulted in solar panels being installed on Council facilities."
"We joined the Victorian Energy Collaboration, becoming one of 51 Victorian Councils that grouped together to commit to purchasing enough renewable energy to see new Victorian wind farms built and power their operations through wind energy."
"Examples of our emissions reduction initiatives would be the roll out of renewable energy systems under the Wyn-R Program that has resulted in a variety of projects such as investing in electric vehicles for Council's fleet and electric vehicle chargers, LED street and sporting field lights among others."
"We've much to be proud of making Council's environmental footprint neutral while also providing local access to green infrastructure such as EV chargers and community centres that are run on renewable energy."
"We look forward to working towards making our city zero carbon in the future."
Climate Active certification reflects the role that government, business and community have to play in working together to address climate change.
