The City, residents and visitors are embracing low carbon initiatives that are contributing to a more sustainable and climate resilient region.
As part of our key sustainability targets, we are committed to creating a culture of sustainable practice in our organisation and region that will help us and the community address environmental challenges in the future.
A snapshot of recent achievements in this space include:
- Use of our public electric vehicle charging network (13 chargers) has jumped significantly from 967 charging sessions in 2020 to more than 18,600 so far this year.
- The conversion of 22,000 streetlights to more energy efficient LED lights has resulted in a 60 per cent drop in electricity consumed.
- 100,929 litre reduction of diesel usage in the City's fleet between 2022-23 and 2023-24 by transitioning to low or zero emission vehicles.
- We've eliminated 100 per cent of electricity related carbon emissions from our buildings and facilities such as streetlights by switching to renewable electricity supply through the Victorian Energy Collaboration with 50 other councils.
- In partnership with LMS Energy, the City captures methane gas from our Drysdale Resource Recovery Centre to generate enough renewable electricity to power approximately 1,500 homes, saving 50,900 tonnes of greenhouse gases annually.
- Significant interest and uptake in the City's Climate Partnerships to support community action, including 900+ enquiries and 317 households undertaking energy efficiency upgrades as part of the Geelong Sustainability 2023 All Electric Homes Program.
- We are using Environmentally Sustainable Design principles to ensure new community facilities produce zero operational emissions, are climate resilient and generate renewable energy. For example, our Northern Aquatic and Community Hub and North Bellarine Aquatic and Leisure Centre have all-electric infrastructure and are powered by 100 per cent renewable electricity.
- Our Zero Carbon Building Program also ensures older buildings are retrofitted with energy efficient lighting upgrades, automated building control systems and upgraded heating and cooling infrastructure.
Councillor Elise Wilkinson
Council is committed to leading by example and empowering the community to make sustainable choices.We've listened to feedback about wanting a Council that is climate ready, working towards a more climate resilient region and supports the community to take action.
We are focused on achieving the best outcomes for our community, environment and the economy, and are on-track to achieve our corporate target of being a net zero emissions by 2025.
The City is testing new industry leading Environmentally Sustainable Design requirements for new urban growth areas including guidelines for zero carbon operational urban development.
We look forward to delivering more partnerships with the community to take climate action.
This is an exciting time to be innovative and we continue to search for ways to divert more waste from landfill, upgrade existing facilities to reduce our use of natural gas and deliver more sustainable transport infrastructure.
