Wellington Shire Council is updating the community on progress being made towards its net zero emissions by 2040 goals and targets by launching a new interactive online tool.
The progress made is as outlined in the Council’s Sustainability Strategy 2020-24.
The new Our Sustainability Impact online report breaks up Council’s sustainability projects into the five key themes of the Sustainability Strategy.
It looks closely at how Council has worked towards achieving climate-resilient communities, a low carbon economy, protecting nature, and progressing towards a circular economy and environmental stewardship – the rolling report documents the progress and highlights as Wellington Shire Council continues to be a community leader in sustainability.
Some highlights for the region from the last 12 months include swapping almost all high energy streetlights to energy efficient LEDs, trialling a range of plant species to uncover which will perform better under a changing climate, and the work being done onsite to make compost, mulch and soil, used to fertilise public parks and garden beds.
In 2021 Wellington Shire Council identified Climate Change as the region’s number one priority in the Council Plan 2021-25. The plan recognises that temperature increases, lower rainfall, more frequent bushfires, more intense flooding and sea level rises will all have a significant impact on the local community.
Council continues to facilitate projects that aim to mitigate and adapt local communities to climate change and through this work, taking a two-part approach to tackle climate change:
- Mitigation: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2040, helping to limit global warming to under 1.5 degrees Celsius
- Adaptation: modify planning processes, ensuring local communities are prepared for continuing climate change impacts, acknowledging that more extreme impacts are expected under a high emissions scenario
