Our commitment to the environment

Our vision for our environment

We are committed to the conservation, restoration and enhancement of our environment. In keeping with ecologically sustainable development principles, we work to integrate social, economic and environmental values and imperatives into decision making.

Sustainability involves thinking about the types and amount of resources we use. We encourage the community to consider how they dispose of items and how to protect and conserve the natural environment.

To provide a healthy future for residents, we are committed to rehabilitating waterways, protecting bushland and wildlife, and reducing waste and carbon emissions.

Our energy future program

This program aims to provide information for homeowners interested in purchasing and/or installing solar panels and accelerates energy transition to renewable energy sources by empowering communities to take action. We ran a solar campaign to assist residents who were considering installing solar and delivered solar information sessions for the community.

During the 2019/20, there were: • 24 solar panels installations

• 117.66 kW of capacity installed • 87 quotes for energy-related equipment (such as solar panels). Significant progress was achieved in encouraging the community to consider renewable energy sources and educating the community about energy reduction initiatives in the home.

Staff members with one of Georges River Council's Hyundai Ionic 100 per cent electric vehicles.

Working towards net zero carbon and 100 per cent renewable energy

In November 2019, we endorsed a 100 per cent renewable energy target by 2025 and provided in-principle support for a net zero emissions target by 2025 or as soon as practicable, through implementing a framework to reduce carbon emissions based on mitigation initiatives and innovative technology. We have been working on the implementation of these initiatives during the 2019/20 period, as follows:

Since 1 July 2019, our electricity contract has been delivering a fixed load of renewable energy each year that was equivalent to 20% of electricity from renewable sources (from Moree Solar Farm).

We increased utilisation of solar panels and managed to increase capacity to 188.25 kW with a total of 8 solar panel systems installed by the end of 2019/20. We installed 5 new PV systems during the past 12 months.

In October 2019, we agreed to participate in Ausgrid’s Accelerated Street Lighting Replacement Program which will result in the replacement of 40 per cent of existing inefficient street lights with energy efficient LEDs. By June 2020, nearly 30 per cent of the lights within the program were replaced.

In February 2019, we purchased two Hyundai Ionic 100 per cent electric vehicles. Our fleet currently also has 12 hybrid vehicles, which produce 60 per cent fewer emissions than conventional petrol or diesel powered vehicles.

A Revolving Energy Fund (REF) was established in December 2019 to encourage and support ongoing energy efficiency and renewable energy projects across Council. A proportion of the financial savings from each project have been used to repay the REF to be reinvested in future projects. The projects funded during 2019/20 were solar panel installation at Kogarah Library and Ken Rosewall Tennis Courts – lighting upgrades to LED. The implementation of the mitigation initiatives outlined above was highly successful in all categories and their progression not only helped us achieve all pledges from the Cities Power Partnership (CPP) in record time, but also, raise internal awareness and support.

Cities Power Partnership

We achieved all five of our pledges under the Cities Power Partnership and were one of the first member councils to achieve all five pledges. We: • provided resources to educate and support the uptake of renewable energy through the Our Energy

Future (AEF) partnership powered Council operations by renewables either directly (with solar PV or wind) or by purchasing green power (from electricity retailers) ensured Council fleet purchases meet strict greenhouse gas emission requirements and support the uptake of electric vehicles installed renewable energy on Council buildings, for example, childcare facilities, libraries, street lighting, recreation centres, sporting grounds and Council offices created a revolving green energy fund to finance energy efficiency projects and receive savings. Our new pledges are:

Environmental resilience strategy

We commenced an Environmental Resilience Strategy, which will ensure we are one of Sydney’s leading councils in environmental resilience. The Strategy will be exhibited next financial year.

Provision of waste collection services

Over the year we emptied 688,840 bins in the provision of waste, co-mingled recycling and garden organics bin collection services.

During 2019/20, 30,358 tonnes of waste were diverted from landfill.

We investigated more than 1,300 reports of illegally dumped material. Additionally, the income from fines for environmental breaches relating to waste or litter offences totalled $68,151.

We also continued membership of the Regional Illegal Dumping (RID) Squad. During the year, more than 340 illegal dumping incidents were reported for investigation to the RID Squad. Additionally, the RID Squad

performed three special operations to provide targeted education, compliance and enforcement relating to illegally dumped waste in our LGA.

Powerful Owl

We hosted 264 volunteers for the nation-wide Clean Up Australia Day event in March. These community volunteers picked up litter in five parks, two beach areas and four rivers/creeks. Clean Up Australia volunteers removed 700 kilograms of waste from the local environment.

Sustainable events

Our three major events (Magic of Christmas, Lunar New Year and Australia Day) are certified as carbon neutral events. This means all activities associated with running the event have resulted in net zero carbon emissions, by reducing the source of greenhouse gases (GHG) and purchasing carbon offsets. This includes emissions relating to electricity, transport used by event attendees and staff, diesel used in generators, food and catering, fireworks, water and food waste.

Biodiversity

We developed and distributed 3,000 Backyard Biodiversity Guides to residents in the Greater Sydney Green Grid’s Priority Corridors and other Green Grid opportunity corridors with another 2,000 guides going to our Civic Centre and community facilities.

We send our quarterly e-newsletter for sustainability and environmental initiatives, the Riverwise Review, to more than 200 subscribers with past editions available on our website.

Urban tree canopy

During 2019/20, we continued our proactive street and park tree planting program with help from the Five Million Trees for Greater Sydney Grant Program, planting 443 trees in two canopy corridors encompassing suburbs with low canopy coverage, including 194 trees in the Kogarah Bay corridor, 239 trees in the Beverly Hills corridor and 10 in urban centres to counteract the urban heat island effect.

Pest animal management

The Integrated Fox Management Program completed two rounds of soft jaw leg-hold trapping in six of our reserves and one round of 1080 fox baiting in one reserve between August 2019 and June 2020. Five foxes were eradicated in that same time.

A trial program for the trapping of the invasive red-eared slider turtle (REST) was also undertaken in partnership with the Department of Primary Industries in locations the REST is known to exist including Lime Kiln Bay Wetlands and HV Evatt Park, Lugarno.