State of the environment Throughout 2021/22 implementation of the Sustainable Hornsby 2040 Strategy continued, this incorporates the Biodiversity Conservation Strategy, Urban Forest Strategy, Water Sensitive Hornsby Strategy, Climate Wise Hornsby Plan and Waste Matters Strategy. Council's two community environmental committees, the Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee and the Bushland Management Advisory Committee, met regularly up until the local government elections in December 2021.
Net zero emissions by 2050 The Climate Wise Hornsby Plan guides priority actions to work towards net zero emissions by 2050 . The emissions inventory for Council’s total operations for the financial years 2016/17 and 2017/18 were prepared by a consultant in accordance with the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Guidelines for corporate emissions reporting, the international GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard and the National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS). Subsequent annual inventories have been carried out in-house. Council’s overall CO2-e emissions for all its sites and activities are shown in the table below. Emissions have reduced significantly as on 1 January 2022 Council entered into a contract to purchase 100% renewable electricity from two solar farms in NSW. Council’s CO2-e emissions Year
tonnes CO2-e
2016/17 2017/18
12,080.23
2018/19
12,431.18
2019/20
11,152.88
1
tonnes Co2 created by Council Council’s top four sites
2017/18
2018/19
Hornsby Aquatic and Leisure Centre
1,424
1,558
1,178
1,515
712
Council’s Administration Centre
662
582
508
288
77
Galston Aquatic Centre
451
515
465
553
50
Hornsby Library TOTAL
2021/22
6,882.40
1,000,000
Below you can see how Council has been tracking towards reducing emissions at its top four sites. Emissions for the
P84
HORNSBY SHIRE COUNCIL
144
122
42
2,295
2,479
881
In 2020/21 we produced 1,259,529 tonnes of CO2-e, which is a reduction of 28,787 tonnes from 2019/20, and our community emission total represented 2.6 per cent of Greater Sydney’s emissions (Resilient Sydney Platform, 2022). 1,400,000 1,200,000
COUNCIL
183 2,838
Our community greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions profile over the past four years shows that as a Shire we produce over 1.25 million tonnes CO2-e emissions each year (Resilient Sydney Platform, 2022). This profile is informed by data on transport, waste and energy practices in our LGA.
11,561.93
Greenhouse gas emissions and reductions
302 2,839
COMMUNITY
2020/21
Annual data verified and adjusted in 2020/21
2019/20 2020/21 2021/22
Emission factors utilised in inventory are from the Department of the Environment and Energy “National Greenhouse Accounts Factors August 2021” and incorporate emissions from CO2, CH4 and N2O gases.
Tonnes of CO2
1
12,815.88
1
four sites are much lower than previous years due to major renovation works and closures at each site. Many Council staff have been relocated to a leased office due to asbestos remediation works at the Administration Centre, the leased office is not included in Council’s emissions inventory.
800,000 600,000 400,000 200,000 0
2017/18
Electricity
Gas
2018/19
2019/20
Transport
2020/21
Waste
Community Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Source
