CCP Australia – JUNE/JULY 2008

The City of Whitehorse has installed a gas boosted solar hot water service at its principle recreational centre, Aqualink Nunawading.

Visit the Outstanding Council Initiative page on the CCP Australia website to read the full story about the latest winner.

Does your council have the leading edge on greenhouse abatement?

The Outstanding Council Initiative award goes to a council who has implemented an innovative greenhouse initiative or project.

If you think your council has implemented an innovative greenhouse initiative or project, or has perhaps created an innovative process for its implementation, you can complete the Case Study and Outstanding Initiative nomination form and return it to your CCP State or Territory Manager.

CCP Australia will soon be seeking data and details about councils’ greenhouse gas abatement actions as part of the annual CCP Australia Measures Evaluation Report.

Councils that have achieved Milestone 3 and beyond are invited to take part.

Last year we reported record abatement and fantastic actions by CCP Australia councils (see the 2007 Measures Evaluation Report), and this year we aim to do even better.

For the first time, the 2008 report will include short individual profiles of all councils that contribute measures this year – a fantastic opportunity to highlight some the great work being done at your council.

The annual Measures Evaluation Report also enables CCP to advocate on Australian councils’ behalf for further funding to help local government implement actions.

Moreover, participating in the report will provide you with valuable information about your council’s actions and abatement that you can utilise to seek further funding.

CCP will launch the report at the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) National Assembly in December 2008.

Councils will be asked to begin contributing measures in July, and those that wish to be included in this year’s report should begin collating information on council actions now.

Please contact your CCP State or Territory Manager for more information.

The City of Melbourne is the first council in Australia to use a wiki (an online collaborative tool) to seek community input to its 10-year strategic plan, Future Melbourne. When the draft plan closed on 14 June, 6500 people had logged onto the Future Melbourne wiki site.

The City of Melbourne Lord Mayor, John So, said the Future Melbourne draft plan was the most ambitious, broad ranging and engaging strategy ever produced by Council.

“We have been overwhelmed by the community’s enthusiasm to contribute to the Future Melbourne draft plan and thank the thousands of people who participated in the project and provided their feedback on the future of Melbourne,” said the Lord Mayor.  

Some of the suggestions provided by the community include:

• creating a network of carpooling interchanges to help people connect and commute to work
• calls for greater emphasis on the embodied energy within the building materials required to construct city buildings
• creating an online community space for business and government to share best environmental practice
• developing the disused North Melbourne rail yards into an ‘eco city’ for residential and business spaces
• the need to consider the emissions generated in the production of our food.

The Future Melbourne draft plan comes after 12 months of consultation with Melbourne’s public and the city’s business, education, cultural, environmental and residential communities. In excess of 15,000 people have participated in the collaborative process in both online and traditional face-to-face environments.

The Future Melbourne Reference Group, chaired by businesswoman Carol Schwartz, will review the submissions by the public and hand the Future Melbourne plan to Council for consideration on 30 July.

The Future Melbourne plan will be presented to the City of Melbourne Planning Committee on 2 September and the Council meeting on 30 September 2008 for endorsement.

Two Western Australian councils – the Town of Claremont and the City of Nedlands – joined together with Western Power to trial an innovative approach to managing summer peak energy use over last summer.

Peak energy demand in summer is largely attributed to the rise in domestic air conditioner use, so Western Power developed a project with the support of these councils to target this source of energy use.

The project, Cool Community – Clean Future, was well supported by the local community with over 1000 residents registering to take part.

The trial involved installing a switching device to compatible refrigerative and reverse-cycle air conditioners in participating homes. Western Power could then alter the compressors’ regular pattern of switching on and off so that they were only activated when outdoor temperatures exceeded 36 degrees Celsius.

The air conditioner’s fan, however, continued to operate as normal, circulating air around the home and leading to reduced energy usage but little to no noticeable difference in comfort levels.

As a result of the installation of the devices, peak electricity demand in a metered sample of residents was reduced by 27 per cent during selected periods of peak demand days. Each volunteer reduced their electricity use by 3.5 kilowatts per day for each day the device was operational – an innovative solution to hot summer days.

For more information, please see the Western Power website.