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Integrated Sustainability Services

FEBRUARY–MARCH 2009

RECENT EVENTS

Sustainability Reporting Framework workshop

The ISS team held a Sustainability Reporting Framework workshop for Victorian councils in late February. This workshop was designed to introduce key components of sustainability reporting for councils.

Sustainability reporting is becoming common practice for major corporations. However, increasing stakeholder interest and expectations of greater transparency and accountability are also pressures felt by the public sector. Although the very mission of a council may be to improve economic, social or environmental outcomes, the way in which that mission is achieved must also reflect those multiple and sometimes competing concerns.

The workshop explored the value case for reporting and how the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines can be applied to support the implementation of sustainability in organisations.

NEW RESOURCES

New Sustainability Self-Assessment Tool for Local Government

ISS is pleased to announce that a new sustainability tool will be piloted over the coming months with a group of urban and regional Victorian councils.

Developed with support from Sustainability Victoria, the Sustainability Self-Assessment Tool for Local Government (SA Tool) enables local governments to carry out a self-guided process of assessing their sustainability integration performance and needs across plans and processes.

The SA Tool is based on a series of questionnaires, consisting of two parts: a ‘Rapid Assessment’ and a ‘Full Assessment’.

ISS looks forward to working on the Pilot with the City of Greater Bendigo, East Gippsland Shire Council, the City of Whitehorse, and Moyne Shire Council, with further participants to be announced soon.

UNIT UPDATE

ISS Visits ICLEI Europe’s Sustainability Management and Urban Governance Team

: ICLEI Europe Sustainability Management & Urban Governance teams, (L-R) Mr Holger Robrecht, Director Sustainability Management; Mr Stefan Kuhn, Director Urban Governance; Ms Cristina Garzillo, Project Officer; Mr Andrea Burzacchini, Project Coordinator; Ms Andrea Philipp, Project Officer; Mr Alain Straus, Project Assistant.

ISS team member Hartmut Fuenfgeld recently visited the ICLEI European Secretariat in Freiburg, Germany, where he met with ICLEI Europe’s Sustainability Management and Urban Governance Directors and their teams.

Funded by the European Commission and national governments, the two teams have been involved in numerous project activities across Europe, including the development of sustainability management approaches and Local Agenda 21 decision-making processes.

Sustainability Management provides support for local government capacity building through the development and application of innovative management instruments, with the goal of achieving sustainability.

Urban Governance, on the other hand, supports local sustainability through innovative ways of managing the relationship between public administration and civil society.

Similar to ISS’s approach to sustainability, the European teams’ understanding of their work is based on the principle that local government performance towards sustainability requires long-term, persistent implementation of plans in order to move from ‘waves’ of activities to routines embedded in an organisation that are independent of the continuously changing political scene.

During his visit, Hartmut and his European colleagues exchanged their respective experiences with sustainability management in Europe and Australia. In recent years, a core Sustainability Management focus has been the development of an Integrated Management System, as part of the project Managing Urban Europe 25.

ISS is considering piloting an adapted version of the Integrated Management System in Australia, with the support of the Sustainability Management team. Moreover, the two offices are strengthening their collaboration in preparation for the ICLEI World Congress in June 2009.

CONTACT ISS

If you have any questions or comments please email Integrated Sustainability Services or call Ph: +61 (0)3 9639 8688.

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