Cleaner Stronger Resilient

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Learn about the projects we are currently participating in to create a more sustainable and resilient future for our City.

Towards a Greener Fleet

After a successful trial in 2021 with our first battery electric vehicle (BEV), Council is continuing its commitment to sustainable practices and reducing carbon emissions by adding a further five BEVs to the fleet in 2022. 

Our Nissan Leaf purchased in March 2021, named Evie, replaced one of our petrol vehicles used by Council’s assets team to conduct their regular inspections across the city. In Evie's first year of service, she travelled over 12 000km and only cost $190 to charge for the whole year. 

Now other Council teams have got involved by replacing their petrol powered operational vehicles with BEVs.

The new vehicles are used by our Library team, Waste team our Ranger team to conduct their activities and services around our city. 

Adding these new BEVs to our fleet is part of our longer term transition strategy to adopt the most environmentally conscious fleet possible.

Why are we adding battery electric vehicles to our fleet?

  • Reduce our greenhouse gas emissions as a consequence of our activities
  • Increase the speed and priority of our adopted climate change mitigation and adaptation measures
  • Aligns with our ambition of achieving net zero carbon emissions 
  • Reduce our operation costs so we can fund further sustainability initiatives 
  • Provide innovative and strong leadership in reducing our impact on the climate
  • Lead the City in innovative approaches to strengthen our resilience  

What about electric vehicle chargers? 

We know that electric vehicles (EVs) go hand in hand with electric vehicle servicing equipment (EVSE), more commonly known as electric vehicle chargers or charging stations.

We have installed a few chargers at our Civic Centre to service our operational EVs and we are exploring opportunities to increase the prevalence of publicly accessible EV charging stations across the LGA.

While Council does not own or operate any publicly available EV chargers, there is an increasing number of available charging locations throughout the LGA. Charging locations are easily found by simply using the Transport for NSW charging location map: 

Charging map | Transport for NSW

Electric vehicles offer a range of benefits for individuals, communities, and the environment.

Firstly, they produce zero tailpipe emissions, which helps reduce air pollution and improve public health. They are also significantly cheaper to run than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles because they eliminate fuel costs and require less maintenance.

Additionally, the use of electric vehicles reduces dependence on fossil fuels, which are finite resources that contribute to climate change. By switching to electric vehicles, we can make a positive impact on the environment, while also saving money and contributing to a more sustainable future.

 


Our commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions

We acknowledge the findings of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change and are committed to transitioning our operations toward net zero emissions.

To do this, we have undertaken an analysis of our greenhouse gas emissions associated with our activities and will identify emission reduction pathways required to achieve net zero.

Renewable energy

In 2017, we joined 17 other councils in a landmark initiative facilitated by the Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Council’s (SSROC). The Program, consisting of four streams, was designed to assist participating councils mitigate volatile prices for electricity and gas while meeting their environmental goals.

After a comprehensive process, on the 1 July 2019, we began receiving renewable electricity from Moree Solar Farm.

The landmark agreement with Moree Solar Farm includes the supply of 20 per cent of our entire electricity portfolio, providing significant cost savings, reducing carbon emissions and supporting investment into the renewable energy industry in NSW.

Since July 2022, we have increased our supply of renewable electricity to 70 per cent of our overall electricity demand by continuing to purchase solar energy from Moree as well as two additional NSW solar farms in Hillston and Nevertire.  

Combined with Council’s larger solar network, which currently provides an annual projected generation of over 740,000 kWh of renewable electricity from more than 2,000 solar panels, we are well on our way to transitioning to a more sustainable future. 

Sustainability accounting tool

The vast array of services and facilities that we manage makes identifying our environmental impact a very important and necessary challenge.

To ensure sustainability is embedded across our organisation, we use an online platform to capture and report on our electricity, gas, water and fuel consumption as well as track and record waste generated within Council operated sites.

It enables us to benchmark our resource consumption, identify our carbon emission sources and develop initiatives to improve sustainability performance.