Sustainability & Resilience

We are committed to ensuring our community has a sustainable and resilient city that they can thrive in. We work to promote sustainable practices, reduce our carbon impact, and enhance the quality of life for everyone.

As our city grows, we want to ensure social and economic prosperity aligns with environmental sustainability through collaborative efforts both internally and within the community.

We strive to embed a resilient and sustainable focus across the entire organisation with a mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals to make positive changes towards a sustainable future.

Climate Change

Mature aged couple holding each other looking at fire damage including a burnt car, tree and lost homes

Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health. There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all. The choices and actions implemented in this decade will have impacts now and for thousands of years.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the peak body responsible for assessing the scientific basis of climate change.

Established in 1988, the IPCC utilises contributions from thousands of experts from all over the world to review scientific information and develop assessment reports.

Since its commencement, the IPCC has published six Assessment Reports. The most recent assessment report, the Sixth Assessment Report, was finalised in March 2023.

The Sixth Assessment Report provides an overview of the current state of knowledge around climate change. It took hundreds of scientists eight years to complete and includes thousands of pages. It provides one very clear message – act now or it will be too late. Our window to avoid the worst of climate change is rapidly closing. This our last warning.

 A snapshot of the main findings of the report are provided below:

  • Australia is one of the most vulnerable developed countries to climate impacts.
  • It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land
  • Global surface temperature reached 1.1°C above 1850–1900 in 2011–2020
  • Increases in extreme heat events have resulted in human mortality and morbidity
  • Compound heatwaves and droughts will become more frequent and concurrent
  • With further warming, climate change risks will become increasingly complex and more difficult to manage.
  • Limiting human-caused global warming requires net zero CO2 emissions.
  • Deep, rapid and sustained mitigation and accelerated implementation of adaptation actions in this decade would reduce projected losses and damages for humans and ecosystems
Find out what we are doing to tackle climate change and how you can be part of the solution too

Resilience

Collage of four painted portraits of different community members, including a young girl, two women and a male elder

We all want to live in a city that thrives in both good times and bad, for the benefit of all.

Unfortunately, cities experience disasters and recurring pressures that can be disruptive, expensive and impactful. To ensure that our city is resilient, we must understand these challenges and work together to plan and implement actions to make our city stronger and more connected.

Resilience is defined as our ability to survive, adapt and thrive no matter what kind of shock or stress we experience.

Shocks are sudden and abrupt events that can stop our city, such as extreme weather, infrastructure failure and a disease pandemic.

Stresses are slow acting and make life more challenging over a longer timeframe such as housing affordability, employment diversity and inequality.

Find out how we are helping to build resilience within our city

Emergency Management

Fire fighter watching over burnt bush land with back burning tool, small flames burning in the background

Resilience seeks to ensure that our city thrives in both good times and bad, for the benefit of our entire community. We know that when an emergency arises, we must respond in a way that best supports affected community members throughout the event.

Emergency management is however more than just the lights and sirens of emergency response.

We believe it is as much about preparedness before an event occurs, supporting the recovery after the event and building resilience to ensure we can withstand whatever future events we face.