Geelong’s environmental strategy: Progress report shows 94% of goals on track

THE City of Greater Geelong has released a report detailing its progress since the council adopted a 10-year environmental strategy in 2020.

At its meeting on Tuesday night, the council considered the city’s key environmental and sustainability achievements over the first four years of the strategy, which outlines several overarching goals.

These include transitioning toward a zero-emission “climate-ready” city, creating greener community spaces, reducing waste, and protecting local biodiversity.

The report, developed by council officers and presented at the meeting, shows that 60 per cent of the environmental actions due to be taken by 2022-23 have been completed, while 94 per cent of the strategy’s longer-term actions were on-track for delivery by the nominated completion date.

Some of the key achievements highlighted over this period include reducing corporate greenhouse gases by 41 per cent, upgrading 22,000 streetlights to efficient LED fittings and diverting recycled materials from landfill by repurposing them in road construction works.

The report also celebrated the city’s community facilities, such as the Boronggook Drysdale Library and the multi-award-winning Dell Eco Reef, that have been designed with environmental sustainability in mind.

Of the 34 targets established in the environmental strategy, eight were identified as needing improvement, including the goal of planting one million new trees by 2030 and phasing out single-use plastics from city-owned buildings.

These have been revised and included in a new two-year action plan, as have the actions included in the plan that were unable to be completed due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cr Elise Wilkinson said she looked forward to the greater accountability the report and its subsequent action plan would bring.

“We need to work closely with a mutual obligation to be eco-centric and not egocentric,” she said.

“We are a growing community, we’re significantly expanding [and] looking at a population growth to over 440,000 by 2046.

“This needs really careful response and careful planning because while we’re building houses, we also need to look at landscaping and protecting habitat that already exists.”

Cr Emma Sinclair said environmental protection needed to be a priority for the council, as the region begins to experience the impacts of climate change.

The report, she said, showed there’s “real, tangible economic benefits” to having an environmental strategy.

“The carbon zero building initiative has saved $743,000, so almost three quarters of a million dollars in energy costs, and we’ve seen a 60 per cent reduction in electricity consumption by the LED streetlight transition,” Cr Sinclair said.

“And that’s not including the 8.2 million tourists brought to the region because of those beautiful lands and waterways.”