Harnessing wind to power local council buildings and upgrading street lighting to LEDs are two goals Mount Alexander Shire Council says its already kicking towards reaching zero-net emissions by 2025.
In August 2020, the local council adopted its Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality 2020-2025 outlining priority actions it plans to take to cut greenhouse gas emissions in its operations across its vehicle fleet, buildings, street lighting, procurement and waste management.
Now some significant steps towards achieving some of those roadmap objections include the council in January having joined the Victorian Energy Collaboration (VECO) which now means its operations are now almost completely powered by 100% renewable electricity, sourced from two wind farms in regional Victoria.
“Reducing council’s operational emissions was a key commitment of our Climate Emergency Declaration back in 2019”, Mount Alexander Shire mayor, Cr Bill Maltby said.
Street lighting along the shire’s major roads was also upgraded earlier this year in an effort to improve energy efficiency and safety.
This was funded by the federal government’s Local Roads and Community Infrastructure grants, and followed on from the 2015 upgrades to lighting along residential streets in the shire.
The council’s biggest operational source of greenhouse emissions is the Castlemaine Landfill, and now the process of capping and rehabilitating the local landfill has begun, with gas flaring infrastructure to be installed in the future forecast to greatly reduce landfill emissions.
The council has also purchased its first electric vehicle for its fleet, marking the beginning of its electric vehicle transition.
The achievements have been outlined in the recently released 2022 Progress Report: Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality 2020-2025.
“Our community made it clear that climate action is vital to them, and we are actively responding,” Cr Maltby said.
“Council’s Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality 2020-2025 is really just one part of the picture, and speaks to how council will reduce our operational emissions.
“We also want to continue to support our community to reduce emissions, and work together to adapt to the climate impacts we
already know will come our way.
“This is why council will be developing a climate change strategy over the coming months, along with a new waste strategy.
“We will be looking to our community for input on both of these documents, so I encourage residents to keep an eye on our online engagement platform Shape Mount Alexander for details on how to get involved,” Cr Maltby said.