Sustainability funding
Funding is provided or administered by the Office of Environment and Heritage, Department of Premier and Cabinet to support a range of sustainable practices and programs.
The NSW Government's Climate Change Fund was established in July 2007, incorporating the expanded Water and Energy Savings Funds, the Climate Action Grant Program and some funding from the Environmental Trust. The fund will total $700 million over five years and provide financial support for households, businesses, communities, schools and government to save energy and water and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Environmental Trust is an independent statutory body established by the NSW government to support exceptional environmental projects that do not receive funds from the usual government sources.
There are also a number of options available for assistance with conserving nature on your property, including voluntary conservation agreements, wildlife refuges and the Land for Wildlife scheme.
The Climate Action Grants Program supports projects that assist the development and adoption of technologies, processes and practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions or help the NSW community to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
The Aboriginal Land Clean-Up Program supports partnership projects between Local Aboriginal Land Councils and local government that seek to remove illegally dumped waste from Aboriginal owned land whilst incorporating prevention, resource recovery and partnership building initiatives.
NSW Environmental Upgrade Agreements
The Local Government Amendment (Environmental Upgrade Agreements) Act 2010 commenced on 18 February 2011 which facilitates upgrading or ‘retroffiting’ of non-residential or multi-residential buildings (of more than 20 lots).
The purpose of the Act is to allow councils to enter into environmental upgrade agreements with owners of certain buildings and finance providers as a way of funding works to improve the energy, water or environmental efficiency or environmental sustainability of those buildings.
An environmental upgrade agreement is a voluntary agreement under which:
a building owner agrees to carry out works to improve the energy, water or environmental efficiency or sustainability of the building (environmental upgrade works);
a finance provider (i.e. a bank) agrees to provide funds to the building owner to finance those environmental upgrade works; and
the council agrees to levy a charge on the relevant land which is used to repay the funds to the finance provider (the environmental upgrade charge).
The legal framework includes the Act, Regulation and Guidelines which can be downloaded at the following links:
The template agreement to be executed by the parties entering into an Environmental Upgrade Agreement for a non-residential building (eg. commercial or industrial) has now been approved.
The Office of Environment and Heritage is currently working with a number of major urban councils and representatives from the strata and finance industries to prepare a template agreement for strata buildings that are the subject of a multi-residence scheme of more than 20 lots.
Page last updated: 18 November 2011
