Project summaries - 2008 Urban Sustainability - major grants
| 2008 Urban Sustainability - major grants |
|---|
| Organisation | Project title | Amount $ |
|---|
| Armidale Dumaresq Council and Partners | Biodiversity in High Country urban communities | 2,000,000 |
| CENTROC and Partners | Climate change growing capacity in climate change adaptation in Central NSW | 778,160 |
| City of Sydney Council and Partners | Social housing sustainability partnerships | 1,750,000 |
| Coffs Harbour City Council and Partners | Our living coast regional sustainability initiative | 1,998,820 |
| Coffs Harbour City Council | Local food futures project | 249,940 |
| Ku-ring-gai Council and Partners | Enabling effective community education and engagement as a driver for sustainability in local government | 1,787,100 |
| Lake Macquarie City Council | Building sustainable communities in Lake Macquarie | 207,132 |
| Lismore City Council and Partners | Future proofing Northern Rivers urban communities | 1,999,080 |
| Lithgow City Council | Future of Lithgow: forward into a sustainable future | 250,000 |
| Manly Council and Partner | Burnt Bridge Creek integrated restoration program | 1,997,570 |
| Namoi ROC and Partners | Namoi sustainability in action - green is the new black | 1,998,000 |
| Orange City Council and Partners | Inspiring and integrating change in the Central West Catchment | 2,000,000 |
| Tweed Shire Council and Partners | Improving urban and peri-urban bushland sustainability in Tweed and Byron Shires | 1,710,278 |
| Willoughby Council and Partners | Sustainable business - North Shore an innovative regional sustainable business engagement and recognition scheme | 1,675,500 |
| 14 Projects | TOTAL | $20,401,580 |
The New England Strategic Alliance of Councils will confront the degradation of riparian and urban bushland and the fragmented network of responses by institutional and community players, and urban use of waste, water and energy. The facilitation of consistent community involvement in urban bushland regeneration in four council areas will result in substantial improvement and access to the natural environment. The development of an 'infrastructure of collaboration' across councils, Landcare, educational institutions, and non-government organisations will ensure more effective use of resources, the transfer of knowledge, and integrated monitoring and reporting. Engaging many stakeholders and the broader community will lead to a greater proportion of the community keen to pursue sustainable futures.
CENTROC
Partners: Bathurst Regional Council, Blayney Shire Council, Boorowa Council, Cabonne Shire Council, Cowra Shire Council, Forbes Shire Council, Harden Shire Council, Laclan Shire Council, City of Lithgow Council, Oberon Council, Orange City Council, Parkes Shire Council, Upper Lachlan Shire Council, Weddin Shire Council, Wellington Council, Young Shire Council
Climate change growing capacity in climate change adaptation in Central NSW
Grant: $778,168
Climate EXchange, building capacity in climate change adaptation in Centroc Councils, will target residents and businesses through five themes: 1. Developing regionally specific understanding and communication of climate change impacts and appropriate adaptation.
2. Building on existing successful risk management frameworks to work with StateWide/ LGSA to tackle climate change on governance and operational risk management.
3. Partnering with the Central West Regional Development Board (CWRDB) and the Central West Business Chamber (CWBC) to design and implement action packs and forums focusing on business.
4. Using libraries to allow local community to exchange eco-friendly product receipts for Council sponsored carbon mitigating tree plantings.
5. In the first instance, partnering with Lachlan CMA (LCMA) and local/regional business chambers to deliver two major and nine mini 'Carbon Expos' to urban residents of the Lachlan Catchment.
This collaborative partnership between four Sydney councils and Housing NSW will deliver environmental sustainability programs to low income, Aboriginal and CALD communities. The project will improve the integration of environmental programs across councils and Housing NSW by expanding partnerships and networks and developing case studies, assessment tools and transferable resources. Environmental sustainability outcomes to be achieved include waste avoidance, increased resource recovery and reduced litter and illegal dumping through education and improved facilities and service delivery; water conservation through the installation of rainwater tanks in new and existing community gardens; and improved urban bushland through expanded community participation in biodiversity conservation programs.
Coffs Harbour City Council
Partners: Bellingen Shire Council, Nambucca Shire Council
Our living coast regional sustainability initiative
Grant: $1,998,820
The ‘Our living coast’ project will build regional partnerships with key stakeholders to develop a planning framework that addresses both institutional and community change for sustainability. The Regional Sustainability Routemap will set directions for sustainability and identify key environmental issues as well as knowledge management and internal governance for sustainability. A cross-Council action learning project will embed sustainability in Council operations and governance systems. Community and business engagement projects will build values and community capacity around biodiversity conservation and sustainability, linking everyday actions to key sustainability issues. These projects will be delivered through an online Sustainability Hub. Two programs, Living Corridors and Living Connections, will actively involve the community and other stakeholders in targeted on-ground actions including increasing the resilience of priority urban ecosystems, access and amenity corridors and cultural and environmental interpretation.
The Local food futures project aims to build community resilience towards the threats of climate change and peak oil and the need to transition to a low carbon future. The project will engage key stakeholders across the Bellingen and Coffs Harbour LGA’s in the development and implementation of a strategic framework for a sustainable and equitable local food system for the area. This will ensure access for all to healthy, local, affordable food into the future. The project directly targets the environmental issues of climate change, waste reduction and water conservation and seeks learning and change for sustainability. It will address strengthening and diversification of the local economy through a relocalisation approach, improvement of community health and well-being, the building of social capital and learning and skills sharing around cultural diversity and food.
This project is a partnership between local governments (6 councils) and their communities, state government (DECC) and experts (consultants and researchers) to enable effective community education and engagement (CEE) for sustainability. It explores the processes and approaches to integrate CEE with core organisational sustainability planning and practice and positions CEE as an instrument for delivering sustainability outcomes. This will be achieved by shaping a vision to determine the future role of effective CEE in achieving sustainability in NSW local government, developing a medium to long term CEE strategy and plan through the implementation of a CEE project by each local government partner. The processes of visioning, strategic planning and implementation will be underpinned by collaborative mechanisms that foster organisational integration between (and across) partner institutions and community stakeholders to facilitate and influence sustained and systemic change.
This project aims to build the capacity of local citizens to take collaborative action for a sustainable local community. With the assistance of technical experts, local citizens will achieve this through the development and implementation of community sustainability plans at the sub-catchment level. Participatory sessions (eg workshops) with community groups (spread throughout the catchment) will form the key methodology to develop responses to local natural resource management and sustainability issues. With the skills developed through this participatory process, local community groups will be empowered to manage their own natural resources sustainably, and initiate natural resource management and sustainability planning with other like minded groups. The project will also develop a series of case studies that recognise and facilitate leading practice sustainability initiatives within the City as a showcase of sustainability in a number of sectors.
Local councils and partner organisations in the Northern Rivers (NR) region of NSW will undertake a project aimed to 'future-proof' NR urban communities against the impacts of climate change and peak oil by addressing the environmental impacts of food supply chains locally. The proposal aims to develop skills, resources and tools for developing the capacity of local government to support the development of urban agriculture; community education on links between sustainability and buying local; increasing links between organic waste recycling and nutrient harvesting for soil health; reducing organic waste to landfill; enhancing food literacy and healthy lifestyles; supporting a reduction of transportation and petrol costs associated with food supply; reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with the food distribution systems; increasing social connectedness and community resilience; and developing better connections between the region's growers and consumers.
The Forward program is a locally based capacity building initiative working to reduce individual contributions to systematic climate change, develop a coordinated approach to improve environmental sustainability and prove that the Lithgow region will be: A future leader in the establishment of new green industries; Offsetting Carbon Emissions- ours and others; Reducing emissions where possible; Rejuvenating our waterways, working together with residents, community groups, businesses and government in acknowledging our industrial heritage and assisting CO2 emitters; Recycling household food waste, regeneration of soil; and developing sustainable communities via an improved local environment.
Burnt Bridge Creek is a major tributary into Manly Lagoon, located at the interface between Manly and Warringah councils. The creek receives significant impacts from dry weather extraction, weed impacts, wet weather impacts from urban development, bank erosion, a loss of community focus and engagement, and a legacy of isolated management regimes by competing users and managers. The BBC restoration program is a Manly-Warringah partnership. Through an integrated water cycle management and community engagement focus, the program seeks to holistically restore and enhance the Creek, achieving 6 major environmental objectives, and providing a model for integrated and multidisciplinary decision making.
Namoi sustainability in action implements environmentally sustainable outcomes across the Namoi region’s urban communities. Working with priorities from the Namoi Catchment Sustainability Plan (NCSP) the project commences with capacity building of the 5 member councils as leaders in the region. Activities include training, eco-footprinting, implementation of initiatives with high environmental benefit, and integration of planning and policy frameworks to support sustainable outcomes. The project includes a range of activities across industry, businesses and householders, building community capacity to identify, understand and respond to sustainability issues. Innovative, practical and cost-effective actions to reduce energy and water usage, increase use of renewable energy and improve waste management will be implemented and promoted with priority environmental outcomes being reduction in greenhouse emissions, improved water management, restored riverine environments.
Inspiring and integrating change seeks to develop four innovative projects supported by a cultural change process embedding the principles of sustainability. Central is the establishment of a comprehensive greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory and the carbon accounting (measurement) of progress in all areas. The recently released draft Environmental Sustainability Action Plan (ESAP) addresses priority management areas. Alliance councils will each develop an onground sub-project 'hub' focused on one of these areas: a biodiversity corridor (Bathurst); an urban stormwater wetland (Orange); and a solar farm (Dubbo). On completion, project plans and community engagement initiatives will be packaged to share with other councils.
This project will achieve, through on-ground works and extension, the sustainable management of a number of state and regionally significant urban and peri-urban bushland (and wetland) areas on the NSW far north coast. On-ground works will focus on habitat protection and restoration, management of stormwater pollution and erosion, removal of rubbish, pest species management and interpretive works. Priority sites will be selected on the basis of a comprehensive audit of management issues and requirements. The audit will also be designed to facilitate the selection of sites beyond the scope of the project. A major focus of the project will be a community and institutional engagement campaign aimed at promoting sustainable management solutions by linking issues at the urban bushland interface with the full range of sustainability issues faced by modern urban communities.
Sustainable business – North Shore aims to significantly increase the participation of local small and medium businesses in working to improve their sustainability performance. The program will expand sustainable business activities, recognise and reward sustainable businesses as well as educate consumers about sustainable business activities. Integral components of the Sustainable business – North Shore program are a comprehensive consumer education campaign, linking the business improvement and ratings scheme with an existing business awards program, provision of specialised audits and implementation support. The program will accomplish this through the face-to-face engagement of business owners by trained business engagement officers.
Back to Top
Page last updated: 27 February 2011
