News

Australia’s 1st Carbon Neutral Government

12 August 2008

City of Sydney CEO Monica Barone today announced that the City of Sydney has become Australia’s first carbon neutral government - helping to deliver on its promise of making Sydney a more sustainable city.

The City of Sydney is proud to lead the way by becoming the first government in Australia to be carbon neutral, said City of Sydney CEO Monica Barone.

Climate change is the biggest threat we face as a city, a nation and a planet-and we cannot ignore it. The City of Sydney has committed to doing all it can to tackle this threat. By eliminating unnecessary energy use, improving our efficiency, using accredited renewable energy and offsetting unavoidable carbon emissions, the City of Sydney has achieved what many organisations have only talked about - we are now carbon neutral. This means that activities undertaken by the City, from collecting garbage, to running libraries to lighting streets, will have no net carbon emissions, said Ms Barone. Independent assessors have been working since January 2008 to measure the City’s carbon emissions. These detailed measurements include three different categories, or scopes:

• Direct emissions (Scope 1): 4362.54 tonnes (9 per cent) including all emissions coming directly from the City’s operations such as fuel for the City’s fleet of cars and trucks and City of Sydney events.
• Indirect emissions: Electricity emissions (Scope 2): 35001.72 tonnes (72 per cent) including all emissions coming from energy which the City uses such as street lighting and City owned properties.
• Other emissions (Scope 3): 9191.82 tonnes (19 per cent) including emissions which are indirectly caused by the City’s operations, such as contractors and business travel such as taxis or flights.

The City’s total emissions for 2006/07 were calculated at 48,556.07 tonnes.

These figures include electricity usage in all City of Sydney properties, street lighting, fuel for the City’s vehicles, contractors’ fuel, taxi trips and flights taken by staff, waste generated at the City’s offices, right down to the gases used in air-conditioning and refrigerating units.

City of Sydney has made the switch to 100 per cent accredited GreenPower, meaning that its energy use no longer contributes to overall carbon emissions. Energy providers were required to go through a stringent tender review process which included analysis of the type, cost and quantity of renewable energy which could be supplied.

To ensure that this process was as rigorous as possible, the City of Sydney invited a panel of independent third party organisations, including WWF-Australia, to be part of the tender evaluation panel.

WWF-Australia CEO Greg Bourne said in becoming Australia’s first carbon neutral government, City of Sydney has once again demonstrated that it is a true leader in sustainability.The leadership the city displayed in Earth Hour led to over 370 local and international cities, councils and towns taking part in 2008, which was a tremendous result. We encourage other government bodies around Australia to show the same co-operative spirit and commitment to going carbon neutral and reducing their emissions.

The City of Sydney has worked with its consultants to developed a guideline, used in this tender process, which other organisations will be able use if they too decide to make the switch to accredited GreenPower, said Ms Barone.

For any carbon emissions which could not be eliminated through improvements to energy efficiency and the use of accredited GreenPower, the City of Sydney purchased carbon offsets.

For 2006/07 the City of Sydney purchased carbon offsets equivalent to 5,983 tonnes of carbon emissions.

We are committed to making Sydney a more sustainable city and by becoming carbon neutral we’re not only reducing Sydney’s overall emissions, we’re showing business and other governments that being carbon neutral is an achievable, short term goal.

The City of Sydney is also currently developing a 5-year carbon strategy to ensure that the City remains carbon neutral in a cost effective and environmentally beneficial manner in accordance with recognised carbon principles. This will include:

• consistently measuring the exact amount of energy used
• avoiding energy use when possible
• improving efficiency when energy needs to be used
• using 100 per cent renewable energy
• offsetting as a last resort for any impacts which cannot be avoided

To find out more about City of Sydney’s plans to tackle carbon emissions, visit our website www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/carbon

Media Inquiries contact Jonathon Larkin 9265 9553 or 0409 045 425