Council has adopted a Sustainability Framework and recognised climate change as a global emergency.
The Sustainability Framework considers environmental, social and economic sustainability. It aims to integrate sustainability principles across all of the City's operations, leading to a potential reduction in carbon emissions and an increase in community resilience to the impacts of climate change.
The framework will be implemented through an action plan which details a set of priority and other actions, including:
- recognising climate change as a global emergency
- developing and endorsing a Sustainability Policy
- adopting a globally recognised reporting framework and
- accelerating a number of strategies, such as a Zero Carbon Emissions Strategy and Climate Change Adaptation Strategy.
As part of the framework, the City commits to enable, lead and promote innovation, deliver and enable 'best' and 'next' practice and activate community opportunity.
The community will get the opportunity to have its say on the action plan, when it goes out for public consultation on 29 February 2020.
Stakeholder workshops, risk, policy and literature reviews and existing global frameworks helped to inform the framework.
The Sustainability Framework was developed in response to a resolution passed by council in September 2019.
Councillor Stephanie Asher - Mayor
The adoption of the Sustainability Framework is an informed, responsible and strategic step forward towards addressing the impacts of climate change on the Greater Geelong community.
It defines what we mean by sustainability, sets measurable objectives and implements a clear plan of action for every decision made by the City.
This is a chance for the City to demonstrate leadership through sustainability best practice and work with the community to becoming a sustainable city-region.
