When I don’t have my mayor hat on, I’m immersed in my consultancy business.
I advise boards and executive on strategy, policy and communications, and the issue of sustainability is one that frequently comes up.
The importance of embedding financial, environmental and social sustainability equally into all parts of an organisation is vital for success.
The City is working to do just this since council adopted the Sustainability Framework and an action plan last year, and a series of key performance targets are in place to measure progress.
One target is to divert 100 per cent of rubbish, recyclables and garden clippings from kerbside bins away from landfill by 2030.
Food makes up more than a third of what’s in our red bins and we really need to do something with it to reach this target.
Nearly 1,500 Lara households will soon participate in a waste collection trial, where food scraps will go into an orange bin and off to our Anakie green waste facility, to be turned into compost for parks and farms.
If it’s a success, this service will be provided to the whole municipality.
At the moment, the City doesn’t have capacity to process such a large amount of food waste, which is where a new regional network comes in.
The City’s partnered with Barwon Water and five other councils to turn 40,000 tonnes of food, garden and natural-based commercial waste each year into renewable energy and 8000 tonnes of compost.
Investigations are underway into running the network just next door at Barwon Water’s Connewarre plant, giving local employment a leg up.
These exciting developments are a perfect example of how environmental sustainability goes hand in hand with the financial, in the journey towards a healthy and thriving future.
PS…our worm farm, compost bin and five chickens look after most of our food waste and we save money on eggs!
