Cities for Climate Protection™

Cities for Climate Protection™ (CCP) is an international movement aimed at empowering local councils to take action on Global Warming. It embodies the "think globally, act locally" credo and in effect it is a blueprint for council to undertake actions to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The program understands, however, that each council is different and that the solutions we formulate will be unique to Bayside.

Bayside joined CCP™ in August 2001. On joining the CCP™ program Bayside council committed to achieving five milestones through passing a council resolution.

Milestone 1: Conduct an emissions inventory and estimate emissions growth
Milestone 2: Establish an Emissions reduction goal.
Milestone 3: Develop a Local Action Plan.
Milestone 4: Implement the Local Action Plan.
Milestone 5: Monitor and report on implementation of the Local Action Plan

Bayside has undertaken milestones one to five of the CCP™ program, and has moved onto the CCP Plus Program. This part of the program allows Council to focus on things such as encouraging greenhouse friendly local economic development and developing strategies to adapt to climate change. Actions taken through the program include:

The purchasing of Green Power for buildings and streetlights
The development of a building register auditing program
The purchasing of more fuel-efficient vehicles;
The introduction of worm farming at council’s corporate centre;
New LCD energy star rating computer screens and other energy efficient office equipment.

Measurement of energy consumption allows us to look at where we can save energy and money. This will allow us to focus investment on areas where the biggest efficiencies can be made.

Check out our eco-efficiency tips page for information on what you can do save money and help combat climate change.

In Australia CCP™ is delivered jointly by the International Council for Local Government Initiatives and the Australian Greenhouse Office.

Bayside's Greenhouse Emission Profile

Our research into Bayside's energy use (1998) reveals:

Total energy consumption for the municipality was 764 183 (GJ), resulting in thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gas. This is enough energy to power the MCG lights continuously for 13.5 years!
That the average household in Bayside uses 66.9 GJ per year, equivalent to 11 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide.
We drove a total of 790 million kilometres, more than enough to travel to the Sun and back twice!
A tonne of CO2 is added each year by every passenger vehicle on the road.

In 1998 Council operations emitted an estimated 9,719 tonnes of CO₂-e through its building, fleet vehicle, public lighting, sewage/water and waste sub-sectors. In the 2004 re-inventory this had decreased to 6,855 tonnes, a reduction of 29%. This trend of reduced CO₂-e emissions is common across all sub-sectors of Council operations.

15-Feb-2008