Reducing Energy and Emissions

In line with its Corporate Carbon Plan Council has taken an active approach to energy efficiency and emissions reduction including:

• partnering with 12 other regional councils to procure a renewable energy Power Purchase Agreement securing 100% renewable electricity for Council's large sites and streetlighting at highly competitive rates to the end of 2030
• Switching all of Council's small sites to the NSW government Shell Energy contract which ensures all small sites are powered by 100% renewable electricity and is predicted to save Council approximately $54,000 in the first year of the contract and $36,000 in the next year
• upgrading all of Council's streetlighting to LEDs which saves approximately $30,000 in electricity costs and 144 tonnes of CO2-e per year.
• undertaking energy efficient lighting upgrades at 16 different Council facilities
• installing over 300 kW of solar panels over 16 different Council facilities
• upgrading old air-conditioning systems to more efficient models
• installing solar hot water systems at Council's swim centres
• replacing one of Council's diesel ride-on mowers with an electric mower which is estimated to save approximately 15 tonnes of CO2-e per year, and
• replacing two of Council's vehicles with electric vehicles.

In 2023/24 Council achieved an emissions reduction of 43% from the 2009/10 baseline. This is just 2% off our target of a 45% reduction by 2030. With all of Council's sites now purchasing 100% renewable electricity from 1 January 2025 Council is predicted to smash through this target in the 2024/25 financial year.

Council continues to identify new opportunities to reduce emissions, with many opportunities outlined in Council's Corporate Carbon Plan 2025-2030(PDF, 10MB).