Sustainablexpo

Monday, 17 September 2007

Riverside Theatres

Ladies and gentleman, friends of Parramatta – and of the planet!

I’d like to first acknowledge the Darug clan of the Barramattagul people as the traditional custodians of this land … and recognise their long – and sustainable – culture living so many centuries by this Parramatta River.

On behalf of Parramatta Council, welcome to sustainablexpo, to this highlight event of Small Business September. I’ve only been Lord Mayor for a few days but I was keen to grab the opportunity to speak to you.

Because it is not just a privilege to be here ... it’s an urgency.

Australia has per capita the highest greenhouse gas emissions in the world.

While our population has grown in the last ten years by 7.3%, our production of waste per person has grown by another third, by 32%.

And while Australians recycle about 40% of their waste, countries like Germany and Norway recycle about 70% of their waste.

And as we’ll discover at this expo, it can be so easy – and so profitable – to save on energy consumption. It really does just start with turning out more lights. Commercial offices employ 70 % of their energy costs in keeping those lights on.  

And if we continue to leave all the lights on, what will happen?

The CSIRO has predicted that this sunburnt country of ours will be even hotter and even drier not in centuries to come, but in decades. By 2070 average temperatures are likely to increase by up to six degrees, from what they were in 1990. That’s in just the life span of one new generation …they’ll be six degrees hotter! Think of all those old age homes with all those added air-conditioners whirring away in the heat of 2070.

And we’ll have more floods too. Indeed, climate variability is already a major factor in the Australian economy.

So what do we do about it? We certainly don’t wait for John Howard to sign the Kyoto Agreement. One day the all important international agreement on tackling climate change will be achieved.  One day international pressure will curb the heavy polluters, whether in advanced industrial countries like the US or developing economies like China. But we can’t wait for that either.

I think climate change offers us the very best time to give real meaning to that old slogan:  think globally, act locally.

The world will catch up. Individuals meanwhile must consider their own footprint and make their own changes …. Individuals and progressive businesses.

Parramatta City Council and I are committed to making a meaningful response to climate change one of our key ambitions. Bold decisions need to made and acted upon now.

To that end Council is taking these initiatives:

• ENACT, our Environmental Action Plan, was adapted this year:
• To lead the way to a better environment
• To reduce the use and waste of energy resources
• To reduce pollution
• To learn and teach others about caring for the environment ….

This SustainablExpo is an example, an opportunity for business to come face to face with these best practices and ideas.  

• Our 5 year Climate Action Plan specifies climate action targets and defines 29 specific community actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Parramatta. 0ur goal first is to reduce emissions by 2025 to the level of seven years ago.

By 2050 we plan to reduce emisions by 60% less than they are today.

• And Council is also taking other measures to improve sustainable transport, like …

1. Delivering in my term as Lord Mayor a free Shuttle Bus that will promote public transport use to people around the CBD.
2. Developing our cycleways into an extensive network of on and off road and riverside bikeways – the bike will one day be an icon of this cycleway city
3. And developing a travel access guide to promote the integrated use of public transport

Parramatta Council, together with our partners, has also developed a range of sustainability programs which cater for small businesses, manufacturers and corporations. They need to be equipped with the knowledge and the tools to effectively manage and use resources such as waste, energy, water, time and people. It is Council’s role to help. Let me quickly fill you in how we are doing this ….

The 3CBD’s Initiative for commercial office tennants is a partnership with the City of Sydney and North Sydney Councils and a growing number of commercial properties in all 3 CBD’s. It’s based on the powerful truth that if commercial offices in all these CBDs improved their Australian Building Greenhouse Rating by just one star, the result would be an annual energy cost saving of $21 million.

And that’s over 189,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions not going into the air every year: the same they tell me of turning out all lights in 161 office buildings.

Secondly, Council now is more than halfway through its program this year offering some 20 small businesses in Parramatta targeted input on how to achieve sustainable business management.  Working with the Department of State & Regional Development and the Greater Western Sydney Economic Development Board, we are helping small businesses achieve a 20% reduction in their water consumption ….a 10% reduction in their waste … and a similar reduction in their energy use.

We are helping you … make money, cut your costs and shrink your footprint on the world.

Thirdly, for larger businesses, employing more than 50, we’re recruiting now for those of you interested in another program. This is to help you make sustainability not a passing fad, or solely a cost cutting measure, but a core value of your complete business practice.

The spaces are filling so put your hand up soon for that program – we’ll announce the 20 or so businesses selected for this, later this month.  They will be the proud Sustainability Champions of our city!

And Parramatta City Council will be there too … setting the example, exploring every green alternative, raising the bar on what we can all achieve and providing the political leadership. As Lord Mayor I guarantee that.

Already Council has implemented small but significant measures:

• We’re in the Greenfleet Program, pledging income and the planting of trees for every one of the 130 vehicles in the Council’s fleet. When grown these trees are calculated to absorb all the CO2 these vehicles produce.
• Our urinals are now waterless in most Council buildings, saving up to 150,000 litres a year.
• All major Council buildings have energy efficient lighting.
• A 9 tonne garbage truck converted from diesel to natural gas is a pilot before we connect all of them.
• The Jubilee child care centre is a similar pilot project, now retrofitted with all sustainable practices and assets as we study the impact – and the savings.
• And we’ve adapted a water resource plan as a guide for our future waste services and management.

Tomorrow we’ll learn more about these initiatives and other bright ideas employed by other businesses.

I’d like to express my gratitude to the Department of State and Regional  Development , the Department of Environment and Climate Change and the University of Western Sydney for joining us on this journey … and contributing their support and their intellectual capital.

As we all say, if you want to know why this is important… try to stop breathing.

Reducing the impact of climate change is one of the most important and urgent issues facing us today. It needs everyone – government, business and community – to do their bit so that our children’s children can breathe easy.

And as Australian business is discovering …. being green is also very profitable.

This presumably is why KPMG NSW is planning to be carbon neutral by next year.

It’s why Sun Microsystems is planning to reduce their emission by 20% by 2012. And it’s why Freightcorp, Google Australia, Visy, Fosters, Campbell Arnotts and Westpac are a few of those companies also doing the same.

Thankyou for wanting to know more and being a part of Sustainablexpo.

I wish you a sustainably stimulatingly evening and good day tomorrow.