Council to reduce carbon footprint

LISMORE City Council is expecting to reduce its carbon footprint in the Central Business District by 54 tonnes of CO2 emissions over the next 12 months.

LISMORE City Council is expecting to reduce its carbon footprint in the Central Business District by 54 tonnes of CO2 emissions over the next 12 months as a result of the CBD Greenovation Project.

The project, supported by the Office of Environment and Heritage, has resulted in five of Council’s CBD buildings undergoing eco-efficiency retrofits including the Lismore City Library, the Adult Community Education Centre, the Neighbourhood Centre, the Regional Art Gallery and Council's CBD Office.

Environment Officer for Climate Change and Sustainability at Lismore City Council, Michelle Olivier, said the renovations would result in a reduction of emissions equal to taking 69 cars of the road or planting 2833 trees.

"The eco-efficiency measures include lighting retrofits, rainwater tanks and meters, photovoltaic panels and a solar hot water system. Council anticipates we will save $14,709 per annum on our bills as a result of the renovations. We also expect to generate $17,000 in income from the photovoltaic panels and we have already saved almost 200,000 litres of water in the past nine months," Ms Olivier said.

"What we have learnt through this project is that it has been achievable and affordable to implement these changes, and so the next step for Council is to take this knowledge and share it with the broader community.

"In order to do that we have built a life-size relocatable educational display that contains information and tips about carrying out eco-efficient renovations. We have installed it in our CBD Office ready for the Mayor, Jenny Dowell, to officially present it to the community on Tuesday, July 26 at 10am and we are encouraging anyone in the community who is interested to come along.

"I would also like to extend an invitation to any local organisations or businesses, who are providers of sustainability products and services, to drop some of their brochures or informational material to the CBD office, and we will happily include them in the display."

The CBD Greenovation Project was funded by the Office of Environment and Heritage as part of the NSW Climate Change Funds, Public Facilities Program in January 2010 to the value of $170,000. Council provided an additional $65,000 in funding.

The project’s relocatable educational display is available for use by community groups across the Local Government Area. For more information call the Customer Contact Centre on 1300 87 83 87

Originally published as Council to reduce carbon footprint