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ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE REPORT Agenda Item 5.5
4 December 2007 EARTH HOUR 2008
Division Sustainability and Regulatory Services
Presenter David Mayes, Manager Strategic Planning and Sustainability
Purpose
1. To report to the Environment Committee on the upcoming involvement of City of Melbourne in the global initiative called Earth Hour 2008.
Recommendation from Management
2. That the Environment Committee endorse City of Melbourne’s participation in Earth Hour 2008.
Key Issues
3. Earth Hour is an environmental initiative designed to show that individual actions matter. It is the simple act of switching off the lights for a dedicated hour with a follow-up voluntary commitment to reduce greenhouse emissions by 5 percent in the next year.
4. Earth Hour is an initiative of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in partnership with Fairfax and Leo Burnett Y&R and is being run locally and internationally by their project team.
5. More than two million people took part in Sydney's Earth Hour 2007 and companies and households involved turned off their lights for 60 minutes and set a target to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent in the following 12 months. During earth hour energy consumption fell by more than 10 percent cutting carbon emissions by 24.8 tonnes, according to Energy Australia.
6. Earth Hour 2007 generated an enormous amount of global awareness, and now the City of Melbourne, along with up to twenty cities around the world, have agreed to participate in the upcoming 2008 event to be held at 7.30pm Saturday 29 March. The cities include Chicago, Toronto, Tel Aviv, Copenhagen, San Juan and Bali - along with the City of Sydney (for the second year) and the City of Brisbane whose Mayor announced their support this week.
7. On 22 August 2007, the Lord Mayor accepted an invitation from the Lord Mayor of Sydney to join Earth Hour 2008. On 15 November 2007, the Earth Hour project team brief Council Officers about the project. On 22 November 2007, the Lord Mayor was briefed by the CEO of WWF Greg Bourne and the Deputy Editor of The Age about Earth Hour 2008 program.
8. Earth Hour will be launched around the world on Friday, 14 December 2007 at 10.30am and in Melbourne by the Acting Lord Mayor and well known ambassadors from sport, hospitality, fashion and schools.
9. Principal media sponsors (Fairfax, Austereo) and other media outlets will run a series of stories after press conference. Page 2 of 5
10. As a partner in Earth Hour, the City of Melbourne will contribute by turning off all non-essential lighting at Council buildings and selected public sites across the city, and by encouraging participation by the wider business and residential community. The City of Melbourne will also leverage the interest and publicity generated by the event to further awareness and engagement with our key sustainability initiatives:
10.1. future Melbourne;
10.2. savings in the City Green Hotels;
10.3. sustainable Living in the City – high rise residential program;
10.4. commercial office building programs; and
10.5. sustainability Street community engagement.
11. WWF sees the benefit of the Earth Hour initiative as:
11.1. Commercial Sector: If Australia’s commercial sector turned off lights when buildings were not in use and combined this action with other cost effective technology they could reduce lighting emissions by 70 percent, where this would save two-four million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Earth Hour aims to show these companies how easy and cost efficient these changes can be through case studies of companies that have already achieved massive reductions in their emissions; and
11.2. Households: Individuals can develop understanding that electricity consumption is a direct contributor to global warming and that small actions by every individual can make a big difference. When households sign up to take part in Earth Hour they will receive a pack with all the information and tools they need to cut their emissions (and their energy bill). If all Australian households simply turned off unused lighting and appliances on standby at the power point it would reduce Australia’s emissions by at least five million tonnes per annum.
Relation to Council Policy
12. This report relates to City Plan 2010, Zero Net Emissions by 2020 and Council’s commitment to the C40 Large Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40).
Government Relations
13. To date the Cities of Sydney and Brisbane have committed to Earth Hour and it is likely the other capital city Councils will follow suit. The City of Melbourne’s work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions supports international and national commitments and objectives including developing a national carbon pricing scheme.
Finance
14. The WWF/Fairfax/Leo Burnett Earth Hour Project Team is securing the events facilities and promotions for the launch and switch off. As Earth Hour is a broad based collaborative community effort there will be wide scope for sponsorship and volunteer input.
15. The lead times for this initiative have been short and the financial implications arising from this report are currently being assessed. Very preliminary estimates of the cost of turning the lights off in City of Melbourne buildings and possible penalty costs associated with any cancellations of uses of the building over the hour are $5,000 - $10,000. This initiative is not funded within the current budget.
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Legal
16. The subject matter of the report is within the objectives of the Council.
Sustainability
17. Reducing greenhouse emissions is an important objective of Council as set out in the Council Plan and the Zero Net Emissions by 2020 policy.
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FINANCE ATTACHMENT
EARTH HOUR 2008
The Earth Hour initiative has no direct funding identified in the 2007/08 budget. Due to the lack of information the full financial implications to the CoM are unable to be assessed.
Joe Groher Manager Financial Services
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LEGAL ATTACHMENT
EARTH HOUR 2008
Section 3C(1) of the Local Government Act 1989 (“the Act”) provides that the primary objective of a Council:
“is to endeavour to achieve the best outcomes for the local community having regard to the long term and cumulative effects of decisions.”
Section 3C(2) of the Act goes on to state that in seeking to achieve its primary objective, a Council must have regard to facilitating objectives, including —
“(a) to promote the social, economic and environmental viability and sustainability of the municipal district;”
The recommendation of this report is made in accordance with the Council's objectives as set out in the Act.
Kim Wood Manager Legal Services