The Council is closing in on its ambitious aim of becoming carbon neutral with emissions from its operations slashed by more than 50 per cent since June 2017.

While the Council’s services have grown to keep pace with a rising population a range of clever and creative initiatives has seen carbon emissions effectively cut in half over the past five years.

Provisional figures indicate that carbon emissions dropped by 30 per cent alone in the 2021-22 financial year driven by the switch to renewable energy for the City’s electricity requirements.

Greater Geelong Mayor Peter Murrihy said creating a culture of sustainability practice over the past few years was delivering a range of environmental and economic benefits.   

We have introduced several major long-term initiatives that are helping to create a more sustainable community and are driving down our carbon footprint. These include sourcing renewable energy for all of our electricity needs building efficiency improvements the capture of use of methane from landfill switching our streetlights to LED and transitioning to a low-emission light fleet.

In light of the continued decrease in emissions the Council has applied to be removed from the National Greenhouse and Energy Register.

Emissions will continue to be reported via the Global Reporting Initiative and our annual Sustainability Performance Report Cr Murrihy said.

We’ve taken great strides towards making our operations carbon neutral by 2025 but there is still more work to be done.

Councillor Belinda Moloney Chair of the Climate Change Action portfolio said the take-up of renewable energy was a key plank in creating a net-zero community by 2035.

Through the Victorian energy deal we are reducing our emissions lowering our power bills and making our facilities more sustainable. Council is committed to creating a more sustainable community and leading the way to a future where the Geelong region has net zero carbon emissions.

Council’s sustainability initiatives that are driving down carbon emissions include:

Using renewable energy

We signed a landmark deal last year – known as the Victorian Energy Collaboration (VECO) - to source all of our electricity requirements from renewable wind energy until 2030.

By partnering with 45 other Victorian councils on VECO we are generating savings of more $1.5 million per year and significantly reducing our annual carbon emissions. 

The arrangement follows investment in more than 20 rooftop solar systems on facilities such as leisure centres libraries community hubs child care centres and City Hall. 

Transitioning from natural gas to electricity

While the existing aquatic facilities in Waterworld are run on gas the new Northern Aquatic and Community Hub will be powered by wind-powered electricity.

This will deliver an estimated $150 000 per year in operational savings and cut annual emissions by about 1700 tonnes.

Stage one of the North Bellarine Aquatic and Leisure Centre will also be all-electric to allow for it to tap into renewable energy.

Transitioning to electric vehicles

We have six electric vans two electric commercial ride-on mowers and two EV passenger vehicles in our fleet as we move towards achieving net zero emission for light fleet vehicles by 2027.

Using methane from landfill

We are using all the landfill gas captured from our Drysdale Landfill to generate on-site electricity. The annual amount of electricity generated is enough to power about 1500 homes.

Reducing waste

We have partnered with Barwon Water and five other councils to convert food garden and commercial organic waste into renewable energy and agricultural products.

Known as the Regional Renewable Organics Network the project is proposed to be established at the Black Rock Water Reclamation Plant in Connewarre.

We are also trialling the use of recycled building materials tyres and plastics in road construction projects.

For works on Maple Place Waurn Ponds 366 tonnes of fine crushed rock was reused and 150 000 plastic bags were diverted from landfill. The highly efficient construction process cut carbon emissions by 30 per cent.