Environment and Sustainability

We are committed to improving environmental sustainability outcomes, both across Council’s own business and the wider District.

We live in a beautiful natural environment, but our environment is facing some major challenges and needs to be valued. We recognise that there has been insufficient emphasis on protecting and enhancing environmental sustainability in our previous work and existing plans. Through our Environment and Sustainability Strategy, we are shifting the focus from trying to fit the environment around us, to working to actively improve and fit within our environment.

Our community have indicated that environmental sustainability should be a top priority for Council.

Many of the choices all of us make on an everyday basis contribute to our environmental sustainability, and our resilience as a community.

So, it makes sense for us to think about environmental sustainability in our day-to-day activities, when we plan our projects or when we are looking for ways to serve our ratepayers more efficiently and effectively.

Smart, targeted investment in low-emissions practices, technologies and infrastructure will create jobs and will ensure our communities are better off, both now and into the future. Increasing the sustainability of our projects and investment decisions will also reduce our future exposure to the physical, social and cultural impacts of climate change and increasing environmental degradation.