Hornsby is a green and beautiful Shire located approximately 25 kilometres north east of Sydney. It has vast areas of outstanding bushland, accounting for almost 70 per cent of the Shire. Maintaining and enhancing the Shire’s many waterways and natural heritage sites is seen as vital to local and regional amenity.
Developing partnerships with the many and varied local businesses is a critical step in the process to achieve this vision. Council has a vast array of programs, policies and plans that progress sustainability principles.
Hornsby Shire Council has received numerous awards in recognition of these efforts, including the following.
- Local Government and Shire’s Environment in Excellence Awards 2000
- Local Sustainability and Stormwater Management categories
- Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment Management Trust 2000 award for Council’s Environmental Management Program, Achieving Sustainable Businesses.
Hornsby Shire Council has adopted Local Agenda 21 (LA21), a locally based sustainability action plan, initiated at the Rio Earth Summit eight years ago.
Hornsby’s LA21 Committee currently includes local community representatives, Council staff and Councillors, all dedicated to sustainability. It has been working on a range of projects for five years and aims to move towards a ‘Sustainable Bushland Shire’.
The Committee has become Council’s sustainability conscience, advising Council on how best to embrace sustainability and helping staff to develop action plans. Working with businesses through the Achieving Sustainable Businesses Program is a key component of LA21. It essentially aims to promote sustainable business operations throughout the Shire.
This is achieved through rating the environmental performance of businesses; educating operators about environmental legislative responsibilities and ensuring legislative compliance; and identifying methods to improve a business’s environmental performance and reduce its environmental impacts.
To date over 500 industrial and commercial businesses have been reviewed. Over 90 per cent of businesses had a positive response to the Program and over 50 per cent felt it benefited both the environment and their business.
Many businesses also had experienced direct environmental and economic benefits as a result of the Program. These included avoiding financial loss through environmental clean ups and identification of potential cost savings from energyefficiency, water conservation and waste reduction.
Widening both the audit work to broad sustainability objectives and linking the work with businesses to Council’s other LA21 activities will be an important next step.
Hornsby also has three sub committees strategically focused on biodiversity, greenhouse and community sustainability indicators. The influence of the Local Agenda 21 Committee has culminated this year in Council moving to a more outcome focused Management Plan and adopting six of the Communities’ Sustainability Indicators as Key Performance Indicators.
“In the future, Council aims to be an advocate for the community, to convey the wider community’s vision for a sustainable future for the Shire and to help find ways to foster this future, both internally and in partnership with the community,” said Stella Whittaker, Executive Manager Environment Division. “The ultimate aim is to spread the message further, and further that we need to ‘think globally and continue to act locally.”
For further information, contact Stella Whittaker, telephone (02) 9847 6666.
