by Dick Osborn
A question often asked during the first century of nationhood was ‘What roles do Local Governments play in environmental and natural resource management?’ The 1944-46 Rural Reconstruction Commission gave that question a good shake. It noted the incidence of water erosion on farmlands is affected by how Councils manage road reserves. The century ended with a thorough analysis by CSIRO’s Division of Wildlife and Ecology on the roles of Local Government in managing remnant vegetation.
Many other answers to the question were documented during the second half of the 20th Century. No answers of any authority measured the funding of these roles, or how spending was distributed across environmental functions.
The beginning of the 21st Century included release by the ABS of its first substantive national estimates on how Australia’s Councils raise revenues and commit resources to environment protection. The ABS publication Environment Expenditure Local Government Australia 1998-99 presented results made possible by Councils collaborating in pilot studies and an experimental survey between 1995 and 1999.
The National Office of Local Government funded the R & D component of those studies. Quantitative measures, now possible, include being able to compare the environmental spending of some key players. The 1998-99 estimates were based on data collected by the ABS under statutory powers from a sample of some 335 Councils.
Do Councils providing data to collectors gain any direct benefit from this form of mandatory environmental reporting?
The National Office of Local Government commissioned Green Measures – a consultancy in environmental accounting policies, programs and practices – to get some insights.
Fifty-one of the 185 councils participating in the 1997-98 experimental Environment Protection and Natural Resource Survey by the ABS are sharing their experiences. Four out of ten providers in the sample do not gain any direct benefit from compiling estimates of their environmental revenues and expenditures. The majority do.
They inform other stakeholders on how they raise and spend money to protect the environment. They relate their environmental dollars to facets of performance measurement, and to their Council’s priorities in environmental policy.
Two thirds of respondents want to learn more about environmental accounting, especially through information exchange and resource materials delivered to their computer monitors. One third of the 51 Councils have volunteered to document their experiences as case studies for posting to the Web.
The second century of nationhood has begun with new perspectives on Local Government roles in environmental management in Australia.
Many Councils involved in this ABS survey are becoming global innovators in the measurement of corporate environmental performance. But will these measures lead to a seat for Local Government on the Australian and New Zealand Environment Conservation Council (ANZECC), or a review of the 1992 Inter Government Agreement on the Environment?
The report for the National Office of Local Government on How Mandatory Environmental Reporting Supports Internal Decision-Making in Australian Local Government will be posted to www.greenmeasures.com.au later this month.
* Dick Osborn is Principal of Green Measures
