To reinforce its leadership role in sustainable development and its commitment to the continued development of Melbourne as a sustainable and healthy urban environment, the City of Melbourne has drawn up a set of tenets entitled Melbourne Principles. The principles, a guide to long term thinking on the sustainable development of cities, were tabled at the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development in August 2002.
The City of Melbourne was the only Australian Local Government invited to speak at the summit, the most important global conference in the sustainable future of the planet since the first Earth Summit in Rio 10 years ago.Civic leaders at the summit endorsed the principles, which have been adopted worldwide.
The 10 principles, which exemplify Council’s dedication to long term sustainable practices, are as follows.
- Provide a long term vision for cities based on: sustainability; intergenerational, social, economic and political equity; and their individuality.
- Achieve long term economic and social security.
- Recognise the intrinsic value of biodiversity and natural ecosystems, and protect and restore them.
- Enable communities to minimise their ecological footprint.
- Build on the characteristics of ecosystems in the development and nurturing of healthy and sustainable cities.
- Recognise and build on the distinctive characteristics of cities, including their human and cultural values, history and natural systems.
- Empower people and foster participation.
- Expand and enable cooperative networks to work towards a common, sustainable future.
- Promote sustainable production and consumption, through appropriate use of environmentally sound technologies and effective demand management.
- Enable continual improvement, based on accountability, transparency and good governance.
