At the recent Sustainable Councils Conference in Sydney, delegates found out first hand from Planet Footprint’s Managing Director Andrew Wales which councils in each State are the best environmental performers and what they are doing that makes them the best.
Planet Footprint currently works with 200 councils nationwide. Here’s a snapshot of the characteristics that contribute towards the success of the best performing councils.
Decentralisation of responsibility for
energy and water performance
The best performing councils have multiple departments and staff all actively engaged in energy and water performance improvement, rather than just a single sustainability or asset manager.
Shared accountability
Ownership for each utility account is identified within council, which helps to create a culture of accountability for improved energy and water consumption and expenditure. Reductions in usage and expenditure is celebrated across departments.
Targets are set for both the organisation
as a whole and for key properties
Targets are set that are achievable and relatively short in timeframe, such as ‘reduce energy consumption at the administration building by two per cent from last year’s level, by the end of the current financial year’.
Transparency and communication
Councils that are at the top of their game are communicating about performance regularly to both internal personnel and the community.
Closure of the project loop
Rather than simply completing the project and moving on to the next issue, councils that are among the best use Planet Footprint to assess the environmental and financial outcomes of projects and feed these back into decision making processes.
Networking
Councils network with their peers and use Planet Footprint to identify what other councils are doing to make improvements.
A focus on outcomes
The best councils look beyond the data and focus on applying that data to identify opportunities that will achieve outcomes. They recognise that you don’t build capacity and improve performance by working with performance data – you build capacity and improve performance by acting on performance data.
As an independent Environmental Scorekeeper, Planet Footprint is able to help councils quickly build internal systems that incorporate the above attributes.
To find out more about the Planet Footprint Service, telephone 1300 721 113, or email info@planetfootprint.com
*Copy supplied by Planet Footprint
