Carbon Reduction and Energy Transformation

The City of Canning is working towards a low carbon future through a program of major renewable energy projects, energy and fuel efficiency measures, and staff and community engagement initiatives. It is our goal to reduce our corporate carbon footprint and support the development of innovative projects that help our community to do the same.

Greensense View

The City has committed to measuring and monitoring its energy, water and fuel consumption.

To view how the City is tracking consumption, please visit our Greensense Dashboard (coming soon).

Renewable Energy

Solar Panels

Ten City-owned buildings and facilities generate solar electricity through the installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. The PV systems have a collective capacity of 364 kW, and generated over 590MWh of electricity in 2018. This equates to approximately 1,500 tonnes of carbon emissions avoided for 2017.

Solar Bench

Earlier in the year the City partnered with Synergy and CleanAir Energy to install a Steora smart solar-powered bench at Kent Street Weir.

The solar bench, gifted to the City by Synergy, can collect and store up to 100Watts of electricity every hour and features wireless device chargers and smart USB connectors allowing residents and visitors to charge mobile devices and access the WiFi hotspot for free.

The benches are made of high quality materials and are resistant to vandalism, with ventilation fans to ensure the seat does not heat up during the day, and LED’s to light up the bench at night.

Geothermal Energy

Geothermal bores are installed at both the Cannington and the Riverton Leisureplex, to warm the pool water and the air in the pool areas. Heated water is extracted from an aquifer 1km below the ground, and pumped into a plant room.  A heat exchange system then uses the heat to warm the pool water and the pool area’s air. The pool water and the bore water do not mix, and there is hardly any water lost from the aquifer.  When the heated water from the aquifer has passed through the heat exchange system, it is returned underground to recharge the aquifer.

The geothermal systems have been designed to deliver:

• significant cost savings

• reduced consumption of gas

• associated reduction in carbon emissions.

Energy Efficiency Improvements

Opportunities to improve energy efficiency of City facilities and assets are assessed on an ongoing basis. Energy efficiency improvements have included:

• LED lighting conversions within numerous facilities

• LED conversions of the majority of carpark lighting for City owned car parks

• operational changes at the Civic and Administration Centre (reduced operation of the air-conditioning system, reduction from double to single globe light fittings, power correction at Cannington Leisureplex to improve energy efficiency)
• ​energy audits of high energy consuming sites
• currently assessing smart metering options to more closely assess energy consumption at high energy consuming sites.

Fuel Efficiency

In order to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, the City of Canning is implementing fuel efficiency initiatives such as:

• investigating the purchase of electric garbage trucks

• utilisation of two Electric Vehicles within the corporate fleet

• continuously looking at opportunities to downsize its light fleet

• implementation of electric small plant items over 2-stroke machines.

For further information please visit our Sustainable Transport page.

Cities Power Partnership

In 2017 the City of Canning joined the Cities Power Partnership which seeks to celebrate and accelerate the emission reduction and clean energy successes of Australian towns and cities.

City of Canning is one of the founding members of the Cities Power Partnership, a coalition of local governments across Australia tackling climate change. Participating Councils make five pledges to limit their local climate impact, from reducing transport emissions through to getting behind renewable energy.

To view the City’s pledges on the Cities Power Partnership, please visit here.

WALGA Climate Change Declaration

At the Ordinary Council Meeting held on 17 March 2015, the Council endorsed the signing of the Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) Climate Change Declaration to acknowledge the existence of climate change, commit to act, set an emissions reduction target and develop an action plan that focuses on a two, five and ten year future.

Low Carbon Canning Plan

As a result of the WALGA Climate Change Declaration the City developed a Climate Change Action Plan. This plan is currently under review with an aim to develop a holistic Low Carbon Canning Plan, incorporating energy transformation, emissions reduction strategies and climate resilience.

#carbonoff: Opt in to Offset

The City of Canning is working with the Carbon Neutral Charitable Fund to support staff to help grow a beautiful future by offsetting personal vehicle or household greenhouse gas emissions with the City’s #carbonoff Program. For less than the cost of a coffee per fortnight – staff can make a huge contribution to our state’s sustainability. A simple, fortnightly payroll deduction facilitates the program.

Like a social club, #carbonoff is a completely voluntary ‘opt in’ scheme – however this program has some very tangible environmental benefits – which collective contributions will continue to grow over time.

Resources

For further information and resources on being sustainable at home or in the community, please visit our Community Capital and Social Impact page. For further information and resources on being a sustainable business, please visit our Local Economy and Sustainable Business page.

Sustainability eNews

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