Stepping Lightly For A Brighter Tomorrow
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday December 30, 2008
Sydney's city council has stepped up to its environmental responsibility by ordering a carbon audit into tomorrow night's celebrations.
The City of Sydney's sustainability manager, Chris Derksma, says it is a natural step for the council, which is already Australia's first carbon-neutral government. The audit by the independent Carbon Reduction Institute will measure the greenhouse gas emissions generated from fuel use, fireworks, electricity and other materials consumed by the council and its contractors in producing the New Year's Eve event. "Then we go off and purchase offsets to match that number," Derksema says. "There's a number of different ways that they can work these numbers out and that's why we go to an independent body who is an expert in this field." The aim of the audit is to improve the efficiency of Sydney's celebrations. "We think it's a good thing to celebrate New Year's Eve but we also think it's a good thing to purchase the green energy and make sure that this event is carbon neutral so that we're not impacting on the environment during that celebration," Derksema says. Electricity used on the night will be matched by buying GreenPower - sun, wind, water and waste energy - which has been used in New Year's Eve celebrations since 2004. Personal ashtrays will be distributed to help reduce the littering of cigarette butts and 80 per cent of rubbish generated on the night will be recycled. Planet Ark, the chosen charity partner this year, is asking Sydneysiders to commit to a green resolution for 2009 by visiting PlanetArk.org and signing up to receive 52 green resolutions, one for each week of the year. "I think it's about getting a balance . . . it's a really exciting time, everyone has their new year's resolutions and it's a time to reflect on the year and also think about what we're going to do in the future," Derksema says. "If we can do that in a way that minimises our impact on the environment, then we win in both ways."
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald