How the SLG aids Council Sustainability Programs.

Every week we ask local government to consider the value in our online tools and information (Sustainable Living Guide) to support their community to live more sustainably.

From your feedback we know most sustainability community engagement programs are trying to achieve the following results:

Reduced residential water, energy and resource use.

Local government is increasingly taking responsibility for setting and achieving energy and water reduction targets for their community. In other words helping their community reduce their carbon footprint.

KPI: Measurable reductions in energy and water use across the community, % uptake of renewable energy, solar PV panels and solar hot water installations.

Sustainable Living Guide: Outlines practical actions residents can take to reduce their water, energy and resource use. It features a calendar of local Sustainable Living events.

Increased uptake of rebates to use or capture renewable energy and use water more efficiently.

Uptake of the rebates currently offered by federal, state and local governments, generates significant investment and jobs in a council’s local community, with additional savings being accrued each year by their residents over the life of these investments.

KPI: Level of state and federal rebates spent in local government area, change on previous year, initiatives to raise community awareness of and participation in rebates programs, etc…

Sustainable Living Guide: Provides a detailed guide of federal, state and local government rebates available to fund residential sustainability action.

Building community awareness of and involvement in local government climate change and environment programs.

Highlighting improvements in the environmental performance of local government operations, businesses and residents builds momentum and confidence as well as spreading awareness of the support local council is able to offer their community.

KPI: Increasing community awareness of local government environmental targets, achievements and programs. Increased cooperation with local environmental community groups to increase community capability (workshops, lectures, demonstrations).

Sustainable Living Guide: Highlights local council’s targets, programs and achievements. The hosted version of the guide (see ecocity.com.au) includes a local sustainability events engine and custom “Council Projects” area.

Case Study: Eco City Sustainability Portal

Benefits

• Engage your residents in sustainable behaviour change actions, events and projects
• Clear presentation of information in a coherent & user-friendly format
• Written in a way that inspires and supports residents to take action
• Best practice, evolving and improving web technology. Web Standards compliant.
• Can be customized, localized and deployed live within a week
• Scalable and easily maintained

Features

• Customised interface to match council logo, colours and styles
• Customized version of the Sustainable Living Guide to reflect local conditions and priorities.
• Highlight council projects targeting local residential sustainability
• Sustainability events engine, feed and calendar
• Easy to change modify and keep up to date. No need to wait on internal IT resources
• New feature coming online in 2010, including personalized footprint tool, community networking features, etc...

Client sites include Holdfast Bay (SA) and Broken Hill (NSW).