Council emissions
We started recording our emissions in 2007–08. We call this our baseline year. In our baseline year, the emissions were 26,837 tonnes of CO2-e. Since then, we’ve checked greenhouse gas emissions across all the buildings and services we manage.
Due to ongoing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and environmental footprint, our emissions are now below 6,000 tonnes CO2-e. This is over 80% less than our baseline year and is more than the target set in Our Low Carbon Future Strategy, which was 30–40%.
Though this is a great effort, data shows that Council’s emissions make up less than 1% of emissions in Boroondara. We still have a big role to play in helping our community reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Boroondara.
Council emissions by source
- Electricity in buildings makes up 46% of emissions.
- Electricity for streetlights makes up 28% of emissions.
- Gas for buildings makes up 10% of emissions.
- Fuel for vehicles makes up 8% of emissions.
- Indirect greenhouse gas emissions makes up 7% of emissions.
- Taxi and air travel makes up less than 0.1% of emissions.
- Refrigerants makes up 1% of emissions.
Renewable electricity doesn’t contribute to our total greenhouse emissions. As of 2021, all streetlight electricity is renewable. Over 90% of building electricity is also renewable.
Council emissions over time
Since our baseline year in 2007–08, we’ve tracked our emissions each year. This includes actual emissions and emissions from vehicle use that have been offset by buying Australian Biodiversity Regeneration Offsets.
Greenhouse gas emissions from 2007 to 2014
| Emissions (tonnes CO2) | 2007–08 | 2008–09 | 2009–10 | 2010–11 | 2011–12 | 2012–13 | 2013–14 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actual emissions | 26,509 | 26,316 | 26,803 | 26,130 | 25,156 | 23,865 | 23,605 |
| Offset emissions | 911 | 911 | 860 | 860 | 860 | 860 | |
| Total emissions | 26,509 | 25,405 | 25,892 | 25,270 | 24,296 | 23,005 | 22,745 |
Greenhouse gas emissions from 2014 to 2021
| Emissions (tonnes CO2) | 2014–15 | 2015–16 | 2016–17 | 2017–18 | 2018–19 | 2019–20 | 2020–21 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actual emissions | 23,396 | 22,625 | 22,483 | 22,825 | 21,787 | 17,308 | 4,500 |
| Offset emissions | 2,341 | 2,341 | 2,705 | 2,398 | 2,369 | 2,324 | 2,324 |
| Total emissions | 21,055 | 20,284 | 19,777 | 20,427 | 19,417 | 14,984 | 2,175 |
Community emissions
We sourced information about where emissions in Boroondara come from on the Snapshot database. This database is the most readily available information about community emissions in Victorian Local Government Areas.
The total emissions for Boroondara from January to December 2019 equals 1,804,000 tonnes of CO2-e.
Electricity makes up 58% of emissions in Boroondara.
Gas makes up 19% of emissions in Boroondara.
Transport makes up 20% of emissions in Boroondara.
Waste makes up 3% of emissions in Boroondara.
Other ways to reduce our carbon footprint
It’s important to recognise that our environmental impact is made up of more than our energy use. Decisions we all make every day contribute to our carbon footprint and impact the environment.
These include:
- what we buy and use
- how our food is produced
- how we dispose of things
- the materials used to build our homes, roads and cities.
When we develop any plan or action to support environmental sustainability, we need to think about all of these factors.
Unfortunately, we don’t know what the average individual greenhouse gas emissions in Boroondara is. To find out this information would be difficult, time consuming and expensive. However, we do know that there are many actions we can take as a Council and as a community to reduce our collective impact and create a sustainable, vibrant future.
