Towards Zero Emissions – A Guide to City Living
In November 2011 at the Docklands Hub, Cr Cathy Oke and Melbourne residents went on a virtual tour of Melbourne to learn, share and explore what a zero emissions city means to them.
Questions explored included:
- What would a zero emissions city look like?
- How will we travel, access food, goods and services and create a healthy low-impact home?
- Which businesses and organisations can support us on our journey?
- How will we know we have made a difference?
In this forum we discussed our experiences of the city, and explored examples of how we can consider reducing carbon emissions through our everyday activities. We heard from residents, including Cr Oke, who have considered the (invisible) carbon price tag attached to their city lifestyles.
Urban Forest Eco-City Forum
The City of Melbourne released a draft Urban Forest Strategy for community consultation. The strategy responded to the large-scale loss that is currently affecting the tree population in the municipality.
Within 10 years, almost a third of the current tree population will be lost and 44 per cent will be lost within 20 years. The Urban Forest Strategy seeks to manage this change and protect against future vulnerability and risk.
An Eco-City Forum was held in November 2011 for the public to have their say on how best to manage these changes in our municipality into the future.
Further information
Urban Forest Strategy
Adapting Melbourne to climate change
The City of Melbourne’s second Eco-City Forum for 2010, ‘Adapting Melbourne to climate change’, was held on Wednesday 26 May at Swanston Hall in the Melbourne Town Hall.
Climate change is having an impact here and now. We often talk about mitigation to limit the severity of global warming; however it’s equally important to look at adaptation in response to the increasing pressures that the changing climate is already having on the City of Melbourne and its residents, business, visitors and infrastructure.
Adaptation means taking actions to reduce the negative consequences of climate change; as well as harnessing any beneficial opportunities.
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Greener apartment living
The first face-to-face forum for 2010, on the theme of Greener Apartment Living, was held on 18 March at Swanston Hall in the Melbourne Town Hall.
More than 70 percent of residents in the City of Melbourne municipality live in apartments. Overall, residents account for 22 per cent of the municipality's water consumption, 7 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, and more than 14,000 tonnes of waste sent to landfill each year.
The session provided information to residents, especially apartment-dwellers, about how they can reduce their everyday environmental impact. Councillor Cathy Oke, Future Melbourne (Eco-city) Committee chair hosted the session.
The community learned how sustainability programs from the City of Melbourne and other organisations can be applied to apartments. Residents were also encouraged to share stories of 'green' features they have created within their homes.
Through this forum and previous engagement with our residential sector, we realised apartment buildings face unique barriers in achieving sustainability upgrades, which until now has prevented reftrofits from taking place.
The City of Melbourne has responded to the challenge with Hi-RES (Higher-density Residential Efficiency Solutions). Through this program we aim to build on our previous learnings to develop and test scalable solutions to transform our city’s apartment buildings to be more sustainable.
Parks and gardens in a changing climate
The first forum, held in October 2009, dealt with the impact of climate change on our parks and gardens.
Chaired by Eco-city Committee Chair, Councillor Cathy Oke, ‘Parks and gardens in a changing climate’ provided information on how the City of Melbourne is addressing issues such as drought, water management, tree management and replacement, and the public’s increasing use of parks and gardens.
For more information, see Parks and Gardens in a changing climate fact sheet (Text only, 483kb)
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