NESS2 - Extending & Completing the New England Sustainable Strategy 2010

Aim: This workshop considered how Councils could design and build more effective 'bridges' across the wide
range of sustainable initiatives being undertaken across New England to enhance regional sustainability strategies,
reporting and performance.

Who & What Happened: Representatives from the 4 New England LGA's (Guyra, Armidale-Dumeresq, Uralla Workshop on Integrating LGA
& Walcha), SNELC-HICUB, and the NESS executive, mapped a wide range of innovative sustainability initiatives by both regional Planning, Management &
stakeholders and Councils. A number of opportunities and issues for Regional Councils were also identified Reporting Systems on Regional
Conclusions - Recommendations
Initiatives
1. Regional Councils play an important role in initiating, supporting-enabling & auspicing grants for funding
-resourcing sustainable projects in addition to their role in providing economic-social infrastructure & service delivery. Councils play ...to enhance Regional Sustainabiity
a key role in helping facilitate and outline sustainability guidelines, long-term strategic planning frameworks-reviews and tools. Strategies and Stakeholder
2. That the wide range of environmental-social-economic regional sustainability initiatives needed to be linked and promoted as a Performance
dynamic network of regional sustainability projects and documented in an integrated regional sustainability performance reporting 28th April 2010 ADC
framework.
3. This bridge building' across initiatives could open up new strategic partnerships for accessing resources/funding, Workshop Purpose; Develop a replicable
enable synergies across initiatives, and enhance community awareness of what is happening with regional sustainability. model for the integration of NESS, and other
4. NESS was seen as helping to 'bring it all together' - to develop storylines around sustainability initiatives in waste, energy etc and similar initiatives such as the Local Adaptation
collate these initiatives as part of a regional sustainability reporting framework and, as an on-going community involvement, Pathways and Climate Consensus Projects, into
education and awareness raising process around regional sustainability. local government planning, management and
5. The key dimensions of a regional sustainability performance framework were seen as sustainable water, energy (renewable reporting systems
efficient), waste, landscape rehabilitation - biodiversity, community engagement- social inclusion, economic-social infrastructure -
service delivery and business enterprise development. This framework would be further discussed in the follow-up regional Steve Gow, Paul Crenaune, Bob Furze,
stakeholders roundtable discussion. Jackie Bowe, Adam Blakester,
Mick O'Loughlin, Rebecca Spence
Opportunities for apologies Gerry Morgan
1. Collaboration across Councils in community social planning re youth, women, Indigenous, aged groups & LEP's
2. Identifying what is strategic & most useful for each Council to lead regionally - looking for synergy & reducing duplication - such
as ADC's vision to restructure its business to include a sustainability performance team.
3. More Council partnered initiatives along the lines of those identified in the attached 'sustainability initiatives map' including aged
care energy efficiency, environmental rehabilitation, water recycling, environmental flows management, community engagement re
climate change responses, supporting farmers markets, school community gardens etc. For example, ADC saw the opportunity to
improve their environmental management, monitoring & climate change adaption
4. Better communication within Council around bridging and supporting sustainability initiatives - closing the gap between what is
actually going on with what is known to be going (Inntegrated Reporting framework, State of the Environment report). This will be
further developed as part of the Sustainability Community Communications & Engagement Strategy.

Issues for Regional Councils

1. Councils concerns around overcommitting resources & community expectations on sustainable initiatives
2. Responding to State Govt directives & imposed solutions (exempt planning etc) that are more Sydney-centric, leading to
'homogeneity' and threatening a loss of place - uniqueness across New England.
May 2010 1
 A Map of the Regional Sustainability Initiatives Emerging Across New England
Environmental Sustainable Water Waste Energy Economic Social Inclusion New England
Rehabilitation Agri-Business Enterprises -Community Engagement Regional Councils
- Biodiversity Farming the Sun
SNELC solar power, water Northern SLEX - SLA
HICUB electric Farmers Guyra
network heating enterprise Inland projects
Bush Care New England cluster car-transport Business markets
Networks rural landcare enterprise network
regional Energy providing maintaining
initiatives cluster
Precinct - wind Schools Community economic-social infrastructure
on ground
Sustainable 1% return to regional Gardens - Uralla, & service delivery
rehabilitation feral
resource use sustainability fund AUDOC Rocky River Armidale
animals Cultural
projects economic Dumaresq
Sustainable Tourism
fund woolshed community owned development
wind energy company community LAPP community helping initiate
programs climate change
community educational farmers action initiative aka Hepburn support enabling
Uralla engagement process partnering regional
resource centre workshops
meeting space Roof Top spaces sustainability
peri-urban 4 Regional Councils Land-Fill power initiative NESS initiatives
projects Initiatives - community educn. Youth Uralla
wildlife corridors recycling, composting, ewaste, Climate Change
rehabilitating landfills using mulch sustainability conference
Indigenous energy efficiency
capacity Young - helping facilitate
environmental weeds audits sustainability guidelines, LT
building Northern Inland Disabled
campaign strategic planning frameworks
Reg Waste Network housing Uralla
Urban Sub-Catchment eco-efficiency tools Walcha
Mgt Plan Uralla, Kentucky aged care energy sustainability
soil health water quality, community educn. efficiency initiatives action planning
production Water cycle Uralla Guyra framework
forum program
Malpas ADC Move to Council
Landholders Guyra Tomato- efficiency tools Orgn restructuring
Walcha, Uralla Collaborate on
water quality Water Capture focusing on
Regional LEP's
improvement Recycling enhancing sustainability
projects Walcha performance - ADC
whole farm sustainability
Rural carbon audit health checks - Uralla
Greenhouse Gas initiative
Abatement
Research Centre
NESS2 LGA Council Workshop Report Integrated Planning
- Building Bridges across Regional Sustainability Initiatives May 2010 2