MINUTES
FNQROC Sustainability Group Meeting No 19
Friday 10 August 2012
Cairns Regional Council
Kingsford Room
Level 3, Spence St,
ATTENDANCESteve McDermott / Terrain NRM
Maree Grenfell / Cairns Regional Council
Dan Walton / Cairns Regional Council
Darlene Irvine / FNQROC
Frederick Marchant / FNQROC
Ilona Moerman van Solingen / Tablelands Regional Council
Natalie Foster / Tablelands Regional Council
Phil Laycock / GBRMPA
APOLOGIES
Mark Gordon / Cassowary Coast Regional Council
Tim Liebelt / Cassowary Coast Regional Council
Kirsten McKimmie / Cassowary Coast Regional Council
Geoff Wilson / Cassowary Coast Regional Council
Paula Ingerson / Hinchinbrook Shire Council
Tudor Tanase / Hinchinbrook Shire Council
Kirsty Lamperd / Tablelands Regional Council
Ellen Webber / WTMA
1. Welcome
Darlene and Frederick welcomed the group.
2. Presentation from Maree Grenfell (CRC) - Regional Sustainability Scorecard
· Maree used a live intranet demonstration to highlight the operational side of the CRC Scorecard, an online sustainability assessment system. This system is contained within Councils intranet.
· Dan Walton and Maree described the benefits and barriers when the system was originally introduced. A year on and the Scorecard is now not only accepted, but valued as an easy to use tool for evaluating the sustainability component of projects.
· Scorecard is not onerous to use and one of its main benefits is to encourage users to think more broadly about sustainability aspects of projects and activities.
· Scorecard helps provide a common language and common focus within the organisation regarding sustainability.
· Provides a valuable tool for elected members and managers to better assess the merits of projects and a meaningful way of reporting progress of Council’s sustainability measures to stakeholders.
· Having internal, readily accessible Q/A support for users (Maree and team) was an essential ingredient during the establishment of the system. Important to be able to talk users through any issues.
· ARUP was responsible for the CRC system design and development and is now offering a similar system to all Council’s within the FNQROC area. ARUP has offered to host and maintain individual systems for councils with access through the internet. A group pricing is on offer for a licence that would cover every PC connected to a particular Council’s network with up to 2000 Sustainability Assessments available per year. Costs are – year 1 = $12,000 with subsequent years = $8,000. Further information required regarding training and alternative systems.
3. Presentation from Maree Grenfell (CRC) - Energy and Emissions system
· Maree took the group through a presentation of CRC’s Energy and Emissions System (EES) via an intranet demonstration. The main benefits for Council are:
o Assist Council to achieve its carbon emissions reduction target.
o Report internally and externally.
o Support and inform management decisions; and
o Track and plan for operating in a carbon-constrained environment.
· The system is flexible and user-friendly with several reporting options. It can provide accurate and timely data while reducing former onerous and costly reporting methods.
· FNQROC to discuss with ARUP the potential to develop an EES system that could be used by Councils across FNQ, similar to the Scorecard proposal.
4. Presentation from Lucy Carew-Reid (via phone link) and Maree – Ironbark’s ‘Tech Hub’, information sharing site for councils.
· Lucy guided the group through Ironbark’s Tech Hub web site which is a local government network that shares, reviews and collaborates on materials such as technical specifications, guidelines, policies, calculation tools, case studies, strategies and protocols to improve the sustainability of council assets and equipment. Councils can use these materials to develop their own documents or upload contributions to share with others.
· License fees for general use are normally $750 P/A, but Lucy was able to offer a special deal for FNQROC members of $250 P/A.
· Frederick to follow up with the group and advise Lucy of interested parties.
5. Actions from last meeting
1. Daniela to obtain copy of Nikki Huddy’s presentation and distribute to the group – completed.
2. All to feed through ideas on strategic sustainability issues before Board Workshop – 13 August – Completed. Board Workshop took place on 23 July. Darlene summarised the outcomes from the meeting regarding the Boards strategic priorities.
3. Daniela to prepare a letter to Minister Mark McArdle to inform him of FNQROC's intentions in relation to streetlighting and request insight into state direction – Darlene completed and response received (see item 6).
4. Daniela to contact 3 consultants to prepare a quote for the preparation of a cost benefit analysis for regional streetlighting retrofit to be presented to FNQROC Board on 25 June - completed (see item 6).
5. Maree to prepare a one page summary of Sustainability Scorecard – completed and distributed along with EES information.
6. Maree and Daniela to contact ARUP to advance development of regional Sustainability Scorecard – completed. Darlene and Frederick held discussions with Arup, see Item 2 for quotes.
7. Add to next agenda - workshop Regional Sustainability Scorecard and presentation from Maree on Energy and Emissions System – completed (see Item 2).
8. Deb to set up logon for FNQROC to access GBRMPA share point site – completed.
6. Streetlighting – Update
· Frederick provided an update on progress with the streetlighting project. Main points discussed were:
o Minister McArdle’s response to Darlene’s letter which outlined the Government’s and Ergon’s current status regarding streetlight replacements.
o Given Ergon’s progress and status regarding design, cost recovery and legislative issues, etc, it is likely that any retrofitting of streetlights in Ergon’s network will not commence until 2014-15.
o Lights under the old tariff 3, ie council owned and maintained, can be retrofitted anytime with luminaires of the council’s choice as long as there is compliance with standards and meet Ergon’s energy supply designs in the local area.
o Introduction of new Tariff 71 will not carry a full charge for maintenance and is expected to provide a reduction in streetlight costs up to 18%. However this could change in the future and if full maintenance costs are applied it would mean a significant increase in operating costs for councils.
o Mick Fullelove of Localbuy has been awarded the contract for a high level business case/cost benefit project.
o Ergon report that audit/inventory fieldwork has been completed in all Council areas within FNQROC region. Data is now being processed and reports prepared for councils. Ergon then engage TMR and the respective council to sort out responsibility for any lights that are in contention. This work has been completed for TRC. All other councils are waiting for data to be delivered.
o The group agreed with three areas of action.
1. Combine data from all councils when available and identify lights owned/maintained by respective councils. Review option of a collective regional project to replace lights under the CEEP program.
2. Continue to develop a high level regional approach to resolving political and legislative roadblocks to streetlight replacement. Develop a submission to the federal government based on CEEP funding guidelines, highlighting the conflict between the Federal policy for energy efficient streetlight and obstacles from current state regulations regarding energy providers like Ergon.
3. Look at option of developing a regional service agreement with Ergon in the future.
7. LGAQ summary analysis of the implications of the carbon price on councils
· Information was circulated earlier by email to the group – completed.
8. General Business
· Waste Management issues. This item was deferred and will be raised at a later date with relevant personnel.
9. Council Updates
Cassowary Coast Regional Council.
Report from CCRC was sent through prior to the meeting and read out by Frederick. Summary as follows:
· Schools recycling program is progressing well with a number of schools in the Innisfail area participating and hoping to expand into the Tully area in the near future. This is a partnership between Council, Schools, the Daradgee Environmental Education Centre and Subloo's (private contractor) who is doing the recycling. Includes paper, plastics and metal (not glass).
· Daycare education programs are off to a good start - 2 presentations on sustainability/environmentally friendly fishing practices and cassowary/rainforest themes. Planning to do more in the future.
· Reef Guardian Action Plan/program is progressing. Meeting and updated actions for the 12/13 plan from our NRM section and need to re-vamp our 5 key projects and finalise a milestone report.
· Council moving to establishing a sustainability working group involving staff from all sections of Council. The first focus of the group will be to develop a sustainability policy for Council to adopt.
· Currently working on a project involving production of brochures, bags, DVD and items such as ECO pens (recycled cardboard pens) for use with our sustainability education programs. Big part of the project is training about 25 volunteers as community educators. Themes for brochures include waste & recycling, composting, weeds, and other NR themes. Estimated to be finalised at the end of September.
Cairns Regional Council
· Commencing storm tide inundation study to improve mapping.
· Funding received for energy efficiency projects such as upgrade of Council pools and retrofit of lighting in the Spence St building.
· Sustainability Living Expo – successful event.
· Greenhouse inventory report for Council assets and equipment, to map greenhouse emissions.
· Greensmart program – Internal project called wastesmart, involving staff training in reducing waste, materials consumption and energy use. Council’s performance over the past 12 months shows paper use down 23%, electricity use in the main building down 6% and electricity down 14% at the main depot in Martyn St.
· Reef Guardians plan completed.
Tablelands Regional Council
· Two successful events in recent times
o World Environment Day, tree planting at Malanda Showgrounds went well.
o Cairns Birdwing Butterfly Foodplant Establishment Project - Ergon Energy Envirofund.
· Plans underway to carryout sustainability audits on Council assets and activities such as power and fuel use.
· Home challenge being conducted for a group of TRC staff to find ways of living more sustainably.
· Reef Guardian Plan has commenced.
· ‘Paper Smart’ trial continuing which monitors printer use and reports to each individual user with consumption and sustainability statistics.
· Carbon charges for landfill sites - is a serious issue and Council is pursuing advice on potential high charges.
GBRMPA
Phil Laycock provided an update.
· Reef Guardians Action Plans – Phil congratulated and thanked all councils for the work done on the plans and that the FNQ region was ‘ahead of the pack’ in planning delivery.
· A special mention and thanks for Dan Walton for his contribution to reporting methodology.
· Acknowledgement of CRC promoting Reef Guardians in house. GBRMPA have been supporting Dan with promotional material.
· Karen Vohland - Reef Guardian Program Director, has been visiting councils and Mayors (post-election) in the region and has been pleased with the support being shown for the RG program. Further visits are in progress.
· Request for the group to forward suitable photos to be used in GBRMPA posters
Terrain
Steve McDermott provided an update.
· New strategic plan will be out at the end of the month. New focus on improving knowledge and information capture, managing data collection, GIS, financial data, etc and providing a more integrated information portal.
· Steve has been working on a ‘mind map’, looking at what the organisation does and could do.
· 'Living in Cyclone Country' video was launched 25th July at Mission Beach by Minister Andrew Cripps.· The ‘Reef Rescue’ program has received more than 450 grant applications in Terrain’s area, a pleasing result.
10. Other Business Nil
11. Meeting close 1:55 pm
12. Next meeting date: Friday 9 November 2012
13. ACTIONS
a. Frederick to send out further Scorecard information from Arup and then follow up with the concept of providing the system to other councils in FNQROC area. Also to clarify inclusions of training and what other systems might be on the market.
b. Frederick to have discussions with Arup regarding potential to provide an Energy & Emissions System to other councils in our region.
c. Frederick - Ironbark’s ‘Tech Hub’. Follow up with ROC members to see if there is any interest in taking advantage of a discounted license fee for the region and liaise with Lucy
d. Frederick to continue updating group with any progress on the Streetlighting project.
e. All – Share data from Ergon inventory/audit with ROC as soon as it becomes available to enable an appraisal of developing a regional project for lighting retrofits of council owned and maintained lights
f. Frederick & Darlene – continue with developing high level strategies for resolving political and legislative roadblocks. Frederick to keep group updated.
g. ALL – Send photos to Deb at GBRMPA that could be used for promotional posters for Reef Guardians.
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