Environmental Sustainability Reports
Each year, Council publishes an Environmental Sustainability Review. The Review includes details about Council’s actions and achievements over the year.
2023-2024
Download the 2024 Environmental Sustainability Review(PDF, 4MB).
Highlights:
- Powering Up: New solar panel systems were installed at Council’s Civic Centre. Over time, these systems will save Council money and reduce carbon emissions.
- Emissions down: Carbon emissions were the lowest Council has recorded, at 1,451 tonnes for the organisation for the year.
- Building for the future: The Dulwich Community Centre has been reimagined and reopened, with many new environmental features, including: solar panels, water tanks and more.
- Prolific Planting: Council planted over 1,100 trees in Burnside, over 4,000 other plants, and gave over 7,000 plants to landholders to increase canopy cover and improve habitat.
- Winning at waste: Council’s kerbside waste collection service continued to deliver on diversion from landfill, with 60% either recycled or composted.
- Success in circularity: Council purchased 1,100 tonnes of recycled asphalt and over 160 tonnes of other recycled materials, like bins and bollards.
- Water Wise: Council installed 34 new verge soakers. These devices capture water, allowing it to soak into the soil, supporting street trees and reducing stormwater runoff.
- Community engagement: Council held an Environment and Sustainability Expo and participated in the Nature Festival, attracting thousands of attendees.
2022-2023
Download the 2023 Environmental Sustainability Review(PDF, 4MB).
Highlights:
- Powering Up: New solar panel systems were installed at Council’s Swimming Centre, Depot and Dulwich Community Centre. Over time, these systems will save Council money and reduce carbon emissions.
- Prolific Planting: Council planted over 9,000 plants in Burnside, including over 1,300 trees along streets and in reserves. Council also gave over 7,000 plants to private landholders in Burnside to increase canopy cover and improve habitat. Additionally, the Burnside Carbon Offset Scheme (B-COS) funded the seeding of over 5,000 trees near Kapunda.
- Less Waste: Compared to the previous year, there was a 236-tonne reduction in landfill waste collected through Council’s kerbside bin service. This reduction is good for the environment and saved Council over $45,000 in landfill levy and fees.
- Better Bins: Council is working with East Waste and bin manufacturer MASTEC to trial bins with up to 80% recycled plastic. This project is part of a commitment to Circular Procurement, buying recycled materials to reduce Council’s environmental footprint.
- Water Wise: Council installed over 80 new verge soakers. These devices capture water, allowing it to soak into the soil, supporting street trees and reducing stormwater runoff.
Reports from previous years
2021-2022
Download the 2021-2022 Environmental Sustainability Review(PDF, 2MB).
Download the 2021-2022 Greenhouse Gas report(PDF, 255KB) (published separately).
2020-2021
Download the 2020-2021 Environmental Sustainability Scorecard and Review(PDF, 3MB).
2019-2020
Download the full 2019-2020 Environmental Sustainability Scorecard and Review(PDF, 4MB).
Related reports
Council has set the goal to be carbon neutral by 2030. A detailed plan on how to achieve this goal was included in a Council Report entitled, Measures for reducing Council's carbon footprint.(PDF, 1MB) Council endorsed the approach recommended in the report on 8 December 2020.
One action for reducing Council's carbon footprint is the offsetting of some carbon emissions. A system has been designed to offset the emissions generated by the George Bolton Swimming Centre, the Regal Theatre and additional waste bins. The system is described in a Council Report entitled, Implementation of Burnside Carbon Offset Scheme (B-COS)(PDF, 847KB). Council endorsed the implementation of B-COS on 8 December 2020 as one of the measures to reduce the organisation's carbon footprint.