THE City of Fremantle has set a new benchmark and shown leadership to other local governments in the State by becoming the first to achieve carbon neutral status Mayor Peter Tagliaferri said.

“It’s an important initiative and one that was unanimously supported by our Council and also supported by our community,” he added.
“Becoming carbon neutral is something we’re very proud of and it’s had the affect of reducing our carbon footprint from 5,868 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2007-08 down to nothing.”

This significant achievement will be celebrated in two parts next Thursday, October 1 during a public event the Carbon Neutral Expo held between 10am – 3pm, and an official function that evening at Victoria Hall, High Street, Fremantle.
City of Fremantle sustainability officer Alex Hyndman said that the City was only the second local government in Australia to achieve this feat, the first being the City of Sydney.

“For over a decade the City has been making incremental reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of its corporate operations,” Mr Hyndman said.
“With the growing awareness of the potential severity and urgency of climate change however, the City decided that more drastic action was needed and after resolving to become carbon neutral in March, the City achieved this less than four months later.”

 

Mr Hyndman explained that the four hierarchical steps to becoming carbon neutral were measure, reduce, switch and off-set.

Some of the steps taken toward this end have been to increase the use of public transport and other sustainable transport options such as the inclusion of a C.A.T. bus service – the first outside the Perth CBD.

The installation of photovoltaic panels on the Fremantle Leisure Centre’s roof last month has been another important step forward as now some of the centre’s electricity will come from a renewable source – the sun.

The system will produce about 150kWh on an average day which is enough to power about 10 homes. It also makes this installation the biggest solar farm in the State.
Creating clean energy for use at the Fremantle Leisure Centre complements the City’s switch to GreenPower for use in all of its commercially owned properties and the Town Hall administration building from July 1 this year.

The City of Fremantle is now powered by 100 per cent GreenPower, so none of its electricity creates carbon dioxide emissions.

In order to stay in front of the pack, the City of Fremantle has several other projects that it is investigating to reduce greenhouse gas emissions further such as the potential installation of geothermal heating for the leisure centre’s swimming pools.

Carbon Neutral Expo: free entry
The community is invited to attend an expo to be held at Victoria Hall, 197 High Street, Fremantle where they can view and interact with carbon neutral displays and talk with people involved in this industry. There will also be speakers between 12pm – 2pm who will explain the challenges of climate change and some of the responses out society can make, and you might even be lucky and win some of the many door prizes.

For more details, phone Media and Public Relations Officer Merryn McLean on 9432 9827 or 0405 307 141 or email merrynm@fremantle.wa.gov.au