David Risstrom - Greening Melbourne

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David Risstrom - Greening Melbourne

• After lobbying Parliament in 1989 to create the
  Victorian Alpine National Park, David completed
  law, arts and science degrees. Following work
  for the Australian Centre for Environmental Law,
  as consultant to the Cth EPA, teacher for the
  Australian Electoral Commission Snr. Researcher
  to the Senate Superannuation Ctee, David begun
  practice in 1997 as a barrister.
• David was Victorias first elected Green, serving
  on Melbourne City Council from 1999 to 2004. His
  other roles during that time included
• Vice President International Council for Local
  Environment Initiatives
• Chair MCC Environment, Arts, Sustainability
  Indigenous Affairs Ctees
• Chair Melbourne Affordable Housing Company
• Chair Metropolitan Transport Forum
• Convener Metropolitan Environment Forum
• Director Yarra-Melb. Regional Library Western
  Regional Waste Boards
• Director MAPS Ltd purchasing company
• Australian Conservation Foundation Councillor
• Victorian Greens Senate Candidate in the 2004
  Federal Election

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Greening Melbourne

• My project was to Green Melbourne. I introduced
  140 initiatives to Melbourne City Council as a
  Green Councillor. between 1999 and 2004 and
  published 100 Green Achievements at
  www.davidrisstrom.org , including
• 5M Sustainable Melbourne Fund
• Accountability through Recording Votes in
  Council
• Adopting and Promoting The Earth Charter
• Bringing the Sustainable Living Fair To
  Melbourne
• 2M over 2 years for Improved Bicycle
  Facilities
• 10,000 Bicycle Parking Spaces in the City by
  2010, 20,00 by 2020
• Council Car Fleet with Average Fuel Use of 8
  litres/100km or less
• Central City Lending Library for Melbourne
• Community Power Green Energy
• Discounted MET Tickets for Staff and Community
• Establishing Melbourne as an International
  Environmental Leader CHII
• Greening Purchasing Across Australia Through
  MAPS ICLEI
• Growing Green A 50 year Parks and Open Spaces
  Plan

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Greening Melbourne

• Indigenous Reconciliation Treaty and Indigenous
  Land Use Agreement
• Inner City Social Housing Melbourne Affordable
  Housing Companies
• Lighting Strategy for the City Of Melbourne
• Making the Town Hall the Village Green
  Melbourne Conversations
• Melbourne as a Refugee Welcome Zone
• Metropolitan Environment Forum
• No Woodchip Sourced Power
• Organising the Local Government Aspect of the
  Johannesburg Summit
• Major Event MET-ticket combinations
• People's Forum in the Council Chamber
• Recycled Paper Primarily Used at the City Of
  Melbourne
• Reusable Carry Bags Bagging Melbourne (in a nice
  way)
• Setting Australias most ambitious Greenhouse Gas
  Reduction Targets and Achieving Them 30
  Council, 20 community between 1999-2009
• Sustainable Water Management - Watermark. 40
  Reductions Overall
• Triple Bottom Line Governance Economic, Social
  and Environmental
• Zero Net Greenhouse Gas Emissions For Melbourne
  City By 2020

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Greening Melbourne

• My project was to Green Melbourne.
• How did I start?
• Began seriously after my election to Melbourne
  City Council in 1999.
• Secured positions on transport, environment,
  purchasing, library, housing, and aboriginal
  consultative committees and company boards.
  Elected by international ballot to the
  International Council For Local Environment
  Initiatives (ICLEI) and subsequently elected as
  Vice President of ICLEI International.
• Made requests, then demands and backed them up
  with timelines.
• Biggest challenges were associated with culture
  change
• My presence as a Green allowed good people to do
  good things.
• Things that made a big difference to my projects
  success
• Establishing a website at www.davidrisstrom.org
  and recording the 100 Green Achievements and 100
  More Green Achievements was invaluable.
• My advice to others
• Consider my mothers advice Do good things for
  their own sake.

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Greening Melbourne

• CLIMATE PROTECTION BY REDUCING GREENHOUSE GAS
  EMISSIONS
• City of Melbourne on target of 30 reduction for
  Council operations and 20 for community by 2010
  from 1999 levels.
• Goal Melbourne sets the most ambitious
  greenhouse gas reduction targets of any
  Australian city and is on path to achieve them.
• Australia way off the Kyoto target and unwilling
  to ratify.
• An Australian Government report released on 10
  December 2003 concluded that Australia is
  vulnerable to changes in temperature and
  precipitation projected for the next 50 to 100
  years, because it already has extensive arid and
  semi-arid areas, relatively high rainfall
  variability from year to year, and existing
  pressures on water supply in many areas.
• Australia and USA were out in the cold
  internationally.

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Greening Melbourne

• ZERO NET GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS FOR MELBOURNE
  CITY BY 2020
• The City of Melbourne established a zero net
  greenhouse gas emissions strategy, with a 2020
  target.
• The City of Melbourne is aiming to reduce the
  amount of greenhouse gas emissions dramatically
  to a point that any remaining emissions are
  offset by carbon sinks financed by the City. Once
  the Strategy is formed, the City of Melbourne has
  committed to make the intellectual property and
  practical information available to Asia-Pacific
  cities wishing to do likewise.
• Presented the proposal in Canberra in 2000 and
  Wuhan, China in 2002 to APEC

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Greening Melbourne

• QUEEN VICTORIA SOLAR INSTALLATION
• A proposal was developed to put photovoltaic
  cells on the Queen Victoria Market roof.
• A 1 Million Federal Government grant was awarded
  to the City of Melbourne on a matching basis.
• There were discussions to modify the grant to
  allow for a different energy collection system to
  be used, based on a high temperature liquid
  countercurrent heat exchange system.
• Design installation by BP Solar and Origin
  Energy completed May 03.
• The 1328 Solar panels on the Queen Victoria
  Market site can now generate 252 megawatts of
  electricity each year, which is enough
  electricity to power 63 homes.

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Greening Melbourne

• REFUSE POWER GENERATION SOURCED FROM WOODCHIPS
• The City of Melbourne refuses to accept
  electricity sourced from the burning of
  woodchips.
• The Federal Government adopted a definition of
  renewable energy that includes the burning of
  woodchips for power generation.
• The City of Melbourne rejected this definition of
  renewable energy, and has unanimously adopted a
  motion I moved in 2002 refusing to purchase
  electricity sourced from the burning of woodchips.

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Greening Melbourne

• LIGHTING STRATEGY
• The City of Melbourne is implementing an
  'enlightened' approach to lighting by combining
  intelligent design, placement and light usage to
  achieve energy savings, greenhouse gas reductions
  and better lighting.
• The Lighting Strategy is the policy and
  operational document that, in its own words,
  'provides for the responsible use of energy to
  enhance people's experience of the city after
  dark.
• Dumped lights from USA (Mercury halide?)
• Implementation of the Strategy is over a 5 year
  period to 2006.

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Greening Melbourne

• COMMUNITY POWER GREEN ENERGY
• Community Power is a not for profit, renewable
  electricity buying group made up of the City of
  Melbourne, Darebin City Council, the Moreland
  Energy Foundation and the City of Yarra.
• Initiative to increase the buying power of
  residents who wish to buy 'green energy' in
  contrast to black energy made from polluting
  sources such as coal, nuclear, oil, etc..
• 'Accredited green power' and 'renewable energy'
  are two energy options included in the current
  community power offer. 'Accredited Green Power'
  is a renewable energy source from nationally
  accredited generators. 'Renewable energy' shares
  all the characteristics of Green Power except
  that it is sourced from generators commissioned
  prior to 1997 and is therefore not credited under
  the National Green Power Scheme.

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Greening Melbourne

• BRINGING THE SUSTAINABLE LIVING FAIR TO MELBOURNE
• The Sustainable Living Fair is a public event
  promoting and displaying organisations,
  businesses and ideas promoting environmental
  sustainability
• I thought it would be good to have the
  Sustainable Living Fair brought to the Melbourne
  so that more people understand what they can do
  to improve our environment. I suggested the
  organisers consider moving the Sustainable Living
  Fair to somewhere within the City of Melbourne
• First Sustainable Living Fair in Melbourne was in
  2001, and is now annual.

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Greening Melbourne

• 5 MILLION SUSTAINABLE MELBOURNE FUND
• The City of Melbourne has established a 5
  million Sustainable Melbourne Fund to further
  environmental Sustainability in the City of
  Melbourne.
• In 1999 I proposed that the City Of Melbourne
  establish a trust fund to provide finance to
  projects and groups that want to do things to
  further environmental sustainability in the City
  of Melbourne.Launched in 2003.
• Allows for draw down of its capital, providing
  financial assistance and investment in specific
  projects that enhance the environment, community
  and economic benefits for the people of
  Melbourne.

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Greening Melbourne

• A 20 YEAR WATER MANAGEMENT REGIME
• The City of Melbourne has established and using a
  20 year sustainable water management regime.
• The purpose of setting a 20 year water management
  regime is to intelligently develop a means of
  conserving and better using our scarce water
  resources where they are needed.
• Watermark has a target of reducing water
  consumption by 12 by 2020, compared to an
  estimated business-as-usual approach resulting in
  a 100 increase by 2020. This equates to a 40
  reduction in residential, commercial and
  industrial water consumption per capita, and a
  40 reduction in water use by the City of
  Melbourne in its operations.

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Greening Melbourne

• PARTICIPATION IN 2002 JOHANNESBURG WORLD SUMMIT
  ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
• International Council For Local Environment
  Initiatives organised the local government part
  of the Johannesburg World Summit.
• The City of Melbourne was an active participant
  in the Local Government Session of the 2002 World
  Summit on Sustainable Development.
• The Melbourne Principles for Sustainable
  Development were adopted by the session and
  ultimately presented to the major plenary on
  behalf of local government worldwide.

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Greening Melbourne

• IMPLEMENTING TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE
• I moved a motion in 1999 requiring the City of
  Melbourne to adopt Triple Bottom Line accounting.
  
• Aims to inculcate triple bottom line
  considerations into decisions it makes. Extends
  to requiring suppliers to satisfy triple bottom
  line criteria.
• Triple bottom line is an extension of the modern
  tradition of the economic bottom line to include
  social and environmental bottom lines.
• Required 'environmental attachments' on the
  environmental implications of decisions put
  before Council.

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Greening Melbourne

• ADOPT THE EARTH CHARTER AND PROMOTE ITS AIMS
• Melbourne City Council has adopted and promotes
  the Earth Charter.
• The Earth Charter is a declaration on
  environment, social justice, democracy and peace
  which was initiated prior to the Earth Summit in
  1992 and finalised in March 2000.
• The Charter sets forth values and principles
  underpinning a Worldwide Sustainability Strategy
  for the 21st century.
• Endorsement of the Earth Charter by individuals
  or organisations signifies a commitment to the
  spirit and aims of the document.

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Greening Melbourne

• MONTHLY, 6 MONTHLY OR YEARLY MET TICKETS AT 10
  DISCOUNT FOR RESIDENTS OF METROPOLITAN MELBOURNE
• Discounted monthly, 6 monthly and yearly MET
  public transport tickets are available for
  purchase by residents of Greater Melbourne.
• As a means of increasing public transport
  patronage, reducing the need for enforcement and
  the cost of administering the ticket system, I
  proposed in a January 2002 letter to the public
  transport operators that the City of Melbourne be
  a pilot for providing discounted tickets to
  residents of the City of Melbourne.

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Greening Melbourne

• RECYCLED PAPER AT THE CITY OF MELBOURNE
• The City of Melbourne uses 100 post consumer
  waste paper for its printing and copying needs.
• Office paper is sourced from a variety of
  sources. When office paper is made from recycled
  material, it reduces the amount of wood from
  trees that needs to be sourced from our forests.
• Using recycled paper is a way of increasing the
  efficiency of use of the original forest products
  by using them more than once. It also reduces the
  amount of used paper in the waste stream filling
  up our municipal tip sites.
• 100 post-consumer waste paper means that 100 of
  the paper used to make the product you buy has
  been used at least once before.

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Greening Melbourne

• ACHIEVE INDIGENOUS RECONCILIATION
• To discuss with our indigenous and non-indigenous
  communities what can be agreed upon to achieve
  reconciliation and to do it.
• Consultation with Indigenous spokespersons and
  organisations in relation to the development of
  an Indigenous Employment Strategy
• Reaffirm the Statement of Commitment to
  Indigenous Australians
• Establishment of an Indigenous Unit within the
  City of Melbourne.

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Greening Melbourne

• Commence a 12 month discussion between the City
  of Melbourne, its constituents, ATSIC and the
  wider indigenous community on how to advance
  reconciliation in the City of Melbourne. As a
  means of achieving broad community involvement,
  the City of Melbourne commits to initiate
  discussions on options for
• 1 Negotiating a land use agreement
• 2. Identifying and acknowledging our pre-European
  history in the City of Melbourne.
• 3. Providing current and future staff and
  councillors with the opportunity to participate
  in cross-cultural awareness training.
• 4. Increasing the involvement of indigenous
  people in the delivery of services for and on
  behalf of the City of Melbourne.
• 5. Flying the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
  Islander Flags during important times such as
  NAIDOC week.
• 6. A strategy to advance representation by
  Indigenous councillors.

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Greening Melbourne

• 1 FOR HUMANITY
• Citizens of the City of Melbourne and beyond
  donate 1 of their taxable income to an
  organisation of their choice that assists
  developing countries.
• Individuals choose to make a donation or
  donations to organisations such as Community Aid
  Abroad, World Vision, Medicines Sans Frontiers or
  International Help Fund Australia that have
  strong reputations for providing unconditional
  assistance to people of less fortunate developing
  countries.