In many ways councils are our first responders – to climate catastrophe to sustainability challenges and housing, amid myriad other issues. At the risk of suggesting they are anything but very poorly resourced, they’re crafting creative programs to deal with the challenges, banding together in various collaborations to share skills, resources and even templates for programs that break through the challenges and create solutions.
There’s an eternal frustration with holding events – time and space. There’s just not enough of either to pay full respect to the incredible content and brain power you get there.
We know this because when we take a comfortable hour or so to interview people who speak at our events, we get a pretty good gist of their insights and potential solutions to our problems. There’s time to get comfortable and probe a little.
But at events you get the chance, at best, to do something that’s a bit like taking a searchlight to a moving target and hoping you can capture some of the sparkle from within. It’s a teaser at best…but then that’s what the networking is for – to probe deeper.
At the Local Government, Net Zero and Resilient Communities Summit on Wednesday that was our problem. We had a packed room and a packed agenda, all bursting at the seams with so much more that could be said and needed to be said.
We had council people online from Boroondara and Bayside city councils in Melbourne, Adelaide Hills, Byron Shire, Melville in WA and the Gold Coast and the SE Corridor Council Alliance in Perth.
If there was a big theme that ran throughout the day it was the power of collaboration.
We heard from several speakers who talked about the benefits of collaboration such as the Waverley, Woollahra and Randwick councils, managed by Anthony Weinberg of Waverley. Or the emerging Kiama, Shellharbour, Shoalhaven and Wollongong joint organisation managed by Pat Whitford.
In the Illawarra, there’s Rewiring Australia, kicked off by the firecracker Saul Griffith, and now with director of strategic programs Kristen McDonald expanding the early Postcode 2515 electrification program, taking it national through new connections between community and councils.
Paul Brown, managing director of Ironbark Sustainability, kicked off the day with a similar theme, sharing a bird’s eye view of the insights he’s gleaned from working with 100 or so councils across Australia, mainly on climate risk and strategies.
Which is probably one of the most challenging issues they face.
Brown said the reality is they are dealing with “more and more expensive” climate catastrophes. In one example just one flood in 2022 cost three rural councils around $150 million from just one event. “Most of that was from road damage”.
“Eighteen months later, it happened again. The same thing.”
Roads are the biggest expenditure, he said, but also the damage that floods cause to facilities, trails, pathways, “and that’s not even talking about their community.”
“For councils, this is a really critical area to start thinking about how to grapple with it. It’s huge.”
However, the reality is that very few councils can fund these obligations “above the line”, leaving them reliant on grants that are not always tailored to community needs.
By collaborating, you can do so much more, by sharing resources and even staff skills, he said.
The Western Sydney energy program, for instance, spans eight councils in Western Sydney, which have been working together for 10 years on energy and climate programs, both for their own assets and those of their communities.
The results pay off. Over the period these councils have saved a massive $70 million in costs and about 100,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year.
Collaboration also works in influencing communities.
Anthony Weinberg, whose “day job” is with Waverley Council said his program working with three councils was started 14 years ago to spread the net zero and sustainability ambitions. But the program takes the ideas, the learnings and even program templates that can be licensed and shares them with anyone who wants. The Solar My School program, for instance, has been implemented in 130 councils.
Net zero program managers
Pat Whitford, net zero program manager for the joint organisation of Kiama, Shellharbour, Shoalhaven and Wollongong, said funding from the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, and Water, has entrenched the notion of collaboration and resource sharing through funding that embeds net zero program managers across nine joint organisations covering up to around 70 regional councils across New South Wales.
The councils are “really committed to their operational emissions reduction targets”, Whitford said, with power purchasing of renewable energy agreements, electric vehicles for their fleets, conversion of street lights to LEDs, on-site renewable energy generation and replacing gas equipment with electric alternatives.
Trust is the big opportunity
Another big issue is trust and again this emerged throughout the discussions around community. As government organisations, local councils were key to sorting the wheat from the chaff of misinformation (or even the worrying and rapidly rising incidence of conspiracy theories, you’d imagine.)
This was a point that Kristen McDonald emphasised – trust of local people and local government was key to education and seeding changed behaviour. The way her program often works, she said, was through meeting the community where it is, whether that’s at schools, sporting groups or other meeting opportunities and helping to engender conversations.
Key were the “kitchen table” discussions, which we know were critical to the rise of the early teals – ordinary people discussing challenges in their lives and wanting to find solutions.
We also know that the best way to effect change is not through data or logic – often it’s the example – and experience – of a friend or neighbour.
Paul Himberger technical director for Hip V Hype thoroughly agreed. Nothing much beats personal experience and personal recommendations.
At his former job with Landcom, where he led several innovative programs, the default position of council engineers was typically to refuse the initiative. Engineers are typically sceptical and very welded on to proven performance – it’s their job! But what works wonders is personal experience of bringing other engineers with experience of the initiative without problems.
In his current work, Himberger continues “trying to push the edges”, working on the company’s own development projects but also advising councils and other developers on how to reach bigger sustainability goals.
He had several lightning rod insights to share.
For instance, pick your battles and meet people where they are, which is clearly a highly valuable lesson in today’s fraught and atomised community. If you understand the unique local nature and concerns of the communities or councils and address those you stand a chance to get take up on the net zero and sustainability agenda. Don’t try to change everything all at once. Also change the language to suit. Turn negatives such as the loss of gas into a positive, such as the opportunity for your kids not to get sick and cleaner air. Or to save money!
It’s even more challenging with new materials or design innovation. Himberger’s approach is to work with what’s possible “within a traditionally rigid approach, whether that’s planning, materials, or how to engage a community”.
Community engagement – early on
A great ideas is to bring in prospective residents very early in the design process, Himberger says.
“It’s incredibly valuable, refreshing and rewarding” to hear people’s perspectives early on and let that influence how to proceed. “Because what you do is you create a community. You enable that community. You create the spaces really early on, you drive that progress, and you get that buy in early on.”
This can extend to people who don’t yet live. there or who will use a council facility – and including council staff who need to maintain the asset over its lifespan, he added.
How to tackle power structures within official organisations – councils included – is another challenge that’s best done in collaboration.
Make sure everyone who needs to be in the room at the start – is in the room. That can take a while and much repetition to get right. Because, as he explained in an earlier briefing, the planner, the councillor and the sustainability manager might like the crumbed rubber idea or the low carbon concrete but did anyone ask the chief engineer?
More on the summit next week!
Videos of the event will be sent to all ticket holders. Get in touch if you are interested in one or more of the sessions.
