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Carbon Neutral
What does being Carbon Neutral mean?
 
Carbon neutrality can be defined as a state where no net greenhouse emissions are produced by a particular entity or activity during a
particular time period"  AMCCP Carbon Neutrality Framework for Local Government (Australian Version) v 3.0
 
The City of Fremantle has a long history of improving our environmental performance and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions through a range of initiatives and internal education campaigns.
 
Being carbon neutral is part of an overall approach to reducing our impact on our environment which involves four key steps; Measure, Reduce, Switch and Offset.
 
The City of Fremantle is proud to be Western Australia’s first carbon neutral local government.
 

“It is examples like the one the City of Fremantle has set that would bring about a global movement in all the urban areas of the world, by which the challenge of climate change can be met effectively. I would like to convey my congratulations and best wishes to the leadership of Fremantle, and I hope that they would not only be able to maintain carbon neutrality over the years, but also inspire several local governments to do likewise."

R K Pachauri, Chair of the United Nations Intergovenermental Panel on Climate Change
What we have been doing
 
Step 1: Measure
 
Knowing how many emissions we create allows us to identify key areas where we may be able to reduce emissions and is also necessary to quantify any emissions reductions.
 
For the carbon neutral program, the City has also been including emissions from electricity, gas and fuel usage as well as emissions from waste to landfill, taxi and air travel.
 
The inclusion of waste and business travel makes the inventory more extensive than has been calculated back to 1996. To provide a new baseline set of data inventories have been calculated for the 2007/08 using the full set of emissions.

Step 2: Reduce
 
Alongside the process of ‘measuring’ the city has implemented a number of initiatives across the organisation to reduce its emissions that include
 
One of the more structured processes is the Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) program. This five step international program has been implemented in hundreds of councils around the globe. The City joined CCP in December 1998 and completed the last milestone in 2004. After we completed the CCP program, we developed the internal Wipe Out Waste initiative to improve the environmental performance of the City generally.
 
Specific initiatives from CCP and WOW include:
·          Installing pool blankets over the main pools in the Fremantle Leisure Centre saving 49 tonnes of greenhouse gas each year
·          Upgrading the City’s computers with desktop LCD screens and small energy packs saving 69 tonnes of CO2e each year.
·          Bikes for use by staff to attend meetings
·          Transperth travel cards to encourage staff to use public transport
·          Reducing the City’s vehicle fleet by 10 cars between 2006 and 2009.
 
Step 3: Switch
 
Once energy efficiency opportunities have been implemented, the next stage in becoming carbon neutral is to switch to energy sources that create fewer greenhouse gases.
 
The table above shows that the City generates approximately 55% of its greenhouse emissions from electricity (buildings and streetlights) followed by 17% from landfill waste and 12% from gas. Some of the green energy initiatives that the City has implemented are:
·          In 2006, the City changed over 18 vehicles to run on LPG
·          Installing the state’s largest solar farm at the Fremantle Leisure Centre
·          In March 2009 Council resolved to switch to 100% NaturalPower from 1 July 2009 utilising surplus parking revenue.
 
Step 4: Offset
 
Once a thorough baseline has been taken for where the emissions have come from, energy efficiency options have been implemented and fuels have been switched for cleaner sources, the final step in becoming carbon neutral is to offset remaining emissions.
 
There are lots of questionable offsets out there and it’s a complicated business ensuring that offsets are real, additional and verified. To ensure that all offsets that the City purchases are valid, the Council resolved to only use Greenhouse FriendlyTM offsets, which are audited by the federal Department of Climate Change.
 
For the bulk of the City’s emissions, the City has decided to use offsets from the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council (SMRC). When organic waste is buried in landfill it emits methane, which is 21 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide. The SMRC’s facility takes organic waste though and composts it, which means no methane is emitted.
 
Achieving carbon neutrality is not a series of check boxes. Even though the City has abated all of its emissions through reduction, switching fuel sources and offsets, is has also implemented a process to ensure that we maintain a focus on reducing our emissions.
 
What’s next
 
Carbon neutrality is a process of continual improvement. Even though every tonne of greenhouse gas has been abated, there is still room to improve. We are always looking for opportunities to reduce offsets by using clean energy, and to reduce clean energy use by using energy more efficiently.
 
Some of the projects that we have been working on since becoming carbon neutral are to:
·          Establish the state’s only heritage listed sustainability demonstration site at The Meeting Place
·          Investigate the possibility of using geothermal instead of gas heating at the Fremantle Leisure Centre
 
What can you do?
 
If you’d like to become carbon neutral, you can just follow the 4 steps that the City did
 
Measure. There are a number of carbon footprint calculators available online - just check out google.
 
Reduce. You can check out the Climate Wise website for some tips on how to reduce your energy use around the home. Alternatively a Living Smart course would be another good way to learn about reducing energy usage at home. The Federal government’s Green Loans and insulation rebate schemes are two other great places that you could start looking to reduce your footprint.
 
Switching to Green power. This is probably the largest single step that most households can make to reduce their carbon footprint. Check out Synergy’s website to see just how easy it is.
 
Offsetting. You can select Greenhouse Friendly products that are already offset for you, or else there are several places that you can buy offsets directly, such as the SMRC.