Logan City, Australia

Implementation, Impact and Replicability

How has the initiative had a ripple effect beyond the scope of the initiative itself, thereby demonstrating a change in the city’s and/or its partners’ way of working with plants?

Some of the initiatives that have demonstrated high levels of learning and transferability include:

• Leadership of a Regional Climate Resilience Alliance – 8 neighbouring Councils have joined this alliance which will develop a transferable regionally alliance model to take action on climate change and a community education program breaking down political barriers.  This program is designed to be transferable not only within Australia but internationally.  This will mean that the outcomes will be shared with a total community population of almost 4 million people across multiple cities and regional local government areas.
• LEAF – community education and engagement – a free environmental event held annual that attracts around 10,000 visitors each year from a broad range of cities and areas. The event showcases innovations in relation to building climate change resilience, sour natural environment and supporting the community to develop environmental stewardship.  A key feature of the event is solar opportunities, electric vehicles with a family focused theme.
• Local business partnership (new solar panel optimizer and monitoring technology) – a program run to support an innovative local business that developed new technology to monitor and enhance the performance of solar panels using cutting edge solar panel optimizers. Several neighbouring organisations have asked to replicate this initiative.
• Support for local households – LCC provided a program to support households to install roof top solar installations in partnership with State and Federal government agencies. The success of this program was shared widely through State and Federal government networks.

How have other cities expressed interest in the initiative, or what potential does it have to interest other cities and be customised to their own circumstances?

Logan City Council is well-placed to drive broader uptake of climate change planning in Australia and across the globe, by providing case studies of our strategic initiatives aimed at enhancing organisational governance in relation to reducing, mitigating and adapting to the potential risks of a changing climate. Some additional very transferable learnings and initiatives include:

• The City of Logan All Hazard Risk Assessment has transitioned from the National Emergency Risk Assessment Guidelines (NERAG) to the Queensland Emergency Risk Management Framework (QERMF) and includes specific actions in response to increasing extreme heat events, bushfires and floods.
• City of Logan Carbon Reduction Strategy and Action Plan – provides a road map to achieve carbon neutrality by 2022.
• Delivery of the Sustainability Policy and Framework – adopted by Council to embed sustainability in all decision-making and activities, including climate action.
• Development of an Energy Management Framework and automated Energy Management Dashboard that:
  • allows us to monitor and track electricity use, costs and carbon emissions over time; and
  • help build organisation capacity and awareness of the value of energy efficiency
• Delivery of a range of innovative actions to transition our fleet to a cleaner and more sustainable fleet including