Logan City, Australia

Sustainability and Resilience

What efforts have been made to reduce the carbon footprint of the initiative?

Logan City Council has made a commitment to achieving a net gain of ecological values and increased habitat for native wildlife while being one of the fastest growing regions in Australia.   Council has successfully delivered a range of initiatives, on-ground projects, biodiversity enhancement programs that has resulted in a gain of green canopy across the city. 

The range of adopted strategic strategies, policies and plans combine to form a holistic living green for biodiversity.  This suite of initiatives spans up to 50 years (River Visions) with a range of actions that can be sustained over time.

How have the anticipated impacts of climate change been considered?

The City of Logan has demonstrated its leadership and drive for living green for biodiversity and delivering innovative programs, projects and outcomes that protect, enhance, connect and celebrate our amazing natural environment. 

LCC’s suite of living green for biodiversity initiatives not only demonstrates our commitment to biodiversity conservation but has also delivered a range of projects and initiatives that have already successfully increased our green canopy, accommodated a fast-growing population reduced our carbon footprint, achieved significant social, economic, governance and environmental outcomes, while embracing our city’s vision to be a green city full or pride, opportunity and culture.

What processes does the initiative include for it to be considerate in its use of soils and other natural resources?

• Environmental (vegetation) Offset planting – with over 77,000 trees put into the ground based on the pre-cleared regional ecosystem of the area.  This program is fully funded by developers where they cannot avoid clearing vegetation and includes funding for 7 years of maintenance making sure the trees planted have reached a point of self-sustaining. This ensures a net gain of tree cover and habitat will be achieved in the longer term at no cost to the community. 
• An integral part of our revegetation projects is to provide traineeships for disadvantaged communities such as new migrants, long term unemployed.  The revegetation works engage trainees who are upskilled in landscaping and conservation techniques and receive a recognised qualification at the end.
• Cedar Grove Environmental Centre which delivered Queensland’s first sustainable wastewater treatment plant. This wastewater treatment plant delivers a net environmental benefit for the surrounding catchment and provides an industry best-practice demonstration. 
• Pioneering an innovative method with the operation of a pilot facility to recover energy from biosolids (sludge) at our Loganholme wastewater treatment plant. The biosolids are dewatered and dried, before carbonised in a gasifier. The gasifier turns biosolids into biogas, a renewable energy that is used in the drying process. The biochar produced is an organic soil improver where nitrogen and phosphorus are bio-available, but carbon is sequestered. The $17 million Biosolids Gasification Project reduces the volume of biosolids by 90 per cent, saving ratepayers around $500,000 annually in haulage costs, while significantly reducing carbon emissions.