2017-09-18 General Committee Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                      18 SEPTEMBER 2017


2.2   Noosa Council Carbon Footprint
The methodology used to calculate Council’s annual carbon footprint is in accordance with the
NCOS (Version 3.0) and relevant national legislation and international standards including:
   National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (Measurement) Determination 2008,
     Compilation No. 7, Registered 1 July 2015
   Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, 2004
   GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard, 2011

This approach was used to recalculate the 2015/16 baseline and to calculate the 2016/17 carbon
footprint. The results are shown in Table 1

Table 1 – Noosa Council Carbon footprint 2015/16 (recalculated) and 2016/17

Emission Source                                                        2015/16         2016/17      Variance
                                                                     Emissions       Emissions
                                                                      Tonnes          Tonnes
                                                                       CO2e            CO2e
Scope 1
Fuel for transport & stationary purposes (diesel, petrol, LPG)               1121           1055           6%
Fugitive emissions – refrigerants1                                            TBA            TBA          TBA
Fugitive emissions - landfill                                               34697          31534           9%
Scope 2
Electricity - large & small sites, rate 3                                    2957           2882           3%
Scope 3                                                                     13365          13420         0.4%
TOTAL                                                                       52140          48891           6%

As can be seen from the above table, there is a considerable difference between the footprint
initially reported for 2015/16 (10713 tonnes CO2e) and the recalculated footprint for 2015/16
(52140 tonnes CO2e). The recalculated footprint is significantly higher than the initial footprint as
it includes:
      Historical data which was not available for the initial calculation;
      Commercial in confidence data related to the waste contract that was not available for the
        initial baseline calculation; and
      Scope 3 emissions which were specifically excluded from the initial calculation.

The above figures have been reviewed by a registered NGERS Auditor.

Table 1 above compares the Council’s footprint for 2 consecutive years using the same
calculation methodology. A 6% reduction has been achieved comparing 2016/17 to the baseline
year of 2015/16. This has been achieved through fuel reductions in stationary and transport
fuels, the use of rechargeable battery plant and equipment, and utilising Council fleet effectively.
Emissions from the landfill reduced by 9% due to improved capping and increased bores,
resulting in more gas captured and flared.

Having now determined our footprint, it is expected that new carbon reduction initiatives will
result in more significant reductions over the next few years.




1 Data is currently being collected from Council’s air conditioning and refrigeration for these calculations


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