2019-05-07 Planning & Environment Committee Agenda

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                         7 MAY 2019


REPORT
1.    Background

In October 2017 Council endorsed the investigation into the concept of developing a Noosa
Sustainability Institute and agreed to appoint CSIRO Data 61 to undertake Stage 1 of this
investigation.

The Institute concept was intended to move beyond the idea of a ‘think tank’ with the intent to
ensure the conversion of best practice research into effective and implementable action, to
provide an avenue and focal point that brings together researchers, government and community
to more effectively promote, facilitate, test and innovate different sustainability measures and
approaches to real challenges and opportunities within our environment and communities.

It was considered appropriate to undertake this investigative initiative in stages, allowing Council
to input, review and consider the outcomes of each stage prior to advancing to the next stage.
This report provides the outcomes of stage one for Council’s consideration.

Figure 1 below provides an overview of the original project stages.




                       Figure 1. Noosa Sustainability Institute Project Stages

The completion of the Stage 1 investigation has been delayed due to a number of reasons
including change in personnel at CSIRO and change in the business area considered most
appropriate to undertake this work for CSIRO. In addition to this Noosa Council staff determined
at the completion of this report by CSIRO that further work was required to supplement the work
by CSIRO and provide a greater level of awareness about what was already occurring locally
around research and sustainability action. Council staff are aware of many organisations and
action locally engaged in research, solution identification, education and action to address a
range of local and global sustainability challenges. It was considered important to start to collate
this and consider the role of a potential institute and Council in this significant effort. This
additional work included local case studies to complement the work undertaken by CSIRO of
national and international sustainability institute and centre case studies. A summary of local
examples, organisations and action is provided later in this report.

Attachment 1 is the report by CSIRO for Stage 1 of the research into the concept of the Noosa
Sustainability Institute. In developing this report and findings, consultation was undertaken
internally with staff involved in sustainability and research related activities, and discussions were
held with a small number of representatives of key groups or individuals including NBRF. This
input provided valuable insights into historical activity, research and sustainability initiatives
currently underway. It contributed to the development of a set of statements categorised as ‘non-
negotiables’, ‘important’ and ‘desirable’ considered to be important for any institute idea to
succeed in Noosa. These statements or criteria alongside the original brief guided the
preparation of the Stage 1 report.


                                                                                      Page 36 of 63