2019-06-11 P&E Agenda - Item 7 - Attachment 1 - Environment Strategy

Sustainable living
Goal                                                           It may no longer be enough to gradually reduce
                                                               emissions but in fact in a state of climate emergency it
By 2030 the Noosa community is living in an                    will be necessary to reduce and reverse global warming,
increasingly sustainable manner and is carbon                  necessitating new and immediate forms of action as a
neutral.                                                       community to avoid exponential impacts on our health
                                                               and environment.
The natural environment sustains and fulfils human life
through ‘ecosystem services’. Ecosystem services are the       We all have the capacity to influence change by taking
benefits provided to humans through the transformation         action.
of natural resources into the flow of essential goods
and services such as clean air, water and food. The            This theme is progressed through the following 3
sustainability of communities and economies depends            strategies:
upon our ability to maintain or restore the ecological
                                                               •    reduce waste to landfill
functions of both urban and rural landscapes. Yet our
current lifestyles are impacting on the very ecological        •    encourage incorporation of more sustainable
services that sustain us. If everyone lived like the average        building elements
Australian we would need around 5 planets to support us        •    adopt sustainable agricultural practices.
– but we only have one.
                                                               Other sustainable living issues, such as transport,
Sustainable living means moving from a “take-make-             tourism, housing accessibility and affordability, and urban
waste” society to a circular economy that is based             design, are closely interrelated to the issues covered
on renewable energy sources, eliminates waste and              here. They are the focus of existing Council strategic
pollution, and keeps products and services in use.             documents such as the Transport Strategy, Local
Sustainable living means living in built and natural           Economic Plan, Social Strategy and the Noosa Planning
environments in a way that reduces and minimises               Scheme.
impacts on natural resources, and contributes to the
preservation and restoration of ecological services on
both a local and global scale.

Noosa Shire has an ongoing role to play both locally and
globally in promoting sustainable living. Noosa’s shared
community vision for the environment, as well as strong
community partnerships that successfully advocate
for and improve the environment, will continue to be
important for driving an ecologically sustainable approach
to Noosa’s prosperity.

Environment and sustainability will need to move beyond
locally and regionally-focused actions to a deeper sense
of responsibility for our global environment. Noosa’s
resource consumption, energy use and carbon pollution
contributes to global environmental impacts and both
the Noosa Council and the Noosa community have a
responsibility to ‘think and act globally’.




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