by Shane Henson — April 12, 2013—The City of Melbourne is one step closer to its goal of becoming one of the world’s most sustainable cities with its recent carbon neutral certification awarded by Low Carbon Australia, a provider of finance solutions and advice for Australian businesses and accreditation for carbon-neutral products and organizations.
According to Low Carbon Australia, to be carbon neutral means that the net emissions associated with a product, service, event or an organization’s activities are equal to zero. For an organization, service, event or product to become carbon neutral, best practice requires an organization to measure its carbon footprint, reduce emissions, and offset any residual emissions.
Carbon neutral certification is according to the National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS), which provides integrity through its guidance on genuine voluntary offsets and its minimum requirements for calculating, auditing and offsetting a carbon footprint to achieve carbon neutrality, says Low Carbon Australia.
Environment Portfolio Chair Councillor Arron Wood said certification by Low Carbon Australia to the NCOS was a solid demonstration of the City of Melbourne’s commitment to a more sustainable Melbourne.
Wood says as part of this commitment, city officials are delivering new waste management solutions, upgrading several council buildings by installing efficient heating, cooling and water systems, and making improvements to Melbourne Town Hall, which will result in significant savings in lighting costs. In addition, the city is helping commercial building owners upgrade their buildings with energy-efficient technologies.
