Earth Hour 2008
Earth Hour went global on 29 March 2008 with more than 370 cities, towns and council areas joining Sydney in the lights off campaign.
The inaugural 2007 Earth Hour campaign led by WWF-Australia and supported by the City of Sydney and The Sydney Morning Herald saw more than two million people switch off their lights for one hour.
In 2008, millions of Australian residents joined Earth Hour with approximately 58 per cent of adults in capital cities taking part. AMR Interactive research showed that they participated in Earth Hour in a number of ways including turning off the lights at home (56%), turning off some household appliances (46%), and taking the mobile phone charger off standby (37%).
The City supported the campaign by turning off all non-essential lighting at properties owned and managed by City of Sydney as well as by encouraging all City of Sydney tenants and residents to take action and make every hour Earth Hour by reducing energy consumption in their day-to-day activities.
Click here to read more about Earth Hour 2008.
What is Sydney Doing Now?
City of Sydney to go Carbon Neutral
The City is committed to environmental leadership and will become carbon neutral in 2008, producing zero net greenhouse gas emissions through cost-effective energy reduction measures, using accredited GreenPower and purchasing greenhouse gas offsets.
This will build on current initiatives such as increasing water reuse, drought proofing our parks, planting more trees, reducing waste going into landfill and engaging our communities in innovative and particle sustainability strategies.
Car Share - Lowering Vehicle Numbers
The City is trialling up to 90 dedicated on-street parking spaces for car share schemes. Car share reduces car numbers and reduces environmental impacts, as many members share the use of one vehicle. To find out more click here.
Sydney’s Shared Cycleway
The shared cycleway plan is part of the City of Sydney's ambitious Cycling Strategy which aims to increase the cycling route network to almost 200 kilometres which includes 55 kilometres of separated cycle lanes and approximately 145 kilometres of cycle ways, dedicated cycle lanes and shared zones.
A city of recyclers
The City of Sydney aims to cut its domestic waste by 50 per cent over the next five years. The City is committed to doing this by increasing the amount of waste that is recycled every year.
Last financial year, the City recovered over 16,000 tonnes of recyclable materials and diverted it from going to landfill – enough to fill the Sydney Cricket Ground three times over. This saved 8,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions: equal to removing 2000 cars from the road permanently or supplying 12,400 households with electricity for a year.
Creating a Sustainable Sydney
Sustainable Sydney 2030 is a plan to make Sydney a more liveable and thriving global city with a strong focus on environmental sustainability.
The comprehensive long term vision will guide the sustainable development of the City of Sydney for the next 20 years and beyond.
Improve your office energy efficiency
The 3CBDs Greenhouse Initiative engages with commercial office tenants to educate, promote and assist them to implement simple-to-achieve stationery energy efficiency, thereby reducing the CO2 emissions attributed to climate change.
The Initiative is a partnership between the City of Sydney, North Sydney Council, Parramatta City Council and the Department of Environment & Climate Change.
Click here to find out more about 3CBDs.
What you can do as a resident?
To find out more about what the City of Sydney is doing and what you can do to make a difference to the environment click here.
Free workshops
As part of a joint initiative with Marrickville Council, under The Watershed, the City runs Urban Sustainability workshops on topics which cover waste, water and energy use.
For workshop information, click here
YouTube video
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Last Updated: Monday 2 June, 2008
