This week we celebrate World Environment Day (June 5), and council staff have organised free workshops for residents to learn simple, practical and enjoyable ways to live a sustainable lifestyle, and reduce their environmental impact.
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There’s beeswax wrap making, home composting, growing mushrooms at home and using natural fertilisers and pest controls in your backyard.
Many workshops are fully booked, but some have spaces available, visit kiama.nsw.gov.au to make a reservation.
Council is also making itself more environmentally sustainable. The Pavilion Kiama has become the first commercial venue to use the OK Organics Kiama waste service.
Early results show a ‘resource recovery rate’ of 95.72 per cent. That’s a jump of more than 25 per cent, and a credit to our waste management team, the staff at The Pavilion and their caterer for embracing the change.
Staff at council’s administration building are also using the system. Given we’re the biggest employer in town, it makes me proud to see staff ‘walking the talk’.
Kiama Library is doing its bit by having solar panels installed. They are currently working through quotations but hope to have the panels in place before summer.
National Tree Day is on August 6, and I’m reminded, each year, council plants around 600 new trees. That’s local students and Landcare groups working on sites not managed by council.
Importantly council is working with Ironbark Sustainability to establish a baseline for local emissions to better assess how we are tracking in the long term as a community.
My thanks to the NSW government for the funding to make this happen.
All this gives us a great story to tell when we host the inaugural Cities Power Partnership National Summit in October.
I look forward to standing up in front of other mayors and councillors who are part of this great initiative, and telling them what a great job Kiama is doing when it comes to climate change and sustainability.
Lastly, I’d like to congratulate The Pavilion for securing the right to host the 2019 Australian Coastal Councils Conference.
This is a big deal for Kiama, with up 200 delegates from 51 councils, leading academics and researchers, representatives from government agencies, state and federal politicians as well as community representatives.
Happy World Environment Day.
