The Macedon Ranges Shire Council Annual Environment Report 2022-2023 highlights the key steps taken in the past year to improve the natural environment within the shire.
The report, presented at council’s October 25 meeting, is prepared each year outlining council’s progress towards achieving the vision and objectives outlined in its environment strategy.
By focusing on environmental outcomes instead of completed activities or outputs, the report allows council to assess the ecological condition of the shire and its progress towards achieving its environmental goals.
Highlights from this year’s report included adopting the Counting Down to Net Zero Emissions for Council Operations by 2030 plan; installation of additional solar panels and battery capacity to enable Macedon Community Centre and Romsey Recreation Centre to become off-grid relief centres; and installing three electric vehicle charging stations for public use in Lancefield, Macedon and Kyneton, as well as charging stations at all key council offices.
The total amount of kerbside general waste was reduced by 7.5 per cent, while 22,600 wildflowers, grasses, hedges, shrubs, and trees were planted along priority waterways in the Macedon Ranges.
Cr Jennifer Anderson noted council had an obligation to adhere to the Local Government Act in terms of maintaining economic, social, and environmental sustainability, but said council had exceeded its goals.
“I think we do so much more than what the Local Government Act says we need to do,” she said.
“The beauty of this report is it looks back over the past 12 months and gives us the opportunity to go ‘oh, I didn’t realise we did that. How could we do it better? What can we improve?’
“It’s not a static report, we can take it and actually act upon it.”
Other highlights of the report include awards for two Macedon Ranges initiatives.
The Romsey storm waste facility won the special projects initiative category of the LGPro Awards for Excellence, while the Cool Changes program was a finalist at the LGPro Awards for corporate and community planning.
Cr Anderson said the report highlighted the strong combined effort of a range of council departments.
“It also shows the collaboration that we have across all the departments of council, and also working with our community,” she said.
“It’s a fine document and it’s great that we made the decision early when we adopted the [environment] strategy that we would have an annual report.”
