With the introduction of the Integrated Planning and Reporting (IP&R) framework, the requirements for council’s SoE reporting changed to make it part of the corporate planning and reporting process.

Local government environmental reporting requirements
The content and format of SoE reports is up to councils. The minimum requirement is to measure and report on the progress of the environmental goals in Council’s Community Strategic Plan (CSP). The End of Term report has the same requirement but for all of the goals in the CSP. SoE reporting could be met by attaching the environment section from the End of Term report to the Annual Report in the year of an ordinary election.

Some councils choose to do more comprehensive environmental reporting. This may be because:

• Operational decisions are based on the evaluation of environmental monitoring, therefore more detailed/robust information is required;

• It fosters regional cooperation (in the case of regional reporting);

• It provides opportunities for grant funding; and/or

• There is a community expectation of more comprehensive reporting.

The NSW Environment Report on the EPA website provides an example of content and format.