Winner Division C and Overall Winner

Shoalhaven City Council: Sustainable Energy for a Sustainable Future
Shoalhaven City Council adopted its Sustainable Energy Policy in May 2019 with an aim to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Council has completed a range of sustainable energy projects including trialling three fully electric vehicles in its fleet, installation of 388kW of solar PV across 10 sites, commenced a revolving energy fund, replaced 4,200 street lights with energy saving LEDs and supported Repower Shoalhaven community energy group’s solar farm development: Social Access Solar Garden.

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Winner Division B

Dubbo Regional Council: Accelerating Dubbo Regional Council towards a renewable energy future – development of an energy strategy and implementation plan 2020 – 2025
Dubbo Regional Council has adopted an ambitious Energy Strategy and Implementation Plan (2020 – 2025) aimed at reducing Council’s energy costs and includes a renewable energy target of 50%. Council has started implementing the strategy with an upgrade of more than 90% of Council’s street light network to new energy efficient LED technology at a cost of over $2.37 million and with a payback period of four years. Estimated savings are 1784 MWh/year or nearly 1500 tonnes of emissions/year.

Highly Commended Division C

Georges River Council: 100% Renewable energy and working towards net zero emissions for Georges River Council
Early 2019, Georges River Council implemented a number of initiatives to reduce its operational carbon footprint however a holistic vision and a formal commitment towards a net zero carbon target was missing.  Council has since adopted a strategy to purchase 100% of its energy from renewable sources and achieve a net zero carbon target by 2025 for operational emissions. In the past 12 months the council has doubled its solar PV panel capacity to 217 kW, included two electric vehicles in the fleet; certifying three major events as carbon neutral events; joined the accelerated conversion program of LED Street lights with Ausgrid; developed a Revolving Energy Fund; and embedded the concept of working towards net zero carbon across Council.