Information collected from residents will help build the first Armidale Regional LGA “carbon account”, the first step in the process towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and reaching the objectives of Project Zero30, a partnership between the Armidale Regional Council, the University of New England (UNE), Business New England, local businesses and community members.
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UNE research lead Dr Kara Tighe, said the Project Zero30 team is at the stage of understanding and measuring current emissions from all sources, including households, to feed into the carbon account.
“Our first carbon account will provide the baseline against which future emissions will be benchmarked and enable us to track our journey to zero emissions by 2030,” Dr Tighe said.
“The survey has been developed to help estimate greenhouse gas emissions arising from our community’s household heating, refrigeration, lawn mowing, and transportation habits – information only the community can provide.
“Information collected through the survey will provide a platform from which household emissions can be estimated and included in the Armidale Regional LGA carbon account. We’ve kept the survey focused on the key household information required for the carbon account,” she said.
The project team has already sourced data from local business, government and commercial databases to estimate greenhouse gas emissions arising from agriculture, energy, transport, waste and agriculture forestry and other land use sectors using Australian Government approved methodologies.
“There are many groups within the community who have contributed their invaluable time and support to the carbon account to date. Many thanks go out to Local Land Services , Norco, GrazAg, Edwards coaches and our independent bus drivers, Origin, Essential Energy, Ducats, NSW DPI officers, our Armidale Regional Council Airport, Train Station, Waste and Waste Water managers, as well as UNE Estate and Built Environment personnel,” Dr Tighe said.
Project Zero30 is pursuing Climate Active Carbon Neutral certification for precincts on behalf of the Armidale Regional LGA. That is, government backed certification awarded to precincts that have credibly reached a state of net zero emissions, or carbon neutrality. This means that activities occurring within the LGA will have no net negative impact on the climate.
The survey is open until 30 November 2021.
