Collaboration | ISCA and Christchurch City Council Sign Memorandum of Understanding

Collaboration | ISCA and Christchurch City Council Sign Memorandum of Understanding

Christchurch City Council recognises that climate change is having a critical and significant impact on their environment. This is echoed through the commitments and actions taken by the Council to provide leadership on climate change such as:  setting a carbon neutral by 2030 goal; joining the Compact of Mayors for Energy and Climate; new sustainable procurement requirements, and the revision of its climate smart strategy in 2019.

On the 23^rd May the Council declared a Climate Emergency, a similar and necessary approach taken by world leading local governments. With climate change leadership a publicly announced strategic priority, Christchurch City Council is making it clear that business as usual is no longer an acceptable solution.

In another bold move, the first of its kind across Australia and New Zealand, the Council signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA) to measure, monitor and report on the Council carbon load across its infrastructure asset portfolio.
Councillor Sara Templeton, Chair of the Climate Change Working Group, attended ISCA’s #ConnectNZ Infrastructure Sustainability Summit in Auckland in May, executing the MOU with Ainsley Simpson, ISCA CEO.

As part of a panel on climate and carbon, Councillor Templeton confirmed the weight of Council’s commitment, noting “that going forward Councillors will review all decisions with an additional lens of climate risk – a bold and essential step that reflects the scale and speed of change needed.”

The MOU sets out a collaborative pathway with Council as well as actions to support the Council’s infrastructure supply chain in making this rapid transition. Mrs Simpson commended Council for already updating their procurement policy to include sustainability as a priority. Deployment of ISCA tools provides the next step to begin recording a baseline and consistently measuring progress towards carbon neutrality.

She further commented that “We are looking forward to working with Council to help increase awareness and the use of tools that can help the city reach its zero net emissions goals. Using the IS Materials Calculator will help drive and deliver measurable improvements from infrastructure.” Infrastructure enabling transportation and waste management inherently have high emissions profiles.

Suppliers can find out more about ISCA’s tools through an online program. For more information contact training@isca.org.au.