2020
Community Engagement The capacity of governments to implement reform is limited by the degree of community support for change. Hence it is critical to match legislative and policy reform with community education and engagement programs, and to encourage those in the community who want to implement local sustainability solutions. Our BushTender program was an innovative way of involving local landowners in conservation efforts, and also an example of using competition to achieve positive environmental outcomes. Landholders are now able to bid for government funding to protect areas of their own land that are identified to be of high environmental value. Preserving native vegetation is an important way of both addressing groundwater hydrology and maintaining biodiversity.
Source: Chris Taylor
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Our Climate Communities program is another good example of community engagement. It was backed with $102 million over four years, which came from an increase in the levy on waste disposed to landfill – in itself an incentive to increase recycling. The objective was to support local communities to reduce emissions and try new ideas, by providing local groups with advice, information, research and funding to take action.
More Efficient Government Leadership means setting an example. Government agencies are large users of energy, water and paper and need to be seen as leaders in implementing the policies they are asking the broader community to adopt. We succeeded in reducing the energy consumption of government buildings by 20 per cent over