Victorian Adaptation and Sustainability Partnership

As part of its Sustainable Living Strategy, Council was successful in obtaining $40,000 in funding from the State Government’s Victorian Adaptation and Sustainability Partnership (VASP) to employ an Adaptation and Sustainability Officer for 12 months.

The officer’s role is to advance council’s leadership and capacity in the area of climate risk adaptability and sustainability. Duties include developing and implementing appropriate plans and initiatives in key areas of council operations and responsibility that will increase resilience and contribute to the economic, environmental and social wellbeing of the community and region.

Outcomes for council and its community include:

• Improved management (from a climate change, adaptation and sustainability perspective) of risks and impacts to:

• public assets owned and managed by council
• service delivery

• Implementation of priority adaptation and sustainability actions identified by council.
• Improved compliance (including with legislation and other statutory requirements, council plans and strategies, partnership commitments, etc) and monitoring.
• Sourcing and securing funding and other resources as necessary to implement change.
• Supporting and collaborating with the community, locally-based organisations and other stakeholders to build adaptive capacity and climate resilience in local communities.
• Effective participation in local and regional partnerships and networks aimed at increasing regional sustainability and manage climate risk.
• Communication and promotion of project and wider, key messages associated with the VASP program.

Key duties under VASP include:

Working with council staff in integrating adaptation/sustainability considerations into decision making and governance processes across all areas of council operations and responsibilities, including

• Risk management, compliance, and OHS
• Building and asset management
• Natural resource management
• Waste management
• Utility monitoring
• Emergency management
• Business and economic development (e.g. feedback/reviewing plans and strategies)
• Planning
• Community health and wellbeing

The purpose of this project is to basically to benchmark where Northern Grampians Shire Council is at with regard to the sustainability of the organisation and to identify gaps, barriers and opportunities for improvement primarily from a risk and opportunity perspective. 

The project is looking to involve all staff, across all operational areas, in the process so that it can help develop the culture of sustainability within the organisation that is an objective of council’s Sustainable Living Strategy, and which will help further integrate sustainability and adaptation considerations into corporate decision making.