Embracing solar, buying more electric vehicles and drastically reducing landfill form the heart of the local council's plan to reduce its own emissions to net zero.
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Wagga City Council has formally adopted its corporate net zero strategy, which outlines the tactics the organisation will use to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040.
The strategy focuses on eliminating the emissions directly within the council's control, such as from streetlights and company cars.
Council's manager of environment Mark Gardiner said the biggest focus is overhauling the region's waste system, which currently produces 80 per cent of council's emissions.
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He said this can be helped by encouraging further use of the food organics and garden organics (FOGO) bins, particularly by supermarkets and restaurants.
Plans have also been made to install a gas-to-energy plant at the landfill site, which will turn the methane produced by over 30 years of historic waste into electricity for the local grid.
Gas-powered assets will be swapped to electric, more solar panels will be installed and the council will go fully-renewable.
"All our electricity is going to be supplied by renewable energy by 2025 so we're already well on our way to meeting our energy emissions target," he said.
The council will also slowly be upgrading its fleet of company cars to electric vehicles.
Mr Gardiner said the financial impact of each initiative has been closely assessed and it is believed the changes will save the council money in the long-term.
Councillors voted unanimously to adopt the strategy on Monday night, despite some hesitancy about whether or not net zero would be attained by 2040.
Cr Rod Kendall said one of the key reasons he supported the motion was because it promised regular reviews of the targets.
"It's particularly important that we don't just set in stone targets that may become unachievable," he said.
Cr Kendall said these reviews would help ensure the target on net zero is not rushed and is achieved in an economic way - making it a "win-win" for council and the community.
Echoing this sentiment, Cr Tim Koschel said it was good to get the gears turning on emissions reduction even if the 2040 goal wasn't achieved.
"If we do miss it but we're better off than we are now then that's still good," he said.
Cr Richard Foley suggested the council consider building a solar farm near the landfill site.
"We could put at least 10 megawatts out there which would be a pretty interesting way to make some money to fix our potholes," he said.
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