Focus On... Efficiency and sustainability

• Cultivating mindfulness and leadership
  Cardinia Shire Council, Victoria, introduced a monthly mindfulness program into its Operations business unit, in February this year.
• Effective procurement ensures sustainability*
  By Phil Stark
• High achiever - Erica McKinnell Community Service Project Officer, Break O’Day Council
  
• High achiever - Circular Head Community Services team
  
• Waste campaign success
  China’s ban in early 2018, on recyclable materials from Australia, prompted the City of Gosnells, Western Australia, like many local governments, to act quickly to educate and engage residents about what this meant for the local and wider community.
• Reframing the best practice approach*
  By Rhonda Skelton
• Agenda and minutes solution to transform local government sector*
  Creating and distributing council meeting agendas and minutes can be tedious and time consuming.
• From rubbish bin to dinner plate
  This Christmas, your festive crayfish meal may be caught in a craypot made from recycled rubbish bin lids, thanks to an innovative collaboration between the City of Cockburn, Western Australia, and local business Green Machines Lab (GML).
• Improvements since amalgamation
  Inner West Council, New South Wales, has completed an 18 month review of its operational service areas, including resource recovery, civil works, parks and streetscapes teams.
• Better service online
  Expectations were high in May 2019 when Boroondara Council, Victoria, launched its new online pet registration form.
• Driving reconciliation for 20 years
  Guraki Aboriginal Advisory Committee, City of Newcastle, New South Wales, has celebrated two decades of strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Novocastrians.
• Planet Ark celebrates the West Australian Wood Encouragement Policy*
  In July 2019 Planet Ark’s Make It Wood campaign celebrated the introduction of a Wood Encouragement Policy (WEP) for Western Australia after playing a key role in the policy’s adoption.
• Outgoing Chair of Regional Capitals Australia welcomes priority status call
  The outgoing Chair of Regional Capitals Australia (RCA), Councillor Samantha McIntosh of the City of Ballarat, has welcomed the call from the Business Council of Australia for 10 regional cities across the country to be given special ‘priority status’.
• Parking permits go digital
  In a first for local government in New South Wales, Mosman Council has updated its parking permit system to online system vPermit, and all parking permits issued by Council are now digital.
• Which Bin? competition targets cleaner waste
  Moree Plains Shire Council, New South Wales, is targeting waste contamination with their new Which Bin? competition encouraging local residents to correctly dispose of recycling and organic waste.
• Kimba takes home two National Grey Nomad awards
  District Council of Kimba, South Australia, has won two titles at the inaugural Grey Nomad Awards announced at a gala dinner on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast last month.
• An effective solution for historical data as Hornsby Council moves to the cloud*
  Hornsby Shire Council on Sydney’s northern outskirts has found a ready solution to the challenge of what to do with important historical data when retiring legacy systems ahead of a move to the cloud.
• Adelaide amongst world’s top 21 smart cities again
  Adelaide has been recognised by global think tank The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) as one of the world’s top smart cities for the third year running.