Annual Report 2010 - Christchurch City Council

p20. Annual Report
Christchurch Otautahi
2010
Your Council
Community Outcomes
(continued)
Community Outcomes (continued)
3. Environment
A city of people who value and protect the natural environment
Community Outcome
Our lifestyles reflect our commitment to guardianship of the
natural environment in and around Christchurch. We actively
work to protect, enhance and restore our environment for future
generations.
We will know we are succeeding when:
• everybody takes responsibility for their impact on the natural
environment
• biodiversity is restored, protected and enhanced
• we manage our city to minimise damage to the environment
Progress is measured using these headline indicators:
• tonnes of waste to landfill
• liquid waste
• total ground water use
• renewable versus non-renewable energy consumption
• waste recycling
• recreational water quality
• number and area of ecological heritage sites
How are we doing as a community?
Climate change is an environmental issue for Christchurch as it is
for the planet.
To date, few city-wide comprehensive actions have been taken
to reduce climate change. Some environmental initiatives are
increasing their positive impacts over time. These include: target
sustainability, which is supporting businesses to better manage
energy use and waste; domestic recycling initiatives, which aim
to reduce the quantity of domestic waste that goes to landfill;
and water conservation education programmes. The public has
responded positively to these initiatives.
Since 2003, waste to landfill has decreased from 651 kilograms to
487.7 kilograms per person and the amount of waste recycled over
the last eight years has increased.
Between 2002 and 2006 the total amount of energy used per person
has shown little change, fluctuating between 117 and 123 gigajoules
per person per year.
In 2007, there were approximately 15,376 hectares of protected
conservation land within Christchurch - around 11 per cent of the
total land area. The percentage of river site samples exceeding
water quality guidelines fell from 81 per cent in the summer of
1999/2000 to 42 per cent in 2007/2008.
Positive environmental initiatives such as the three bin waste
management initiative, which commenced in 2009, will help
minimise environmental damage into the future. Per capita,
water abstraction has remained steady over the past seven years
averaging 150 cubic metres per person annually from 2001 to 2008
(equalling 410 litres per person per day).