The ACT Greens believe:
1. ACT Government activities and decisions have significant consequences for resource use and the environment
2. the negative environmental impacts of ACT Government activities and decisions must be identified, accounted for and ameliorated
3. ACT Government purchasing and investment should be ecologically sustainable and socially just
4. opportunities must be provided for open and independent review of ACT Government decisions with significant environmental impact and resource use.

The ACT Greens want:
1. adequate accounting for environmental costs and benefits in decision-making
2. public accountability for the environmental impacts of ACT government decision-making and purchasing
3. sound environmental research, informed by the Precautionary Principle, to underpin ACT Government decision-making where there is a risk of environmental impact
4. ethical investment of public funds
5. ACT Government purchasing decisions to be guided by the environmental impact over the item’s life cycle
6. major ACT Government activities to be carried out under the guidance of an environmental management plan.

The ACT Greens support:
1. establishing a review process to assess the impact of ACT legislation on the ecological sustainability of the Canberra community
2. developing measurable goals, performance indicators and strategies to reduce any adverse ecological impacts of ACT legislation
3. ensuring that the following ACT Government documents are publicly available:
3.1. sustainability reviews of legislation and progress in implementing strategies to reduce adverse impacts
3.2. environmental management system plans from ACT Government agencies and annual reports on progress on implementation
3.3. plans on the implementation of energy and water efficiency retro-fitting activities for ACT Government occupied/owned buildings
4. strengthening sustainable procurement guidelines for the ACT Government and requiring their use in all major purchasing decisions
5. strengthening investment guidelines to encourage ethical investment of public funds, reviewing in particular the current ‘risk-based’ approach
6. establishing a timetable for a target of purchasing 100% of ACT Government electricity from renewable sources
7. requiring all ACT Government agencies to develop environmental management plans for their activities, with annual reporting against benchmarks on progress of implementation to ACT Legislative Assembly
8. building upon the current ‘revolving fund’, develop programs to encourage and reward best practice environmental management amongst ACT Government staff and processes for wide-spread adoption through the sector
9. developing a plan to retro-fit energy and water efficiency technologies into buildings owned by the ACT Government, and working with landlords to retro-fit energy and water efficiency technologies in buildings leased by ACT Government agencies.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 30th, 2008 at 12:09 am and is filed under Policy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.