80km coastline, 155km2 bushland, 540 native animal species: how can we protect it?

Here on the Northern Beaches we are extremely fortunate to have a natural environment that features rare plants and animals, coastal beaches, harbours, lagoons, catchments, waterways and extensive bushland.

It is undeniably what makes us special, supports our health and active lifestyles, connects us and is one of the things we value most about our region.

Council’s Protect. Create. Live – Environment and Climate Change Strategy reflects community values and provides a roadmap for how we can shape a bright environmental future by addressing the challenges and embracing opportunities. It will guide planning decisions and policy making and identifies strategies for helping improve and protect our environment and embed sustainability into the way we do things.

The draft strategy is now open for public comment and we encourage everyone to go online, read the document and have your say on the future of our natural and built environments.

The implementation of the strategy will ensure that our natural environment is protected and enhanced, that new buildings, neighbourhoods and places are connected and built sustainably and that we make sustainable choices in the way we live everyday to reduce waste generation and resource use.

This strategy will also guide our community to act now to tackle the challenges our environment faces and protect it in the long term. Council will adopt corporate commitments that stretch further than those for our community so we can learn what it takes to make the change and support our community to do the same.

Council will advocate, lead by example, use key planning levers, as well as educate, engage and collaborate with the community to reach our goals. We are already well on our way supporting our community to protect the environment with programs and workshops helping residents reduce waste and energy consumption. We also have business partners on the ground working with local shops and business owners to save water and energy and reduce waste. Council has also just announced a target to increase community solar panel uptake.

Council staff will be on hand over the coming months so you can learn more about the Protect. Create. Live document and have a say before it is adopted and implementation begins.

Don’t miss your chance to help shape the future of the environment on the Northern Beaches.

We need your help to make this long-term plan happen so please let us know what you think of the plan on our Your Say page. You can comment in the interactive chapters or provide a submission via an online form. See here for upcoming events where members of the project team will be available to chat about the draft strategy.

Submissions close Sunday 27 October 2019.