During the latest Parks and Leisure Australia Vic/Tas Region Industry Talk, Jarrod Hill shared his thoughts on actions that can be done to reduce a project's carbon emissions and how to plan Fields of Play projects in preparation to meet net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
This target is something that a lot of countries around the world are aiming for, Australia among them. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris Agreement, adopted by 196 countries who attended the summit in 2015, is a treaty with the goal to limit global warming. Most attending countries have committed to targeting net-zero carbon by 2050, some even setting more ambitious goals of reaching the zero target by 2030.
What does this mean for us?
Most of our States, Councils included, have taken that goal on board and are moving away from an eco-efficiency approach to an eco-effective one. What is the difference?
Eco-efficiency – a short-term solution?
An eco-efficiency approach equals to being more efficient in what we do using fewer natural resources production to attain the same outcome. It relays on the three Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle, which touch on the idea of getting the most out of what we’re working with while generating less waste. However, doing so means we aren’t using the material at its full potential, therefore not getting that full efficiency mentioned above: this is what we call the rebound effect. Efficiency is also a notion that doesn’t have an independent value by itself. It’s intrinsically reliant on every other component around it to become valuable.
Eco-effective approach to work with nature
On the other hand, the eco-effective approach offers to look at the situation as a cyclical process: focusing on the right products, services, systems, which will help the world and the planet that we live in. It evolves around the principle of “not controlling the nature but working with it.” One great example is roofs: we’ve turned roofs into a green aspect of our urban life, by retaining some of heat run off and reducing it, working with nature while not going against what its natural form is.
It is these train of thoughts that we should look into applying to all areas, whether it might be a Field of Play design, a building construction… finding solutions on how we can return these projects as close as possible to nature in its natural form.
The end goal here is to support this larger ecological system by removing this one-way linear flow of materials. Our current solutions of disposing waste into landfills are short term solutions, as landfills get bigger, creating negative ecological and economical impacts. Developing a positive relationship between these two systems is essential in reaching our net-zero target in the given deadline.
Check out our video below to learn more on this topic! 👇
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or any feedback on this question: we’re curious to hear your thoughts!