Northern Rivers Sustainability Snapshot
A brief snapshot of our region from the Northern Rivers Community Foundation (NRCF) – of which Byron Shire is one part.
The Northern Rivers is a diverse region, with over 300,00 people who have
recently experienced challenges, but who are resilient too.
The Northern Rivers Community Foundation undertakes research to benchmark
opportunities to help better understand the impacts of events such as bushfires and floods (https://nrcf.org.au/our-impact/research/).
For example, the impact of the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires in the Northern Rivers was
8,120 km2 of burned land which is 39% of all land in the region.
There is still so much we need to do, and yet as relatively early adopters we in the Northern Rivers have a lot to be proud of. Remarkably, the snapshot indicates that our emissions in the Northern Rivers ( 57% from electricity and 12 % from agriculture) are more than 16% lower than the average emissions
of both NSW and Australia as a whole. Solar PV uptake is also high, 1 in 2 dwellings compared to the NSW average of 1 in 3.
Vital Signs
The NRCF produce a snap shot of statistical information about the Northern Rivers, containing information relating to diverse topics from housing, to employment, to sustainability. The report is designed to start conversations in our community about how we can make a difference for a stronger and better region. The full 6 page report is available here: https://nrcf.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Northern-Rivers-NSW-Vital-Signs_6622WITH-3.pdf
Tracking Emissions
Related to tracking progress on sustainability indicators, Zero Emissions Byron has also produced baseline emissions reportsover the years, starting in 2016, and updated in 2018 and 2021. These were designed to better understand the sources of emissions in our region, and provided targeted strategies to address them. This work provided baseline tracking on 5 key sectors: energy, buildings, transport, land use and waste - and provided strategies focused on reducing strategies for each sector.
