The Council's Sustainability Initiatives

Sustainability Reporting

The Council has been reporting on its corporate sustainability activities in Waitakere City Council Annual Reports since 2002/2003. In 2006/2007 the Council began using the internationally recognised Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework to assist in developing the contents of the sustainability report.

View Waitakere City Council's Annual Reports including sustainability reporting.

Renewable Energy

There are a number of other installations in Waitakere City that produce renewable energy, including:

• Massey Leisure Centre and Library  - 8.16 kW photovoltaic system with 96 BP585 panels
• Civil Defence - 1.05 kW photovoltaic system with 6 Sharp Solar 175W panels and a Bealsey Centurion 315 litre solar how water system with 2 panels
• Waitakere Central - 1 kW wind turbine (being trialled by Vector) and a Streamline 340 litre solar how water system with 6 panels
• Waitakere Central Library - Streamline 340 litre solar how water system with 2 panels
• Henderson Valley Primary School- part of Genesis Energy's Schoolgen programme
• Tirimoana Primary School - part of Genesis Energy's Schoolgen programme

Sustainable Buildings

The Council began designing sustainable buildings with Massey Leisure Centre Stage 1 in 1999 and subsequently developed The Better Building Code to incorporate Environmentally Sustainable Design (ESD) into its design and construction contracts for all new buildings. The Council has trialled different sustainability innovations within each of the buildings.

View Waitakere City's sustainability buildings.

Street Lighting

Waitakere City Council began to investigate energy efficient technologies in 2007 to reduce the energy usage and associated greenhouse gases of Waitakere's street lighting network.

Energy efficient street lighting technologies that Waitakere City Council has installed to date include:

• New Metal Halides - brand name 'CosmoPolis' - 203 installed during 2008/2009 with approximately 23% energy reduction
• Light Emitting Diodes (LED) - brand name 'Stealth' - 19 installed during 2008/2009 with approximately 55% energy reduction

In September 2008 Waitakere City Council and Modus Lighting hosted Advancing New Zealand's Street Lighting Technologies Forum and Night Tour with over 120 participants attending. The forum was an opportunity to share information on energy efficient street lighting technologies that the Council had learnt with street lighting designers, engineers, purchasers, maintenance companies, councils, central government agencies (e.g. Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, Electricity Commission) energy lines companies and retailers. The forum was possibly the first time all the stakeholders of the street lighting industry had come together to talk about increasing the energy efficiency of New Zealand street lighting infrastructure.

Limited copies of the DVD from 'Advancing New Zealand's Street Lighting Technologies - Presentations, Forum, Demonstrations' are available from Modus Lighting Limited or Waitakere City Council.

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The following publications have produced reviews and case studies, including Waitakere, on energy efficient street lighting technologies being installed in New Zealand and covers some of the issues being discussed by the street lighting industry. '

• Street Lighting Technology Supplement 2008/2009 (Size 1021KB)  produced by Local Government Magazine (November 2008) 
• Green City Bright Streets (Size 289K) produced by Electrical + Automation Technology Magazine (December '08/January '09)
• Street Lighting Update (Size 2893K) produced by Local Government Magazine (September 2009)

Changing the way we look at evaluating street lighting infrastructure is important for a sustainable street lighting outcome. Considerations that needs to be incorporated into decision making include energy efficiency of lamps/luminaires and control gear, lifetime, maintenance implications (lamps and labour) and costs. Most importantly, examining the cost implications on a whole of life cost - not just upfront installation cost.

The Electricity Commission have developed RightLight Road Lighting to provide a complete online source of tools and information to achieve optimal standards, designs and technical solutions for cost-effective road lighting in New Zealand. To access the RightLight Road Lighting tools and information check out their website.

Project Twin Streams LED Lighting

In March 2010 the council celebrated the opening of the first 5.7 kilometres of the network to be illuminated by lightemitting diode (LED) lights, believed to be the largest LED public space project in New Zealand at the time. Due to the limited budget, the tender was awarded to provide lighting to comply with AS/NZS 1158.3.1 Lighting Subcategory P4. From site trials, Advanced Lighting Technologies (product supplier) and Coll Eclectrical were able to show that by slightly reducing the spacing between poles to no greater than 35 metres spacing the light levels (especially the verticals) could be increased considerably. This provided a significantly improved lighting solution at minimal additional cost.

The 214 light fittings installed are BetaLED LEDway fitted with 20 watt LED and purpose-designed optics that distribute the light effectively and evenly along the long, narrow path, with very controlled and minimal spill light. Poles are five metres high - the maximum height permitted under the resource consent. Horizontal illuminance levels achieved are in excess of Cat P3 and on some sections in excess of Cat P2.

The following publication has produced an article on the Project Twin Stream Cycleway Lighting:

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• Different approach results in change produced by Local Government Magazine (April 2010) (Size 2759K)

Vehicle Fuel Efficiency

Use the process below to incorporate sustainability into the tender process for vehicles.

1. Identify the cars due for replacement (vehicles being replaced spreadsheet as below), how long they have been in the fleet and the km travelled in order to calculate the average km travelled per month for that category of vehicle to place into Example Evaluating Sustainability spreadsheet (as below) to calculate the life cycle costs while in council ownership.
2. Conduct a driver's survey for vehicles to ensure that driver needs are being met with the new proposed vehicle categories, eg do they move loads, passengers, or single occupancy driver (dedicated vehicle survey as below)
3. In the tender specifications ask for specific sustainability information to be provided for evaluation, eg litres/100km, European Emissions Standard and ANCAP crash test results as recognised by the LTSA (vehicle fleet tender criteria as below)
4. Fill in the Car Evaluation workbook for each category of vehicles and copy and paste the template for each new category of vehicles (example evaluating sustainability spreadsheet as below)
5. Fill in the Tender Evaluation - Weighted Attributes table for each category of vehicle using the life cycle costs for the tender sum (tender evaluation - weighted attributes spreadsheet as below).

For an individual purchasing a vehicle use step 3 to compare different vehicles you are considering purchasing against your current vehicle.

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