Sustainability Actions

The Adelaide Hills is a beautiful place to live, work and visit, and we all know the importance of preserving and enhancing our local environment.

Adelaide Hills Council is committed to ensuring that our activities, services and initiatives reduce our ecological footprint and are kinder to the environment.

At a local level, there are many simple actions everyone in our community can take to become more environmentally sustainable and help protect our local environment from the impacts of climate change.

We are striving towards more efficient use of resources, reduction in energy and water use, conservation of biodiversity, reduction in waste, increase in resource recovery, and use of local provenance food, and are undertaking numerous actions including:

In March 2019, Adelaide Hills Council became the second council in South Australia, and 13th in Australia, to declare a Climate Emergency. The decision reflects Council's preparedness to provide leadership for our community in addressing the unprecedented threat of climate change. Read more about the declaration in the media release at the link below.

As natural hazards intensify, living expenses like energy, mortgages and insurance will get more expensive for climate vulnerable homes — that is, homes located in high-risk areas and not built to mitigate the risks.

The 'Where We Build What We Build' project aims to encourage building or retrofitting of homes that are climate-ready, by demonstrating that the benefits of doing so outweigh the costs.

The Biodiversity Strategy outlines Council's commitment to biodiversity conservation. The document is aimed primarily at managing biodiversity values within its reserves and road reserves, reducing the impacts of key threatening processes, and strengthening the natural resilience of ecosystems and their ability to recover from disturbances.

The Towards Zero Emissions – A Carbon Management Plan was adopted in 2025 to build upon Council’s Corporate Carbon Management Plan developed in 2019 to provide an updated pathway for Council’s ongoing emissions reduction efforts. The scope of this Plan is Adelaide Hills Council’s operations which are in direct control of the Council, emissions from its supply chain which it can minimise and influence, as well as community emissions where Council can support and facilitate community action to reduce emissions.

An Energy reduction program has resulted in solar PV panels being installed on Council's main buildings and at the site of the Birdwood Community Wastewater Management System pumps, as well as the roll out of LED street lighting across the district.

The Resource Recovery and Recycling Strategy aims to increase the amount of recycling material placed in recycling and green organic kerbside bins and therefore reduce materials going to landfill.

The Resilient Hills and Coast Climate Action Plan for the Adelaide Hills, Fleurieu Peninsula and Kangaroo Island has been developed to help build a community that is more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

To reduce our carbon emissions and overall impact on the environment and as we work towards our goal of transitioning to a low or zero emission fleet, Council has made changes to our vehicle fleet by so far replacing nineteen high fuel usage cars with electric vehicles.

Council continues to explore the benefits of transitioning to an electric vehicle fleet and investigate replacement of trucks with the latest fuel-efficient options.

To facilitate the use of electric vehicles within the community, numerous electric vehicle charging stations have been installed throughout the district. The Chargefox Network provides up to date information on the specific location of these chargers.

Council signed a Memorandum of Understanding in a trial of circular economy, prioritising the purchase of goods made from recycled materials to increase demand for this product stream.

Sustainability grants are available through our Community and Recreation Facilities grants for improvements or upgrades to community facilities. These grants may include solar PV panels, LED lighting upgrades, energy and water efficiency improvements.

Council also works with specific groups in the district that influence sustainable living, such as the Uraidla Sustainability Fair and the Imagine Uraidla Sustainable Action Group,

For more information about Council's sustainability initiatives, please contact:

Sustainability Officer
(08) 8408 0400