In October, the City Of Sydney updated their NYE website to include a webpage on sustainability for the 1st time in 8 years, following questions at an August 14 Corporate, Finance, Properties & Tenders Committee meeting asked by Greens Councillor, then-Deputy Lord Mayor, Sylvie Ellsmore.
The City Of Sydney had a webpage on sustainability on their NYE website between NYE2007 & NYE2014. Since NYE2015, the website has been slimmed down to the bare essentials as seen by the recent plain white update in early September, seemingly matching the decline in the event’s creativity since NYE2015 too. The sustainability webpage was one of the first to be removed from the website but it seems only now, 8 years later, that the City has realised this, begging the question: how did the removal of such an important webpage for the City Of Sydney not get noticed by them for 8 years?
Are we publicly going to be reporting on, um, the impact – the environmental impact (of Sydney NYE pyro) that’s happening & where would that be reported? What report might that end up in? Do we need to move something to amend our Green Report, for example, to say ‘We know this is important. We’ve heard you. We’re tracking this. This is where we’ll report it’?
City Of Sydney Greens Councillor, Slyvie Ellesmore, Deputy Lord Mayor 19/09/2022-18/09/2023
Through you, Lord Mayor, um, we might just have that on notice, Emma (Rigney – City Of Sydney Director Of City Life) & make sure ’cause I think obviously the Green Report is probably the best place to put it, um, however, I’m, now I’m just going on memory here but we’ve always, um, I think on our website though had the, um, offset statements for any offsets that we buy – those sorts of things – so let’s just check the website, what we already put up. I’m pretty sure we do because I’ve often asked about that, um, & make sure that that is, continues because that’s where people can go & check that the claims we make are validated uh, in, in, you know, in, in documentation. Thank you.
Monica Barone, City Of Sydney Chief Executive Officer
It is unclear if Monica Barone is referring to the main Sydney NYE website or the City Of Sydney website.
So the fact that we’re being carbon neutral since 2007 & that, um, the Foti family is a family business that’s also carbon neutral? Um, I, I mean we’ve, we’ve been very conscious of this from the very beginning & have always taken great steps to minimise the environmental impact, um, as much as it’ s possible…when you’re setting off… all those fireworks…across the City.
Clover Moore, City Of Sydney Lord Mayor
Clover Moore became Lord Mayor of Sydney in 2004 while the City Of Sydney have hosted the event since 1996, producing it in-house since 2000. The event & the City Of Sydney have been carbon neutral since 2007.
Later, at the 21 August Council meeting, the Council unanimously resolved, on the then-Deputy Lord Mayor’s motion, that “the CEO be requested to track future Sydney NYE event emissions though the City’s Green Report”.
Regardless of which website Monica Barone referred to in the August 14 Corporate, Finance, Properties & Tenders Committee meeting, it is clear there was a review of the Sydney NYE website between early September & October as the sustainability webpage was not there when the website update was released in early September. The fact the webpage has not been there in 8 years makes the addition of the webpage after the conversation in the August 14 Corporate, Finance, Properties & Tenders Committee seem more than coincidental. It clearly was finally noticed as missing & a new webpage was prepared as soon as possible, particularly well in advance of the early December event media launch & was published in October.
Following the 21 August Council Resolution, the City Of Sydney has also since added a paragraph on NYE in the Green Report, which was updated last month in its latest annual edition, available on the City Of Sydney website. Below is the relevant paragraph:
Fireworks & light displays create carbon emissions, which we are directly responsible for. These emissions are included in our annual carbon inventory & have been offset since NYE2006. Between 2007 & 2015, we developed detailed annual emissions inventories for the whole NYE event. These showed that year-on-year event emissions did not change significantly & contribute a small share of our total operational emissions. 2015 NYE event emissions were 552 tonnes of which the combustion of fireworks made up only 4.8 tonnes, or 0.9% of the event emissions. Since 2016, we have reported & offset 662 tonnes of emissions each year for the NYE event as part of our ongoing organisational carbon neutral certification. This includes a 20% buffer above 2015 emissions, to ensure that emissions are not under reported.
City Of Sydney Green Report 2022-2023
You can find more information about the event’s sustainability on the now-returned Sydney NYE Sustainability webpage.
Sydney Spectaculars 