Continued population growth and urban development provide an opportunity to enhance our natural environment and deliver significant positive environmental outcomes.
We must ensure that development:
This can be done by embedding sustainable environmental practices in our buildings, infrastructure, places and spaces.
We can do this by:
Our future growth requires greater levels of investment, particularly in transport, stormwater and wastewater.
We can use these investments, and others, to not only perform their technical function but to protect or enhance the overall health of the environment and ecosystems.
As these investments have to be made to service growth, they provide ideal opportunities to make meaningful environmental gains.
This requires different expectations, starting from their initial conception through to execution.
We can create buildings that have positive outcomes and maximise the experiences of their inhabitants through the use of green building principles.
Our buildings can be used to generate electricity, food, heat and water, reducing pressure on our already scarce resources.
By embedding more sustainable design principles in the planning, design, construction and operation of our buildings, we can take a whole-of-life approach to protecting and enhancing our natural environment.
Map published 5 June 2018
