The Hunter Central Coast Regional Environmental Management Strategy (HCCREMS) team was successful in a number of bids for grant funding in 2007 and 2008.  With funding support from the NSW Environmental Trust HCCREMS is now delivering actions under the FOCUS on Sustainability Program.

What is FOCUS on Sustainability?

The FOCUS brand stands for Facilitating the On-going
Commitment to United Solutions.  The program will provide Council staff the opportunity to build their awareness, skills, and knowledge around Sustainability issues as they impact on Local Government.
The program will also provide invaluable resources across a number of target areas and will engage with Senior Managers and Councillors to ensure the entire organisation is engaged in managing for sustainability.

The program will deliver these outcomes by:

• Supporting and enhancing existing practices and tools;
• Showcasing best practice policies, procedures and resources;
• Providing technical information and learning opportunities for Council staff;
• Supporting coordinated education and compliance campaigns;
• Supporting inter-council collaboration; and
• Extending existing HCCREMS projects - in particular our water and biodiversity activities.

The FOCUS program is presently funded through 2 separate grants from the NSW Environmental Trust:

• Regional Sustainability Education and Capacity Building Grant; and
• C3E3 – Sustainable Solutions to Regional Environmental Issues

The grant activities will continue through until October 2011.

For more information please visit our project pages;

Environmental Compliance

Sustainability Education

Professional development for Councillors

Objectives of FOCUS on Sustainability

The objectives of the FOCUS program are:

• To build the commitment, capacity, skills and resources of councils across the region to effectively and consistently prioritise and enforce environmental legislation and standards within their own organisations and in the community.
• To provide councils with a suite of best practice tools and supporting resources to promote a consistent approach to reviewing organisational and community sustainability performance, and to effectively implement environmental regulation and enforcement activities across the region.
• Deliver co-ordinated regional community education and enforcement campaigns targeting identified regional environmental and sustainability compliance priorities within the overall theme areas of water management, biodiversity, waste and climate change.
• To facilitate the establishment of partnerships and resource sharing between councils in the region and with other organisations (eg state government agencies, water authorities and land managers) to support the ongoing implementation of collaborative enforcement and compliance campaigns targeting priority regional issues (eg illegal waste dumping of asbestos) and locations.
• To improve the nature and consistency of data collection across the region to facilitate its regional collation and analysis to identify regional trends and priorities for environmental compliance activities. 
• To deliver innovative `learning by doing’ capacity building initiatives for the above themes across divisions and management hierarchies of all 14 Councils in the region;
• To collate, develop and provide to councils best practice capacity building tools, resources and materials to facilitate the implementation of improved council practices across the region.  
• To facilitate the transition from theory and awareness to practical implementation of sustainability practice by councils and enhanced levels of council staff competencies in this regard.
• To collate and develop a common suite of best practice community education and capacity building tools, resources and materials for council environmental educators throughout the region.
• To deliver and reinforce a united, co-ordinated and consistent suite of sustainability programs and messages to communities throughout the Hunter, Central and Lower North Coast.

Regional Events

We are currently planning our events and workshop schedule for 2009-2011. The events schedule will be posted on our program website as soon as its available.

In the meanwhile, you can review and download past regional water events.

Fore more information, contact Bradley Nolan, Regional Sustainability Program Manager
ph 02 4978 4024  bradn@huntercouncils.com.au

This project has been assisted by the
New South Wales Government
through its Environmental Trust