City of Whitehorse, Victoria, Australia

ABP Symposium - Whitehorse

About City of Whitehorse

Whitehorse city snapshot

City of Whitehorse is located just 15 kilometres east of Melbourne and covers an area of 64 square kilometres. The municipality is bounded by the City of Manningham to the north, the Cities of Maroondah and Knox to the east, the City of Monash to the south and the City of Boroondara to the west.

The Wurundjeri-Balluk Tribe are the traditional custodians of the land on which the City of Whitehorse is located. They have been the traditional custodians for 40,000 years. The traditional language to the tribe is Woi Wurrung and the tribe is now known as the Wurundjeri, being one of five tribes that make up the Kulin nation. The Wurundjeri are a deeply spiritual people and honour the creator spirit, Bunjil the Eaglehawk. Historically, the tribe would camp along the banks of the many creeks that flow through the City and named parts of the local area Namenarren or Nunawading.

Population: 178,739 (ABS ERP 2019)

Land area: 6,424 ha (64 Km2)

Whitehorse map

City of Whitehorse’s Challenge

To develop a robust sustainable procurement process.

Whitehorse Council has been acting on climate change for over a decade. Whilst there has been a focus on corporate emissions reduction and local community education to date, this project provides an opportunity to harness greater levels of understanding within the organisation to impact resource efficiency, adaptation and mitigation well beyond our municipal boundaries. Ensuring we have a good understanding of the impact our purchasing choices have on the populations and environment of other cities, as well as our own, we can contribute to Sustainable Development Goal 11.

Council’s Vision is ‘We aspire to be a healthy, vibrant, prosperous and sustainable community supported by strong leadership and community partnerships.’ Procurement Policy and processes should align with this strategic direction and, whilst Whitehorse Council has always encouraged the purchase of ‘green goods’, there is still remnants of a culture within the organisation that suggests ‘Best Value’ is limited to the point in time that a contract is signed or invoice paid.

Council’s challenge is to find a robust way to measure the whole life-cycle sustainability of goods and services procured and encourage our community to do the same by showing leadership. We want to support sustainable manufacturing and decent working conditions. An effective assessment tool and monitoring system that could be incorporated into the procurement process to take into account embedded energy, emissions, transport and end-of-life capabilities. This is an important step to authentically embed sustainable practices throughout the organisation and support businesses that can then invest in further research and development.

Our goal is to continue providing education for our community and to develop a process that allows staff to include environmental and social sustainability as important considerations when assessing ‘Best Value’.

SDG 11 – Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

By ensuring we have a good understanding of the impact our purchasing choices have on the populations and environment of other cities, as well as our own, we can contribute to Sustainable Development Goal 11.