Four major sustainability challenges have been identified for GWS. Integrating themes that relate directly to these challenges include: public health, developing more active lifestyles, living and working productively with diversity, water conservation and economic vitality. This clip highlights some of the activities being carried out across Greater Western Sydney by RCE-GWS Partners.

Regional Challenges 

Transitioning to a Low Carbon Economy

Advances in technology and policy will allow renewable energy and energy efficiency to play major roles in displacing fossil fuels. As traditional sectors reassess their carbon impacts, the economy will need to be driven by value-added future technologies including those which focus on energy, water and resource efficiency, local food, broadband communication and high-tech industries.

This transition will need particular consideration in GWS, which has a structurally different economic basis to the more service-oriented coastal area of Sydney CBD.

Developing Sustainable Communities: Transport and Housing

Transport

Transition from high car dependence to more sustainable transport modes will require a combination of new infrastructure and increased service levels and improvements in the amenity of existing services.

Nowhere is the issue of adequate transport more critical than in Western Sydney. In the North‐West only 11.4% of our population use public transport to get to work, while 69.9% use a private vehicle. In the south, only 11% of the Liverpool population use public transport to get to work. This is not a matter of choice – the transport services simply aren’t there.

Housing

The region has an inefficient housing stock, with a heavy reliance on air conditioning and overuse of water. Housing in GWS needs to include environmentally sustainable, flexible and universal design (such that more people can age in place, and people with varying abilities can access housing or visit loved ones), as well as address affordability through a broader range of tenure options.

Ensuring Agricultural Sustainability and Food Security

Peri-urban agriculture is characterised by small scale farms run by culturally and linguistically diverse groups, with a reported farmgate value of over $1billion per annum. There is evidence that this type of agriculture is increasingly intensive in nature while at the same time decreasingly soil reliant.

With urban development encroaching on peri-urban agriculture the challenge will be to supply and secure the population with equitably priced fresh produce in an environmentally sustainable way. Market gardens are typically about two hectares in size and play a vital role in Sydney¡¯s food supply, providing up to 90 per cent of the region's vegetables.

Conserving Biodiversity and River Health

Less than 6% of the Cumberland Plain Woodlands in the Sydney Basin now remain in fragmented stands due to human use for farming, industry and housing. These remaining fragments occur in areas subject to intense pressure from urban development. The Cumberland Plains Woodland has been listed as an endangered ecological community under respective Legislation. A Recovery Plan for this Woodland is being prepared by the NSW Government.

The health of the major river systems in GWS - the Hawkesbury-Nepean and the Parramatta rivers is in decline and they face a number of pressing issues, including the need for increased water flows, water security, reduced nutrient inputs and greater collaboration among catchment stakeholders.