About

Developing the Toolkit

This toolkit has been developed in consultation with industry experts, council employees, community groups, campaigners and both current and former councillors. It was developed by sustainability expert Dale Martin after serving four years as councillor in the City of Merri-bek (Formerly Moreland), Victoria, Australia and after successful efforts advocating and campaigning on a range of issues, including co-founding and campaigning on the ‘Plastic Bag Free Victoria’ campaign with community groups right across the state of Victoria.

The toolkit has been designed to provide an understanding of local government, it’s decision makers, key documents and accompanied by specific and measurable recommendations, with suggested time frames to address the climate emergency. Actions are designed to be easily implemented with information on who can implement them, how they can be implemented and by what method.

This toolkit will be reviewed frequently to ensure actions maintain appropriate ambition and relevance. We look forward to collaborating with you to ensure this toolkit has the greatest potential to address the climate emergency.

This work is licenced under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International. You are welcome and encouraged to copy, distribute and adapt this work using attribution requirements and licencing terms that can be found here.

About the author

Dale Martin is the Author of the Local Government Climate Emergency Toolkit. He was a Councillor for Merri-Bek City Council between 2016 and 2020 and Co-founder of the successful Plastic Bag Free Victoria campaign to bag plastic bags in Victoria. He is also an experienced sustainability specialist with fourteen years’ experience working in the energy and sustainability sectors.

Dale is experienced in helping companies and businesses become more socially and environmentally responsible in how they operate. He specialises in the development of sustainability strategies including corporate net-zero targets, implementation plans and stakeholder communication. Dale is also experienced in environmentally sustainable design, developing sustainable solutions within the built environment including renewable energy, energy efficiency and biodiversity improvements.

Dale’s recent experience includes:

  • designing and executing energy and resource conservation programs that reduce impact on the environment for Geelong Grammar School

  • reporting on environmental standards for the Victorian Government helping them to meet their legal, social and environmental obligations under the Government Financial Reporting Directive, National Greenhouse Accounts Factors and other standards

  • developing and implementing procedures, market and data analysis as an analyst working for the Australian Energy Market Operator

  • advising on environmentally sustainable design when delivering major capital works projects for the Victorian Government to achieve required certification.

Dale has a Bachelor of Business from RMIT University and a Master of Energy Systems from Melbourne University. He is a qualified Lead Auditor in Environmental Management Systems and graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors course.

To organise a time to connect with Dale please click on the button below or connect via LinkedIn.