About CASBE
CASBE's purpose
There is overwhelming evidence that global warming and climate change will increasingly affect the way we live and the earth’s environment in the future. Governments and people around the world are urgently trying to reduce the impacts of our present lifestyles on the environment.
Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) is: ‘using, conserving and enhancing the community’s resources so that ecological processes, on which life depends, are maintained, and the total quality of life, now and in the future, can be increased’.
(As defined in Australia’s National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development 1992)
Local government in Victoria and the MAV is committed to improving the sustainability of the way we live.
ESD is a keystone principle in Victoria’s planning system, embedded in the strategic objectives of state and local planning provisions. However, there is often a disconnect between these higher order objectives and achieving on the ground ESD outcomes.
In 2004, a group of local government agencies responded to this challenge by initiating a grassroots reform of planning policy, with the aim of achieving improved sustainability outcomes in the built environment. The Council Alliance for Sustainable Built Environment (CASBE) was established in 2009 to lead and represent these councils.