By Sahar Foladi
City of Greater Dandenong will investigate a ban on fossil fuel industry advertisements and sponsorships on council properties.
In a 28 August council meeting, councillor Rhonda Garad successfully moved for a report on council properties to being free from any indirect advertising of fossil fuel-affiliated companies, in alignment with the council’s Climate Emergency Plan.
The ban would also strike out any funding or sponsorships from fossil-fuel entities, or partner with organisations accepting such sponsorships.
Councillor Rhonda Garad said “greenwashing” has become a way for fossil fuels sector and affiliated companies to use the council’s “good name to destroy our environment.”
“We hear things like net zero, we hear things like carbon neutral from these companies which is false and inaccurate.
“It is beholden on us that we don’t become the witting partners in allowing these companies to greenwash using our good name.”
During the council’s ‘One Tree per Child’ planting of 2500 trees, Cr Garad noticed volunteers from Conversation Volunteers Australia with badging “from the fossil-fuel sector”.
“We partnered with an organisation that were openly walking around wearing badges showing concern of the environment.
“They accept greenwashed money, for that reason we should not be partnering with them.
“Other people will refuse to work with us if we continue to partner with them.”
Greater Dandenong officers will prepare a report detailing the implications of the ban and a feasible strategy for implementing the ban.
“For us to allow our good name to be greenwashed by those who have no concern of our future why are we doing that? Why would any responsible person do that?
“They are responsible for global warming which is hurting our environment,” Cr Garad said.
She argued the climate emergency world-wide where Canada is suffering from an ongoing, record-setting series of wildfires since March 2023.
This has burnt 15 million hectares (37.8 million acres) ten times more than in 2022, an area larger than Greece and New York state.
However, the motion sparked a debate amongst councillors where Cr Tim Dark took a strong stand saying the motion “can’t be implemented.”
“I rise to oppose this motion because I have some serious issue about the detriment to the council‘s functions and operations as a whole.
“The motion cannot be supported or brought into this municipality because everything we do is connected to the fossil fuel industry.”
While he recognised climate change, he also remarked that nothing they could do as a small municipality could make a change on the “world stage.”
“We consistently work with partners and groups, and the community groups in our facilities work with them (fossil fuel affiliated entities). Sports clubs have sponsorships with them.
“We are talking about a significantly large industry.
“The natural gas industry, the petroleum industry – they are supporting many different things (such as) plastics. So what do we do about the role of all plastics … in supplying other parts of the chain in our municipality.
“We can’t go down the path to say we’ll ban this, and we’ll ban everything to do with fossil fuels because it makes zero sense. It’s impractical and can’t be implemented.”
Cr Garad said the council had never directly received ads or sponsorship from the fossil fuel sector.
“It will not impact Council’s income and operations. It will send a strong message that we are serious about our climate emergency stance.”
Instead of “watering down the severity of what’s happening,” Cr Garad said there are many other credible organisations council can receive sponsorships from.
“The One Tree Per Child project is very expensive and we are looking for sponsorships, but we don’t have to play in the hands of the fossil fuel sector.”
