Central Otago District Council members discussed the implementation of the council's sustainability strategy last week, allocating $20,000 to the solid waste redesign.
Council chief executive officer John Cooney has been working on a plan to future-proof the district to protect the community from issues such as climate change and peak oil.
The strategy promotes a "whole community approach" to sustainable living and brings together economic, environmental and social systems to enhance wellbeing.
It encourages the use of principles from nature in the design of all activity.
Key issues to be looked at are solid waste, energy and transportation, water conservation, biodiversity, business design and carbon trading.
Solid waste is seen as a suitable activity to begin with as it has the potential to save considerable amounts of community money, and it contributes to the remainder of the activities.
Mr Cooney said the Patearoa tip was about to be closed and the Tarras dump was not far behind.
They would be good starting points for work to begin on the redesigning of the solid waste strategy.
The next stage would be to assess a sample of residents, businesses and organisations in a larger community and through a range of sectors, to find out what their requirements were.
A report, due back in 2009, would assess the requirements to apply a design at a district level.
Mr Cooney said the plan had been applauded by the Otago Chamber of Commerce, which would do all it could to encourage businesses to work towards the proposed outcomes.
It planned to hold workshops in Central Otago for its members.
Improvements would add to a community's licence to operate and would be a market advantage, Mr Cooney said.
