Ordinary people,

making a difference.

Totally Renewable Yackandandah

Totally Renewable Yackandandah’s pursuit of a 100% renewable town

With a lofty goal of 100% renewable energy for their town, Juliette Milbank from Totally Renewable Yackandandah (TRY) shares her insights on the journey

TRY realised that to achieve their goal, they needed to ensure that every project addressed a community need or want, as well as tick the two major attributes of reducing emissions & contributing towards the 100% renewables mission

With lots of conversations, collaborations & community engagement and a focus on smaller bite size projects TRY has been able, at this point, to achieve 60% renewable energy in Yackandandah!

Mitchell Community Energy

A model for change, one town at a time

John Thompson from Mitchell Community Energy Inc. speaks to us about the challenge of creating change in rural Shires with widespread townships

Mitchell Community Energy faced the obstacles of only having a small group of members to support their project & whilst they wanted to create change across the whole of the Mitchell Shire, they realised, with towns so spread out, this was physically impossible, in one push

The solution was to focus on their one town of Seymour & create a successful model which included bringing in influencers from different industries to impact renewable energy in their town. This model could then be translated to other communities.

South Coast Health & Sustainability Alliance (SHASA)

Creating resilient organisations to effectively support community needs

Kathryn Maxwell shares the amazing story of how South Coast Health & Sustainability Alliance (SHASA) has not only built resilience through local solar power provisions but most importantly has built resilience within their organisation, with a long range view.

When bushfires took out 80% of their Shire, SHASA got to work on a plan to ensure the future safety of their community. Through SHASA’s hard work, their community, evacuation & health centres can now support their town folk, even in the event of power outages.

This has been a very successful initiative & SHASA continues to thrive as an organisation identifying leadership, positive delegation & investing in their volunteers, whilst instilling a sense of FUN in all they do!

Bendigo Sustainability Group

The nuts & bolts in community energy projects

Chris Corr has extensive experience working with community organisations & on numerous renewable energy projects, in both paid & volunteer roles. He shares with us where to find & maximise opportunities as well as how to overcome inevitable project challenges including:

  • How to work with community & local organisations, for them to see & want to create innovative energy solutions, - by uncovering the benefits

  • The step by step of HOW you can get started in implementing renewable energy on buildings & homes in your local area

  • Normalising volunteer challenges & Council bureaucracy, in order to share the vision & seize the opportunities available now

Eat Up Australia

How to Start & Grow Your Community Project

Lyndon Galea from Eat Up Australia shares how he started & grew his idea to provide sandwiches to kids in schools, who would otherwise go hungry.

Responding to the startling challenge that 1 in 8 children in Australia, arrive to school without lunch. Lyndon started by proving just 1 lunch supply, to 1 school, from his mums kitchen, in Shepparton.

Eat Up now works annually with 780+ schools across Australia!

Thanks to Jumpleads for conducting and producing the interviews and to Patagonia for funding this initiative.

Join the Community Energy Network to learn more about starting your own Community Energy Group or collaborate with others