BREAZE

A Climate of Change Project was launched on 4th September 2009! View photos of the launch here

What is A Climate of Change?

The 12 month project started in August 2008 and is supported by the Victorian Government Sustainability Fund, managed by Sustainability Victoria. We are also working with the University of Ballarat, City of Ballarat, BRACE Education, Training and Employment, and Environment Victoria.

The project picks up on recent growth of community climate change (CCC) groups, as individuals and communities look to better understand what is happening in the world and how they can respond and contribute to a solution.

CCC groups are different from traditional environmental groups, because their focus and projects are much broader, and they want to educate and mobilise large numbers of individuals to make changes in their lives (and at work) that are practical, affordable and can be shown to have had an impact.

A Climate of Change is looking to make that task easier by understanding what information and support CCC groups and their members want and developing a toolkit of resources to share with other CCC groups.

Market research is helping us find out what is happening and how we can better service our members. To view a PDF summary of the results of an online survey of members and a telephone survey of the wider community looking into energy conservation and environmental behaviour in and around Ballarat, click here.

Benefits of the project

Our partners

University of Ballarat

Centre for Regional Innovation and Competitiveness

National Centre for Sustainability

BRACE Education, Training and Employment

BRACE is a not-for-profit community based organisation providing employment, education and training services throughout Victoria. Brace's contribution to the project is the delivery of community based forums and workshops on sustainability and climate change, and the integration of sustainability and climate change into its existing training units.

City of Ballarat

The City of Ballarat is one of Australia’s largest and fastest growing inland cities. Through its City Sustainability Division, the City of Ballarat Council is contributing advice and support to present project findings at a regional workshop in 2009. The City is also assisting with promotion of the project through its publications and website.

Environment Victoria

Environment Victoria is the peak non-government, not-for-profit environment organisation in Victoria. The organisation works with groups, governments, businesses and communities to meet the urgent environmental challenges facing society today.

Environment Victoria will support the project with assistance in contacting and surveying other CCC groups to establish their needs. The information we collect will help in the development of a new Community Climate Change Group Toolkit of information and resources. The toolkit will be available online.

Summary of Project Findings

The data we have collected clearly shows that climate change is and will continue to impact Ballarat. Practical action addressing the causes and impacts of climate change across our community must occur now to enable environmentally sustainable, socially equitable and economically feasible outcomes by 2020.

Ballarat faces an urgent challenge. How quickly can it move to being a zero emission city with a vibrant and healthy community?

The data shows that our community is ready and keen to do something about climate change and can make a measurable impact on emissions.

There are opportunities for BREAZE, its partners in A Climate of Change, and the wider Ballarat community, including investment in renewable energy bulk buy schemes for solar hot water systems and solar PV, support for local food producers and processors, progressive and sustainable building design and retrofitting. These all represent growth opportunities for the city.

Innovative industries developing carbon fixing practices such as bio-sequestration (e.g. biochar) could be supported and developed further. In addition, partnerships with industry to draw on best practice examples such as the Maines power project in Castlemaine could seed similar initiatives in Ballarat.

Local government and local utilities are in a position to contribute by incorporating best sustainability practice into their service provision, making it even easier for households to minimise their carbon footprint.

Finally, energy efficiency measures must be implemented across government, business, residences and industries – this perhaps represents the greatest opportunity for cost and energy saving across all sectors of the community.

For a copy of the Final Evaluation Report see A Climate of Change Final Report.

Contact us

For more information on the project:
T: (03) 5329 1731
E: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it