This year's Boroondara Sustainable Living Festival has lots of interesting topics and items on sustainable living.  More details.

Boroondara's recently elected Mayor Heinz Kreutz, opened the Ashburton cogeneration plant on Thursday 15 Decemb er 2011.  The plant uses gas in a piston engine to generate electricty for the Ashburton Pool and Recreation Centre.

Heat generated by the engine is used to heat the swimming pool.  A standard German-made cogeneration unit was installed in the existing equipment room.

The plant will save carbon emissions equivalent to taking 300 cars off the roads, and saves ratepayers $70,000 per year in electricity bills, and was commissioned as part of Boroondara's Our Low Carbon Future strategy.  

Carolyn Ingvarson and Mick Nolan (from Lighter footprints) and Peter Campbell attended this event, and congratulated the City of Boroondara for this energy and money saving initiative that also reduces our carbon emissions.

Following this successful pilot, similar cogeneration plants will be used in other locations within the City of Boroondara and elsewhere.

Video

• Date: 7pm Tue 15 November 2011.
• Venue: Boroondara Room, Council Offices,  8 Inglesby Road, Camberwell (Melway 59 J1)
• Purpose of meeting: An opportunity to provide input to the Our Low Carbon Future strategy for 2012-2015

A group has formed to do an enviro project in Ashburton and we have decided to propose a food forest.  The group was initiated and is led by Shau Teo of the Craig Family Centre's Sustainable Neighbourhoods Project in Ashburton.  And so far the council seems rather interested.

The remaining consultation session for Boroondara Sustainability Network members is coming up in November:

This is a consultation session on the future use of the Boroondara Eco-living Centre to guide operational planning.

The City of Boroondara has been holding Neighbourhood Character Study consultation sessions about the look and feel of Boroondara's residential areas.

Alamein Neighbourhood & Learning Centre is offering a course about how to prepare garden beds to grow healthy veggies and herbs.

Friends of Delta Street, a group formed recently to protect and preserve Delta Street in Surrey Hills, have advised that Boroondara Council plans to pave and widen the street.

For those that haven't visited Delta Street, it is one of the very few remaining "dirt roads" in the City of Boroondara.  The street runs adjacent to a portion of South Surrey Park.  It is narrow and unsealed and has a country lane ambience.    

Delta Street is living history. It is the LAST significant unsealed road in Boroondara.

This Response to the Boroondara Low Carbon Strategy document was written and submitted by David Coote, from the Eastern Suburbs Permaculture Group.

a/ Nothing in the strategy detailing what is best practice in this area for local government in Australia and overseas and how the Boroondara strategy compares to best practice. A number of councils in Australia are aiming for cuts of 60% in emissions and some even aiming for zero carbon.

Boroondara Council is providing another community breakfast with all sorts of attractions, including lots of yummy free food and drinks.  Have a massage, get your bike engraved by the police and collect your free ravelSmart map.  It's also a great opportunity to chat to other cyclists, including members of the Boroondara Bicycle Users Group (BBUG).