By Renee Wood
Community sustainable energy group Healesville CoRE has been honoured with this year’s Environmental Achiever Award from the Yarra Ranges Council’s Australia Day Awards.
The group has been recognised for its significant achievements over the past five years, helping to educate local residents and businesses about renewable energy sources and providing the resources to make the vital switch achievable locally.
Yarra Ranges Mayor Jim Child said the group works to unite the community behind their sustainable mission.
“Their vision and work will have a tremendous positive impact on the environment, while ensuring community members benefit from financial savings and learning about the how and the why along the way,” he said.
President Jeff Barlow accepted the award on behalf of the group’s committee and volunteers.
“This is indeed a great honour for our small not for profit association for our members, volunteers and our communities – all of whom are the backbone of the hard work being done by our organisation, making our contribution to the enormous challenge of climate change,” he said.
The group dedicates countless hours to hosting community educational events, finding community offers for sustainable energy sources, creating community owned solar panel farms and micro grids and electric vehicle support.
CoRE also works closely with environmental groups across the state and was recently successful in receiving $528,500 from the State Government to launch the Yarra Valley Community Energy Hub to help reach more people and organisations.
“As a founding president, I’ve been privileged and deeply humbled in leading our group’s committed volunteers. We work tirelessly to achieve that goal of increasing the uptake of renewable energy and reducing the consumption of fossil fuel produced electricity in our region.
“It’s been my honor to work closely with them to provide the leadership for this dedicated ban of climate change warriors.”
All efforts are going towards reaching a vision of a net zero township by 2027.
“The work that we do today will have an effect on the planet that we hand on to our children, our grandchildren and future generations.
“The impact might be infinitesimally small, from a relatively tiny contribution, but we also know that if every town in Australia and internationally did what we are doing, the impact would be significant.
“We encourage and welcome others deeply concerned with the global warming emergency to join us in our work.”
