Healesville is getting one step closer to achieving its ambition for a net-zero emissions town.
On Saturday, 28 July, Healesville CoRE will host a co-design workshop that chair Jeff Barlow says may even lead to the launch of Healesville’s own retail energy company.
Mr Barlow said the ambition of Healesville CoRE, a volunteer-run organisation, is for Healesville to produce all the energy it consumes.
“Reducing our hunger for energy is one way to do this, and we’re running various initiatives to provide information to residents and creating attractive offers for them to reduce their demand for energy,” he said.
“But we will of course always need some supply of energy, so this project looks at ways to generate local renewable energy”.
Danny De Schutter from ThinkPlace will facilitate the session, which will run from 9:30am to 1pm at the Darron Honey Centre in Healesville .
“The objective of the workshop is to work out the roadmap by which Healesville can achieve the net-zero ambition,” Mr Barlow said.
The co-design workshop seeks to find solutions to a problem with all stakeholders, including end-users.
Mr De Schutter said for the net-zero question in Healesville, that means inviting households, businesses and the council to collaboratively answer questions such as “How much energy should we generate locally?”, “How can we manage this so everyone can benefit from clean and reliable energy?”, “What are the short-term steps we can take to get us on this path?”.
“Involving users in the design of the project ensures all views are taken into account and will help ensure many people will want to participate,” Mr De Schutter said.
The workshop will build on work Healesville CoRE conducted last year and earlier this year and will examine the establishment of a community energy retailer as well as questions of finance and business structures so local investment in energy infrastructure is encouraged.
Mr Barlow said ThinkPlace is a leading design agency with extensive community engagement experience.
The workshop is free, but places are limited. Register by email to healesvillecore@gmail.com .
