7/28/2019 New England Sustainability Update May 2013

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MConnecting people and communities Wednesday, 15 May, 2013Page 21

COLLABORATIVE PLANNING, RESEARCH & ENTERPRISE | TECHNICAL EXPERTISE | FACILITATION FOR WORKSHOPS, FORUMS & CONFERENCES

Starsh congratulates Armidale or itsNational Keep Australia Beautiul Sustainable Communitynomination. We acknowledge the eforts o the townover the last ew years with large-scale habitat restoration, high uptake o renewable energy, waste reuse and educational initiatives.

Ru ral su stainabil ity requ ires collaboration by al l le vels of governmentwi th bus iness , communit y org anisat ions and the wi der communit y.

TAMWORTH YOUTH STRATEGYNEW ENGLANDSUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY

THE LIVING CLASS ROOM | BINGARA

Sustainability is critical to the success and viability of rural Australia to both address challenges and realise new

opportunities. It is widely agreed that partnerships are the key.

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Contact us to discuss how we can be o service or fnd out more about how weare making rural sustainability happen atwww.starfshenterprises.net

FARMING THE SUN

Making rural sustainability happenTARFISH Enterprises is a home-own New Enland start-up. Its pur-se is makin rural sustainabilityppen. In just three years Starfish hasayed an important part in a widene of sustainability initiatives in Ar-

dale, the New Enland and beyond.ew England Sustainability

rategy (NESS)TARFISH rew out of NESS. Many

its founders were also membersthe NESS Executive, nicknamed

ESSiE. NESS took more than twoars to create and involved more than000 community leaders, oranisa-ns and residents. It identified the

ost important priorities for the Newnland to become sustainable.

Research confirmed that while the

reion was becomin more sustain-able, sinificant chane was still re-quired to become sustainable overall.

NESS also became a model forsustainability plannin. It has beentailored and used for the Lismore Sus-

tainability Stratey, the North CoastEnery Stratey and the Northern In-land Reional Development Plan.

NESSs priorities have led to manysinificant projects, several of whichare detailed below.

Farming the Sun

FARMINg the Sun is Australias lar-est community solar enery projectand addresses the NESS priority fornew enery. In three years some$6.7m worth of solar power, hot wa-ter and heatin systems were installed

throuhout the reion.

Today, Farmin the Sun has shiftedits focus to creatin Australias firstcommunity owned lare-scale solarfarms. Fundin has been secured fornine solar farms already, with an antic-

ipated 1MW of total capacity betweenthem. The project has also expandedto be NSW-wide and is movin intoSouth East Queensland as well.

High Country Urban

Biodiversity (HiCUB)HICUB is led by Landcare and hasplanted some 14,000 trees in the lastfew years, mostly throuhout the urbanwaterways of Armidale, Uralla, guyraand Walcha.

HiCUB addresses the priority iden-tified in NESS for reeneration. Theterm reeneration refers to the strateyof restorin natural areas, improvinhabitat for wildlife, increasin the pro-ductivity of farmin areas and improv-in the beauty of the area for the com-

munity and tourism.Starfish is a partner in several

landscape-scale reeneration projectstakin place across the wider reion.These include Reeneration New En-land, The Livin Classroom, The grassRoutes travellin stock routes initiativeand the Border Rivers-gwydir Catch-ment Action Plan.

Community Well-beingSTARFISHS sinle larest area ofwork has been in strenthenin com-munity well-bein. This spans youthdevelopment, reconciliation, aed care,education and employment needs.

The priority for community well-bein was also identified in NESS.Current initiatives include the national

Partners In Recovery mental healthproram, Home and Community Care,the Tamworth Youth Stratey and theinternationally sinificant Myall CreekMemorial and Centre for Reconcilia-tion.

New England Wind (NEW)BUILDINg on the success of Farm-in the Sun, New Enland Wind is ledby a local consortium of oranisationsworkin to create NSWs first commu-nity-owned wind farm.

The vision is to provide more af-fordable electricity which is also re-newable and clean, create local em-ployment and keep our electricityspendin in the local economy throuhlocal ownership.

The social and environmental ben-efits of community enery projects likeNEW and Farmin the Sun are sinifi-cant, particularly throuh extensive ed-ucation as well as providin electricitybenefits for low-income households.

NEW follows in the footsteps ofAustralias two operatin communitywind farms: HepburnWind, Victoriaand Denmark Community Windfarm,Western Australia.

The project is in the final staes ofneotiatin fundin for a third-phase ofwork, which will include a wind farmtour for interested to community mem-bers and leaders. The tour will includevisits to modern wind farms, meetinfarmers hostin the turbines as wellas overnment and industry represen-tatives in Canberra, plus an enjoyablesocial and site-seein proram.

Looking to the futureSTARFISH is committed to buildinupon the sustainability work already

happenin in the New Enland. The re-ion has potential to become a leadinliht for sustainability for rural com-munities throuhout Australia and be-yond. Starfish has several new sustain-ability initiatives under development

and has just been appointed as facilita-tor for the Northern Inland SustainablBusiness Network (NISBN).

Everyone involved with Starfish,includin our partners and supporters,expresses their sincere ratitude for thopportunities to be of service to thmany communities of the New En-land. We wish Armidale the very bestin their success with the National KeepAustralia Beautiful Sustainable Com-munity Award!

More details about each of thessustainability initiatives can be foundat www.starfishenterprises.net

entre Design The Myall Creek Centre for Reconciliation at Bingara iskely to be globally unique.

Solar Farming the Sun hasexpanded to creating Australiasfirst community-owned windfarms.

Sustainable Living in Armidaleshowcasing