Blacktown Energy Initiative
There is increasing interest in energy efficiency and renewable energy across community, government and businesses in the Blacktown region, particularly due to potential cost savings and productivity benefits, BUT also because barriers still prevent the uptake of energy efficient practices.
Are you struggling to find or make sense of information on energy efficiency and how it relates to your business?
Do you want to reduce the amount of waste your business produces and in doing so, save money?
Have you thought about how lean manufacturing can help your business become more competitive?
Through a series of workshops in late 2016, WSCF identified a core group of businesses, government and community agencies that wanted to work together to help Blacktown become the leading place in NSW for energy efficiency and renewable energy. In collaboration with the Office of Environment & Heritage, we established the Blacktown Energy Initiative (BEI) Leadership Group in December 2016 to support collaboration opportunities in the Blacktown region.
Our Vision
Blacktown Energy Initiative Leadership Group
Bringing Energy Leaders Together
The BEI identifies potential leaders in the energy and sustainability space in Blacktown and surrounding areas and where there is commonality in issues and goal. We bring leaders together to meet, and explore opportunities of working together.
Support for Energy Efficiency
We support individuals and agencies in the broader Blacktown region who are undertaking energy efficiency or renewable energy projects.
- We are helping Blacktown become the leading place in NSW for energy efficiency and renewable energy
- We will achieve this by working collaboratively across government, business and community sectors
BEI Leadership Group Members
We are a trusted network and source of information that can help others in our community achieve energy savings.
- Blacktown City Council
- City of Parramatta
- Dharma Karta Pty Ltd
- Greater Blacktown Business Chamber
- Mr Lamps
- NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH)
- Parracan
- SydWest Multicultural Services
- TAFE NSW
- Veolia Australia and New Zealand
- Western Sydney Community Forum (WSCF)
- Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils Ltd (WSROC)
- Western Sydney University
Membership is open to all with an interest in contributing to making Blacktown the leading place in NSW for energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Our Building Block Projects
Through the support of the Office of Environment & Heritage we were able to fund two building block projects to further the objectives of the BEI.
POWERful
POWERful is a youth ambassador program that targets high school students (Years 7 – 10) and their families through inquiry-based learning to make smart choices around energy and resource efficiency.
Targeting three Local Government Areas in Greater Western Sydney (Parramatta, Campbelltown and Blacktown), the program supported 120 student ambassadors in local schools in developing a targeted energy and/or resource efficiency resource for their households, as well as developing a school-based project which was seed funded by the project.
Participating schools attended a one-day forum held in their LGA and were engaged in a series of keynotes and hands-on workshops to ultimately produce a household resource pack and presented their project applications for implementation.
Eco-Communities Project
The Eco-Communities project facilitated collective environmental action through place-based engagement and education at three primary schools in the Blacktown LGA. The project involved the following:
- Student Eco-champions program to empower students for collective environmental action at school and home through behaviour change;
- Local Eco-Expo to raise awareness among the school community and encourage local business to demonstrate eco-leadership (delivered in partnership with one school);
- Feasibility Study to deploy technological solutions and raise funds for solar and/or energy efficiency capital works (at one school).
The project culminated in the Live Well fair held on 3rd June at Bert Oldfield Public School in Seven Hills with over 300 local community members attending and 20 stallholders. The event was a great success in bringing community together to explore, share and reflect on some of the different aspects of environmental sustainability. We also wanted to celebrate local community and grow connections with each other and with the natural environment.