Carlton Eco-Neighbourhood
More smart buildings, smart residents, creating even smarter neighbourhoods
The Carlton Eco-Neighbourhood project is helping residents in the new sustainable public and private developments in Carlton make the most of their beautiful new buildings. Environment Victoria has been working with the City of Melbourne, the Department of Human Services and the building developers since 2011 to help the local community understand and appreciate their buildings’ leading edge sustainability features, some of which are obvious, and some of which are designed to be barely noticeable.
In Stage 1 of Carlton Eco-Neighbourhood we recruited fourteen local leaders from both public and privately-owned apartments in Drummond, Reeves and Princes Streets, the first stage of the Carlton Housing Redevelopment. These Eco Champions came together for a training course in how their new green buildings operate as well as energy, water and waste saving solutions, communication skills and behaviour change techniques. Then they helped us spread the word about the great opportunities of living in sustainable dwellings, talking face-to-face to neighbours in all 174 apartments and delivering community projects like stalls at Carlton Harmony Day and home sustainability assessments.
You can read about the successful outcomes of Stage 1 of the project here.
Given Stage 1’s encouraging social and environmental outcomes, the Carlton Eco partnership is keen to keep up the momentum and we’re excited to be starting Stage 2 now. The second stage has new buildings located on Cardigan Street and Cemetery Road and we’re now recruiting another twelve Carlton Eco Champions. Contact us to find out more.
Another new feature this time around is that we’re piloting our new One Planet Living approach. We’re linking Environment Victoria’s community engagement projects with our One Planet Living campaign (stay tuned) and forming an exciting new partnership with BioRegional, a UK-based social enterprise who have developed the One Planet Living model. In Carlton Eco-Neighbourhood Stage 2 we’ll be developing a One Planet Action Plan for the community living in Cardigan Street, incorporating a dynamic range of indicators of sustainability – from zero carbon to sustainable food to culture and community and more!
Many of the Stage 1 Eco Champions are rightfully proud of their participation and their environmentally friendly new address.
“The best part [of being involved in Carlton Eco-Neighbourhood] for me has been meeting a new group of people who all live in the same place, but who I would not have spoken to otherwise. Now I know them quite well, and we have something in common. I know that person, and that person, and that person… [and they] care about something I care about.” Doug.
By the end of the Carlton Eco-Neighbourhood projects we hope there’ll be many hundreds of Carlton locals enjoying the benefits of living sustainably and sharing the message about their well-built buildings and their sustainable lifestyles.
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