Climate Change Initiatives

During December 2006 and February 2007 the UBLN screened Al Gores movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ free of charge throughout our area. Well in excess of 500 people took the opportunity to view the movie in local halls and join in discussion at the conclusion. The purpose of screening the movie was not to promote Al Gore or the movie. We set out to generate interest and discussion in the community about climate change and what we might do to counter it. At the completion of the ‘Roadshow’ the UBLN looked at how we could help provide solutions to some of the issues raised. As one of the common themes in the discussion follow the movies was ‘energy efficiency in the home and on the farm’ we began looking at renewable energy options.
In our travels we came across a new group in Ballarat calling themselves BREAZE (Ballarat Renewable Energy And Zero Emissions) that had already begun a similar approach. BREAZE had done a significant amount of work looking at solar hot water systems. As they had already done the hard research and were close to finalizing a bulk deal we took the opportunity to partner with them (yep we are opportunistic). At that stage they had in excess of a hundred people interested and were being taken very seriously by suppliers. In addition to coming up with some attractive prices on high quality units, they have also sorted through the nightmare of assessing all the variables and flexibility of choice for anyone looking to purchase a new unit or retrofit to an existing system.

For further information, or to order a system, go to www.breaze.org.au . With the discount and government incentives the payback time may be as little as 3 – 5 years.
The UBLN is not getting any kickback or commission from this initiative. Rather we are continuing with our philosophy of assisting people to make small changes locally that add up to big differences globally.