Join us for afternoon tea at 3pm AEDT Thursday 13 October as we hear from Tracy Fulton and Ryan Halyburton from the City of Onkaparinga as they take us through their Energy Support Program which supports community focused sites to understand and monitor energy use in tandem with energy efficiency upgrades.
The Energy Support Program complements Onkaparinga’s Green Buildings Initiative which aims to reduce energy and water use, waste to landfill and greenhouse gas emissions from all council owned buildings over time and is an integral part of our commitment to reduce our carbon footprint.
This innovative program puts the people back into energy efficiency by engaging and educating staff and volunteers at community facing centres to minimise energy consumption through their day to day activities. It ensures that existing and planned building energy upgrades provide maximum impact and result in cost savings in utility bills and reduction in GHG emissions. The Energy Support Program’s success stems from the collaborative process undertaken between officers managing the program and staff and volunteers working at each centre and how the approach is tailored to suit each individual site. This ensures that staff and volunteers build capacity in the local community and increase a sense of building pride and ownership, while achieving maximum environmental and financial savings.
What you’ll learn:
- Some background on the program,
- the challenges and learnings
- the wins
- and what’s next.
Speakers:
Tracy Fulton, Environmental Sustainability Officer, City of Onkaparinga.
Tracy’s role is all about encouraging community and corporate environmental behaviour change. She loves getting to spend the majority of her time assisting local residents to reduce their impact on the environment through providing practical advice and developing and delivering a diverse range of projects. These include anything from educating on the negative impacts of balloons, understanding how to lower energy bills, helping to get trees onto private land or getting muddy with kids and making nature creations in a wetland. When she’s not at work, you’ll find her down the beach, whether it’s summer or winter as she enjoys volunteering to keep an eye on the oceans and sea critters and spends her spare time as the Events Coordinator for Sea Shepherd SA.
Ryan Halyburton, Green Buildings Officer, City of Onkaparinga
Holding a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical & Sustainable Energy), Ryan is passionate about identifying sustainable solutions to complex problems in both his work and general life. Out of this passion he has championed the installation of over 350 kW of solar PV for the City of Onkaparinga, including a solar shade structure, as well as countless other energy reduction projects.
