Dreaming of a Green Christmas

Christmas is a time for celebration, giving and spending time with family and friends. For most, it is a positive time, but it can also be a time of great stress and expense.


Penrith City Council’s Dreaming of a Green Christmas campaign celebrates the fun and festive aspects of Christmas while encouraging people to think about ways to make it more sustainable. From shopping to gift-wrapping, food, decorations and entertaining, there are many ways to keep the festive season fun while reducing the negative social, economic and environmental impacts.


Under the heading Twelve Ways for a more Sustainable Christmas, we have pulled together a range of options for a greener Christmas. This includes:

1. Shop locally
2. Shop with companies with a fair trade ethic
3. Buy sustainable gifts
4. Give a gift that keeps on giving
5. Wrap presents with recycled paper
6. Turn Christmas lights off overnight
7. Spend lots of time with family and friends
8. Buy locally-grown or organic produce for you Christmas lunch
9. Give charity, recycled or e-cards
10. Make a donation to a good cause
11. Buy Green Power for you Christmas event
12. Pool you Christmas shopping into fewer bags

For more information on how to have a more Sustainable Christmas visit Penrith City Council’s website at http://www.penrithcity.nsw.gov.au/

November Edition of the Sustainability Street Newsletter Out Now!

The latest edition of the Sustainability Street Newsletter for Penrith is out now. Click here to download your copy.

Read for stories on:

- Continuing the Sustainability Street Journey
- Upcoming Street Dates
- Sustainability Street NSW Conference 2008 - A big success!
- Solar Power & Climate Change Workshop - 29 November
- Centres for Sustainability
- The News in Brief

If you would like to be added to our mailing list to receive a copy of the newsletter automatically just email Krystie Race and specify whether you would like to recieve it electronically or in the mail.

Climate Change & Solar Power Workshop- Sat 29 November

Keep hearing media stories about– ‘global warming’, ‘changes in rainfall’, ‘increases in severe weather events’, ‘rising electricity and fuel prices’. Want to find out what this is all about, how it affects you, and what you can do about it?

Or are you interested in going solar and want to find out how it all works and what rebates are available? Penrith Council is hosting a workshop to address all these areas and much more.

Date: Saturday 29th November 2008
Time: 10.00am – 2.00pm
Venue: Lewers Art Gallery, 86 River Rd, Emu Plains

Morning tea and lunch provided.

Highlights of the workshop include:

• Presentations from climate change and solar power experts
• Find out how climate change affects you
• Learn about the benefits of going solar - costs, savings, rebates
• What you can do to reduce your impact climate change, and how we can work together to respond to climate change
• Have your say on climate change

Project Coordinator from the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, Marnie Kikken, said: “This project will enable our communities to directly contribute to climate change decision making at both a local and state level. “

RSVPs are required. To RSVP or for more information contact Krystie Race at Penrith Council on 4732 8050 or krace@penrithcity.nsw.gov.au

The NSW Climate Summit is coordinated by The Nature Conservation Council of NSW. This project is assisted by the New South Wales Government through its Environmental Trust.

Walk Against Warming 2008

Climate change is the most critical issue of our time, so join in the Walk Against Warming to be held on the Great River Walk at Weir Reserve on 15 November at 11am.

Walk Against Warming 2008 comes at a critical point, when the community's voice has never been more important to demand strong, urgent action from our government and justice for developing nations affected by global warming.

Supported locally by Council, the event is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of people in cities across Australia for the largest community day of action on climate change.

Walk Against Warming will be critical in showing leaders across the political spectrum that we expect Governmet to take action now.

Come and enjoy a walk along the Great River Walk and bring a picnic and a banner. Walkers will also be encouraged to 'have their say' on climate change. The first 100 attendees will receive a free sausage sandwhich, drink and native tree. You can also get a free temporary tattoo from Council's sustainability mascot the Eastern Water Dragon. For more information on the walk call 4732 8121.

Sustainable Times Newsletter T4 2008

Latest Sustainable Times Out Now!

The latest edition of Penrith City Council's Sustainable Times Newsletter is out now. The Sustainable Times is a newsletter aimed at local schools, and provides information on activities, projects and upcoming initiatives that might be of interest to schools and school children.

To download your copy simply click here. If you would like to be added to our mailing list send Krystie Race an email stating your prefernece for an electronic or hard copy. The term 4 edition for 2008 is packed with useful information, including stories on:

- Solar Boat Challenge State Finals - A big success!
- Planting Days - Tench Reserve Penrith
- Keep your worms cool!
- Next SpenSEN Meeting
- Reducing our Carbon Footprint wtih Organics
- Get down to Earth - FREE Compost Bins for schools
- Walk Against Warming
- Nominate Outstanding Penrith City Citizens
- Activate 2008

Time to get rid of your 2nd Fridge!

The popular Fridge Buyback program is again ready to collect fridges in the Penrith Council area. Residents can hand in their old, inefficient working second fridges by calling 1800 708 401.

Fridge Buyback was very popular with a number of residents taking it up when it was first offered. I am delighted that this service is again available to residents and encourage you to take advantage of Fridge Buyback’s fantastic offer. It is a tangible step that residents can take to cut their energy bills and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

In the first two rounds of Fridge Buyback a number of residents handed in their working second fridges, saving $320 and 18 tonnes of greenhouse gases being emitted.

As well as free collection from their home, residents may also be eligible to receive a $35 rebate for handing in their fridge, Councillor Karen McKeown said. Residents will receive the $35 rebate if 6 stairs or less are involved in removing their fridge. Residents will receive free fridge collection from their home by experienced removalists if 20 stairs or less are involved in removing the fridge.

Fridge Buyback accepts working second fridges that are 250 litres or more in size and 10 years or more old. These are often the beer fridges in people’s garages. Older fridges are expensive to run and residents frequently don’t realise it’s costing them around $190 a year in electricity and creating a tonne of greenhouse gases every year.

Fridge Buyback has received funding from the NSW Government’s Climate Change Fund to collect, degas and recycle 19,000 working second fridges over the next three years, saving the residents who participate more than $24 million in avoided electricity bills and 150,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases.

The Climate Change Fund also provides rebates for rainwater tanks, climate-friendly hot water systems, ceiling insulation and washing machines.

For more information visit the Fridge Buyback wesite at http://www.fridgebuyback.com.au/index.html

Server Consolidation Cuts Council's Power Consumption

Council has cut server and power costs, improved system availability and our ability to recover from an IT disaster, and decreased the pressure on floor space through virtualisation and server consolidation.

Virtualisation is the ability to run multiple operating systems on a single server. The number of physical servers can therefore be reduced by consolidation.

Database administrator Ian Honeysett said Council has been able to stem the expansion of the number of physical servers and keep spending on servers to a minimum.

“We also want to reduce emissions, by reducing server power and cooling costs.” Ian said.

“One of the major Key Result Areas for my job is business continuity, minimising interruptions to IT services, and virtualisation will drastically reduce the time it takes to get computer systems up and running after any major IT disaster.”

Ian said tasks like server upgrades and patching are much easier since the consolidation.

The first phase of the project involved replacing a block of 14 servers with two high level Dell PE2950s. The old servers - a combination of Dell PE650 and PE2650 - were still operating effectively, but they were five years old and warranties were no longer available on the systems.

“There was enough budget to replace each server, but research found server consolidation was by far the best long term option,” he said.

Council's extensive server fleet runs 108 applications. Future plans around greening IT at Council include the use of virtualisation technologies out at the desk top.

For more information on Council's greenhouse gas abatement initiatives click here.

NSW Climate Change Summit

Have your Say on Climate Change

Climate change is one of the greatest environmental challenges to face humanity. It is an issue of local, national and global significance affecting every Australian. How we respond today will have far reaching implications in our lifetimes, and those of our future generations.

With climate change now firmly on the agenda of all levels of government, we must determine: How should we prepare for the impacts of climate change? What is the most appropriate course of action?

Penrith City Council has joined with the Nature Conservation Council of NSW and 16 other NSW councils to gain community input into how we address this critical issue.

Randomly selected community members will be invited to attend a two day forum to explore the issue of climate change and develop recommendations for Council and the NSW State Government. Following the local forum, participants will be invited to attend the NSW Climate Summit to be held in February 2009.

At the NSW Climate Summit, community representatives from across NSW will join with a broad range of stakeholders to discuss and debate how to best address climate change. By finding common ground, summit participants will produce a set of recommendations to present to the NSW Government which are reflective of a NSW consensus view.

Penrith residents are encouraged to participate in this important project. In addition to the local forum, Penrith City Council is encouraging residents to have their voice heard by making comment either via the Council website or at one of the displays located throughout the City, Council recognises the importance of the values, concerns, opinions and expertise of our community, and the need to consider these in our decision making and planning processes.

Climate change affects us all. By working together, we can address this issue. This project will enable our communities to be included in deliberations that directly contribute to climate change decision making at both a local and state level. Giving the community a stronger voice in decision making processes, and enabling action on climate change to be more reflective of community views.

For further information on this project visit www.nccnsw.org.au/nswclimatesummit or contact Bernadette Riad at Penrith City Council on 4732 7629

This project is coordinated by the Nature Conservation Council of NSW.
This project has been assisted by the New South Wales Government through its Environmental Trust.

WHY DO YOUNG CHILDREN NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE

There is a great article on Early Childhood Australia web site http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/ discussing the pros and cons of talking to children about climate change and whether this would be a frightening topic for children.

The article argues that it is irresponsible not to share information about how climate change may affect the lives of young children both now and in the future. We would also be missing an opportunity to help them learn how their actions can impact on the future of the planet. We can do this in a way that uses play and is not designed to make children anxious or depressed about their world. No doom and gloom approach should be used but rather a positive approach about how they as individuals can help their planet.

The best approach is to work with families, because they are the prime role model for their children; and with the children to enables them to learn through hands-on, concrete experiences how they can care for their world.

“A play approach to sustainability may involve, for example, children saving drinking water after meal-times to place on the garden; or it may include setting up a miniature compost bin in the home-corner kitchen so children can role-play putting scraps in the bin (as well as placing real food scraps in an actual compost bin).”[1]

Learning about sustainability can begin with very young children staff can role model and communicate what they are doing to children so that children learn e.g. simple comments like “lets put the tissue in the bin so it is safe and doesn’t end up as rubbish in the playground” can start sewing the seeds in children of a better way to behave to help the planet. From these simple beginnings of communicating with children to working with children on projects in the centres is just a short step. There are a myriad of centre based activities and projects children can be involved in as well as moving towards involving children in local and nation wide projects like “Clean up Australia Day”. The community and nation wide projects are ideal activities for school aged children to be involved in and through the children and their enthusiasm we can involve families which may well change some attitudes in adults.

By involving children in sustainability we are opening up their world to a range of knowledge e.g. science, technology, geography and social studies. There is also the benefit of assisting children to develop habits and attitudes that will last them a life time.

Submitted by: Joanna Pickford

[1] Source: Early Childhood Australia. 2008. Why do young people need to kknow about climage change. Early Childhood Austalia. Available from: http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/resource_themes/sustainability_global_warming_and_climate_change/why_do_young_children_need_to_know_about_climate_change.html

Sustainable House Day - 13-14 September 2008

Homeowners open their doors, so others can learn how to live sustainably in comfort.

As part of the 7th annual Sustainable House Day, homes across the country will open so others can learn and experience the benefits of all aspects of sustainable living. And what’s more, these houses appear normal on the outside…so it’s only when stepping inside that the learning begins!

Event organiser Judy Celmins said “Over the 7 years Sustainable House Day has been showing people the benefits of energy efficiency in their homes, we have seen a dramatic increase in interest. People now realise they need to reduce their energy, water and waste needs in their home…but are confused on where to start.

That’s where Sustainable House Day can help. There is nothing better than talking to people who have already done it. You can learn the good, and the bad, from the home owner’s personal experience and talk to architects. And once you have experienced living in a home that is cool in summer, without airconditioning, and warm in winter with little or no heating, it’s hard not to get excited.

There will be a variety of sustainable living tips on display at the houses open this year. The aim is to motivate, and provide information so people can go home and start implementing some of the fundamentals straight away.

You can find an open house in your area by logging onto http://www.sustainablehouseday.com/ . Tickets can be purchased at any house visited for $5 per person per house, children free.