EcoCentre November Reflections

by April Seymore, Executive Officer

When you hear “EcoCentre building” the new, world-leadership sustainability-rated, Net Zero, spacious and beautiful community centre probably springs to mind. This is with good reason: community has keenly watched the timber structure rise into place over the past few months. We’re all very excited about launching the redeveloped EcoCentre in 2024. (And no – despite the oddly persistent rumour – it will NOT house a bar!)

However, building is both a noun and a verb. 

Building a shared vision, knowledge, capacity, datasets, confidence, community, skills,  or building a new generation of leaders… Let’s explore some progress scenes from both meanings of EcoCentre building

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In 2003-2004, the community-led EcoHouse project saw the cottage retrofitted with sustainable features that lifted it from one-star to five-star energy efficiency.
The EcoHouse retrofit was coordinated by a team including Peter Barker and Dr Jo Samuel King, pictured here in green beside one of the new solar panels.

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In 2018 the Hon Martin Foley launched our Scouts Street2Bay collaboration in the EcoCentre meeting room. Over the next two years, Scouts groups from Geelong to Mornington Peninsula conducted 546 Baykeeper Street Litter Audits to investigate the source and types of plastic pollution that enter Port Phillip Bay. Photo credit: Ronald Jore.

CLOSING 

Whether building knowledge, netwoks, capacity, courage or community hubs — we are all architects of the future.

 

At last week’s Annual General Meeting – a wonderful celebration of environmental action (past, present and planned) we released our latest Annual Report. Read more about the nearly 14,000 program participants and 89,506 service users accessing EcoCentre resources, offers, media and content. There were 18,670 environmental volunteer hours contributed by 3,441 volunteers.   

We partnered with over 313 organisations including 147 schools.
Together we learn, act, teach, innovate and change. 

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The EcoCentre acknowledges the Kulin Nations, including the Yalukut Weelam clan of the Boon Wurrung language group, traditional owners of the land on which we are located.

We pay respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to other Aboriginal and Elder members of our multicultural community.