Sustainability Story: SEE-Change: small steps towards big change

Download: Report Stories SEE-Change: small steps towards big change.pdf

Sustainability is not about just one project, one action or one event. Building a more sustainable city means making hundreds, maybe thousands, of small adjustments in the way we do things. This is what SEE-Change aims to do in Canberra.

SEE-Change (Society, Environment, Economy) began in 2006 when members of Canberra's academic institutions and the wider community committed to building a more sustainable future for the ACT. SEE-Change has grown in numbers and now has five groups across Canberra. The groups combine environmental and sustainability action in their local area with concern for broader issues like reducing greenhouse gas emissions and tackling climate change.

Getting around sustainably can be fun! (Photo courtesy of SEE-Change)

Groups meet regularly to plan and undertake many different actions from organising and hosting community meetings, workshops and information nights to bulk-buys, over-the-fence tours and much more. A very successful bike trailer hire program makes cycling with kids or cargo a more affordable active transport option. Other programs include back yard sustainability demonstrations and workshops, solar panel bulk buys, retrofitting guidance and much more.

A pilot program in 20 ACT schools invited students to submit ideas for reducing Canberra's carbon footprint by 2020. Student entries were displayed at the Canberra Festival of Young Ideas in November 2011.

2020 Vision Festival of Young Ideas, ACT Legislative Assembly, 2011 (Photo courtesy of Mel Hill Photography)

Also new in 2011 is the Canberra Clean Energy Collective, a special interest group of SEE-Change members producing investment and delivery models that will make community-funded photo-voltaic arrays a reality in the next 12 months.

Woden SEE-Change began work in 2011 with Lyons Early Childhood School and Woden Community Services to set up a community garden at the school. The garden will be open to the broader community.

Woden SEE-Change Members spread the word at the Southside Farmers Market (Photo courtesy of SEE-Change).

SEE-Change groups are showing the small things we can do to change our behaviours relating to transport, food production and distribution, energy generation and use, and building design. Sharing information about the many options for living more sustainably is another really important way of moving towards more environmentally friendly lifestyles.

For more information visit the SEE-Change website, www.see-change.org.au