How It Began - The 2008 Nimbin Solar Packaging Scheme
In 2008 NNIC in partnership with Rainbow Power Company facilitated the uptake of 56 x 1 kW grid interactive solar systems by local residents. A 2 kW array was also installed at NNIC's premises and another at the Nimbin Town Hall/School of Arts. For the latest info on rebates available for residential solar arrays, see RPC's website.
To date those arrays have generated an estimated 460,000kWh = 432 tonnes CO2-e (as at July 2014).
In February 2009 we celebrated the successful completion of this project, followed by a day and a half of community planning around sustainability, which led to the first Sustainable Nimbin Community Plan.
The Sustainable Nimbin Community Plan
Sustainable Nimbin Community Plan 2016-2021
The Sustainable Nimbin Community Plan (SNCP) is the result of three community planning forums held in February 2009, then on Saturday 4th June 2011 and most recently on Sun 22nd Nov 2015. See the latest version of the SNCP: 2016-2021 plus Appendix One to the Report (report on Achievements from 2009 to 2015)..
The outcomes of the SNCP are monitored in a number of ways, including the Sustainable Nimbin Community Surveys of which four have been undertaken to date. You can find the results of these surveys here.
The 2009 Community Planning Forum emerged from the successful completion of the Nimbin Solar Packaging Project.
Around 100 people came along to the June 2011 Planning Workshop (95 registrations).
Around 70 people attended the recent Nov 2015 Planning workshop.
The Plan is now made up of 9 Key Focus Areas: Transport, Energy, Food Security, Housing/Built Environment, Economic Development, Health & Well Being, Social & Political, The Natural Environment, and Arts & Culture.
The Sustainable Nimbin Community Plan is a living document and work is happening throughout the community to progress the strategies in the plan. Regular updates are posted on this webiste and via social media and the Nimbin Good Times.
The Role of NNIC - NNIC has a stewardship role over the SNCP.
Since the Aquarius festival in 1973, Nimbin has been driven by a vision of sustainable living, and as this vision now reaches into mainstream Australian society, there are opportunities for the Nimbin community to provide a leadership role as well as derive economic benefits from the inevitable shift towards a lower carbon economy.
Accordingly, NNIC's community development platform since 2008 has been sustainability in the face of economic downturn, peak oil and climate change.
Our aim is to increase the sustainability of the community and build Nimbin's community profile and capacity around sustainable initiatives.
The commitment of the Nimbin community to sustainability is reflected in many things, including the very high uptake of stand-alone solar systems in the Nimbin catchment area.
There is still much work to be done, however, if we are to fortify ourselves against the challenges ahead brought by the social, economic and environmental challenges of peak oil, climate change and the transition to a non-fossil fuelled society.
The Structure of the SNCP
The overall goal of the SNCP is a sustainable community.
This is divided into 9 Key Focus Areas (as identified by the community) (e.g. Energy, Food Security, Transport etc). Each Key Focus Area (KFA) has an overall goal which we are calling the Key Result.
The Key Result is further broken down into smaller goals - each KFA has between 2 and 4 Goals.
Each goal has a set of things we can measure to see if we are getting nearer to our goal.
Strategies have been allocated to each of the goals in each of the KFAs. Each strategy has a key driver and any community partners are identified.
Then the Next Step for each strategy is identified - i.e. what needs to happen next to activate that strategy.
To help with the implementation of the SNCP or to advise us of any progress, contact us at NNIC.
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NNIC takes out the Green Globe Awards! We won our own category - the Community Sustainability Award AND we also were the joint overall winner of the Premiers Award for Environmental Excellence! The winners were announced at Parliament House in Sydney on Tuesday 24th September. Click here for more info about the Green Globe Awards and to see all the finalists in the 14 categories. (Note they included things like the Sydney Opera House and Olympic Park!)
Click here to see the article in the Daily Telegraph on 25th September 2013.
Pictured with our trophies and the NSW Minister for the Environment, the Hon Robyn Parker, is Guy Stewart, NNIC Community Development Worker, Paul Le Bars, NNIC Chairperson, and Natalie Meyer, NNIC Team Leader.
Community Sustainability Survey In order to measure the outcomes against the Plan, as well as to capture some new additional baseline data, we recently conducted the 3rd Community Sustainability Survey. Click here to see the Report on the Survey.
What is Sustainability?
Principles of Sustainabilty have been developed throughout the world since at least the 1990s, and are increasingly being adopted by government and non-government agencies in various forms, all of which are similar and have common threads. All levels of Government in Australia formally adopted principles of sustaiinable development in 1992...