We’ve heard from our community that environmental sustainability, specifically climate change, is an important issue.

At our Sustainable Living Festival in November 2022, we launched a survey to learn more about the individual actions you are taking to live more sustainably. We also invited our wider community to take part in this survey between November and February 2023.

The aim of the survey was to:

• explore the actions our community are taking around sustainability
• discover the barriers you may be facing to implement more sustainable actions in your day-to-day life.

It is great to see that across Boroondara, many people are taking action to tackle climate change within their households, schools, sporting clubs and businesses. Your feedback has also given us valuable insights on what is holding you back from implementing certain climate actions.

We will use the survey results, along with a range of other data sources, to help guide the type of education, programs and services we can provide to support you in your sustainable efforts.

Over the 3 months that our Sustainable Actions Survey was open, we received 641 responses from our community. We asked about the sustainable habits you have implemented or may be considering taking over the next 12 months.

The most common positive sustainable actions people reported they are already doing were:

The following sustainable actions were less common in our community. Some of these changes are more challenging but make a great contribution to our environmental sustainability.

From the survey we learnt that 39% of people who responded have purchased renewable energy from their electricity provider. For those who haven’t, the barriers they identified were:

• not having enough information
• it’s costly

If you are interested in getting more information about purchasing renewable energy we recommend visiting the GreenPower website.

32% of people who responded to our survey said they have already replaced or plan to replace gas cooking with electric (induction) cooking.

The main reasons given by respondents who do not have electric induction were:

• their current cooktop does not need replacing
• it’s costly
• they prefer to cook with gas
• they live in a rental property and are unable to make any changes.

To support our community in reducing their environmental impact, we’ll be releasing a ‘Getting off Gas’ guide before the end of the year. Keep an eye out for updates in the Boroondara Bulletin or on social media.

For solar panels, 48% of respondents told us they have either installed or plan to install solar panels at their property.

The main reasons people said they have not installed solar panels is because:

• it’s costly
• they have an unsuitable roof
• they live in a rental property and are unable to make any changes.

If you are thinking about installing solar or just want to learn more about this option and the rebates available, we recommend visiting the Victorian Government’s Solar Hub website.

You can learn more about sustainable options you can take in your day-to-day life, and connect to events and workshops happening locally by:

• signing up to our Living for our Future newsletter
• attending an upcoming sustainability event, which you can find on our Sustainable living workshops and events page
• learning new ways to improve your sustainability by visiting our Reduce and recycle your waste page or our Composting page.

The survey was informed by our adopted Climate Action Plan, which outlines how we are responding to the increasing threat of climate change to our environment as a Council.

The plan also focuses on ways we can act and work together with our community to continue reducing our city’s environmental footprint.

You can find out more about the Climate Action Plan on our Climate Action Plan website.