Fresh BREAZE in Ballarat

Ballarat Courier
Wednesday 14/2/2007 Page: 19
By Nick Higgins

MASS solar hot water installations are among ideas being considered by a new Ballarat sustainable living group. Last week the Ballarat Renewable Energy and Zero Emissions group, or BREAZE, was officially formed.

BREAZE president Nick Lanyon said the group was inspired by Daylesford's Hepburn Renewable Energy Association.

If 2500 people can do that, Ballarat, with 90,000 people, should be able to pull something together," Mr Lanyon said. The group also plans to take part in a Clean Up Australia Day project.

"We're working on the concept that we have to take responsibility for our own patch of the planet first before we can call others like India and China to account for their rising energy expenditure," Mr Lanyon said.

We need to put our own climatic and environmental house in order first and then we can work outwards.

"Clean Up Australia Day is a great way of taking direct responsibility for the degradation of our local environment. The clean up will be followed by a picnic, as a reward for all of that hard work." BREAZE is community-based group that takes climate change science seriously and isn't prepared to sit around on our hands while governments dither.

"For ordinary people and businesses who think that climate change is too big a challenge and don't know where to start, BREAZE aims to be a local launching pad for education, research and advice about how to go about reducing emissions to zero." The group formed last Thursday before a talk at the Australia Catholic University by environmentalist John Seed.

About 170 people attended the BREAZE meeting and the talk. Mr Lanyon said other issues the group could explore were transport, organic food and sustainable hones.