We are located in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), and similarly to the University, the ACT has an emissions goal. The ACT hosts several community and government initiatives we can become involved in.
Electric Bikes
Canberra has an Electric Bike Library Program, which allows you to borrow e-bikes to try. This is a great opportunity for those who want to try before they buy, or try before they salary sacrifice. The Program has several bikes that you can try, including standard e-bikes, bikes for carrying loads, electric cargo bikes, and family bikes. The bikes can be trialled with accessories such as child seats, panniers, lights, and locks.
Food Waste
Food waste takes up one-third of our rubbish, but there are several ways to reduce this waste and emissions. Climate Choices ACT have a Food Waste Challenge, focusing on simple actions you can take, to ensure that the food you buy and prepare is consumed.
If food waste isn’t a problem you face, but rather scraps that can be composted, consider curbside collection and composting services like Capital Scraps. Capital Scraps is a social enterprise drive to reduce Canberra’s greenhouse gas emissions. They provide a low-emissions option for recycling household kitchen scraps. Capital Scraps currently service Hacket, Watson, Dickson, Downer, Braddon, Ainslie and Kingston areas. Not in these locations? Don’t worry, you can attend their Haig Park drop-off, or pledge for a new collection route by helping collect 50 pledges in your suburb so they can service a new route.
Carbon Removal
The Arbour Day Foundation is a non-profit membership organisation based in the United States that is dedicated to planting trees. Membership donations go towards restoring national and international forests through planting native trees that support biodiversity, including one site in southeast Queensland. Find out more information here.
Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife is a conservation charity that you can support in various ways, including registering for Backyard Buddies, a free education initiative that gives you simple tips to transform your backyard into a safe and inviting habitat haven. Or, you can get involved with the ACT Government's Tree planting across CBR, which plans to plant 54,000 trees by 2023-24 to enhance the ACT's urban forest. They are asking Canberrans to tell them where these trees should be planted, particularly looking for locations where there aren't many trees or where the existing trees are ageing or dying. Get involved here.
Volunteer
Do you already compost, cycle to work or study, and plant trees on your weekends? Don’t worry, you can still contribute to the solution and volunteer at organisations such as the Canberra Environment Centre, a non-government, not for profit organisation which helps educate our community about living more sustainably.