Canberra is home to a thriving sustainability community, offering plenty of ways to get involved in local environmental action. Whether it’s planting trees, cutting down on food waste, or volunteering with local groups, there are many opportunities to make a meaningful impact. Get connected with others who are passionate about sustainability and help keep Canberra a green, livable city.
Explore the opportunities below and help make a meaningful impact in Canberra.
Quick Links
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. 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 trialed with accessories such as child seats, panniers, lights, and locks. ANU also offers e-bike salary sacrificing options for ANU staff.
Food Waste
Food waste takes up one-third of our rubbish, but there are several ways to reduce this waste and help reduce these emissions. Climate Choices ACT have a Food Waste Challenge, giving you tips and tricks to help you consume the food you buy.
Can't have a compost at home? 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.
Join the challenge with climate choices Compost with Capital Scraps
Carbon Removal
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.
Become active in Canberra sustainability groups
Canberra is one of the top 5 most sustainable cities in the world (Earth.org, 2022). Interested in getting more hands on in the community? Get involved with some of our many community groups or gardens around the city. For instance, SEE Change, a grass-roots sustainability organisation based in Canberra, focused on making beneficial changes to our Society, Environment and Economy (SEE) in order to live more sustainably. There programs include the E-bike library, verge gardens, a community toolbox and more. Or the Canberra Environment Centre (CEC) that run a secondhand bike shop, discounted composting equipment, events, repair cafes and more.
ANU Green Network
Are you an ANU staff or student? Join the ANU Green Network to engage in conversations on environmental sustainability, explore the Second Life Furniture channel, share sustainability related images, and connect with others navigating to campus using sustainable commute options such as carpooling, biking, or public transport.
Follow @Green_ANU on Instagram!
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