Sustainability Story

Altona Library EnviroCentre

Program Summary:

Situated at the Altona Library, the EnviroCentre is a partnership between Hobsons Bay City Council and Hobsons Bay Libraries. The EnviroCentre brings together and showcases the City’s environmental initiatives to maximise community awareness of environmental issues. The EnviroCentre is a ‘central hub’ for anyone keen to explore the environmental issues facing Hobsons Bay, as well as national and global trends. It features a carefully curated collection of environmentally focused books, DVD’s , magazine, e-resources and equipment. The EnviroCentre displays local environmental information on an interactive screen with recycling initiatives. 

The EnviroCentres equipment that is available to borrow includes a power consumption measurement tool, Power-Mate, and a thermal camera. The Thermal Camera is an infrared camera that can measure temperature, energy losses and leaks caused by missing or damaged insulation or door & window leaks as well as air conditioning and refrigeration performance. It is a point and shoot, easy to use thermal camera which requires no special training to operate. The Power-Mate provides instantaneous and cumulative measures of power consumption, running costs, and greenhouse gas emissions

The EnviroCentre is home to a number of recycling initiatives. Shower Head exchange program, Mobile phone recycling program, Printer cartridge recycling, Paper recycling program, Household batteries. 

Project Impact/Top Tips 

Since 2013, work has been undertaken to increase the energy efficiency of the Altona Library. This has included extensive heating, natural ventilation through louvers and air-conditioning (HVAC), and LED light replacement work across the site. More recent additions have seen 62kW of solar panels and two Tesla batteries added to the site. This has resulted in a 78.2% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions since 2013. 

Further Information

https://libraries.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/services/enviro-centre

https://libraries.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/services/enviro-centre/15-services/78-useful-environment-websites

Council Policies on environment and sustainability:

https://www.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/Council/Policies-Strategies-Plans?dlv_OC%20CL%20Public%20DocLib%20Relative=(pageindex=3)

Advocacy Partnership:
Partnership internally with other Council departments, sustainability, conservation and parks, arts and culture. Partners in the community with Friends groups, Community Gardens, local environmental groups. 

Promotion:
The EnviroCentre is advertised through social media, in branch advertisements , monthly E-newsletter and an active events calendar.

Evaluation:
The EnviroCentre engages with over 2000 people per year in a face-to-face capacity. This is a more than 300% increase in the last five years. The collection turnover has also  had an increase of over 200% in the same timeframe.

This story meets the following sustainable development goals: