Bendigo Community Health Services is putting real 'energy' into creating a healthier community by installing 425 solar panels across the Kangaroo Flat and Eaglehawk sites.
The Solar Panels Project was driven by a new focus on the impact of climate change on health.
Climate change is recognised as a significant health risk by the World Health Organisation and Victorian Department of Health and appears as a pillar in Victoria's current Public Health and Wellbeing Plan.
Health organisations such as BCHS that have traditionally concentrated on delivering quality care to the community must now look at how services and sites impact on the environment and how we can make change to meet our obligations of creating a healthier community in all areas.
A huge thanks to the Bendigo Sustainability Group for providing such valuable support to Bendigo Community Health Services with the Solar Panels Project.
Colin Lambie and the Bendigo Sustainability Group not only encouraged us to pursue this project for environmental reasons but provided evidence to support how the solar panels would not only help our environmental footprint but save money in the years to come.
The Bendigo Sustainability Group provided excellent data on the benefits of solar panels which allowed us to see this was a very worthwhile project that would pave the way for a health organisation to better support the environment.
This project will allow Bendigo Community Health Services to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of Co2 across the two sites by about 270,000 kilograms per year. That's 126,972 kilograms at our Eaglehawk site and 142,613 kilograms at our Kangaroo Flat site.
We estimate the solar panels will save us around $31,500 per year at Eaglehawk and $35,500 at Kangaroo Flat. That's $67,000 - a considerable amount for a not-for-profit health organisation that can be invested into programs and services to help the vulnerable and disadvantaged in our community.
When you consider all these benefits it's clear that taking an environmentally-friendly approach to delivering health services can have significant impact on our community and our planet.
