Wollondilly Shire Council

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• Install solar hot water

   Sunlight converts cold water into hot water. No gases are emitted and no one gets hurt. Life is rarely this simple!
  
  The cost of energy is rising and the effect of pollution increasing. Water heating accounts for approximately 30 per cent of an average household's total greenhouse gas emissions and about the same proportion of total household energy use. Visit Climate Change for more information.
  
  Solar hot water systems are highly efficient in their use of solar energy (sunlight) to heat…

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• Make your renovations green

  Renovations are the ideal opportunity to make your house more efficient and sustainable. Try these tips and feel good about your home.
  
  From the design through to the construction of your renovation, opportunities exist to lighten your environmental footprint. These changes can range from short-term aspects (e.g. safely managing and recycling building waste) to long-term improvements in the energy efficiency of your home.
  
  If you're renovating, explore good design: it can save energy, water…

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• Reduce your stormwater pollution

  By managing your domestic stormwater, you can reduce polluting the waterways we love to swim in, fish and simply enjoy.
  
  The catchment area of our local rivers and waterways includes our houses, gardens, driveways and lawns. The stormwater system uses the gutters, drains, pipes and rivers to quickly remove water from residential and business areas so as to avoid flooding and the resultant damage this incurs.
  
  When the stormwater system is in use (i.e. during a storm), any litter, debris and othe…

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• Eat Organic Food

  Too many pesticides, herbicides and fungicides in your food? Try eating organic.
  
  Organic food certification requires that crops and livestock are grown and reared naturally, without artificial fertilisers, synthetic pesticides, chemical feeds, growth-promotion drugs or routine antibiotics. As a result, organic produce is chemical-free, often higher in the nutrients and minerals our bodies require, and most importantly, it can taste better. Also, meat derived from free-range and organic farms co…

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• Avoid Genetically Modified (GM) Food

  Avoid eating Genetically Modified (GM) Food and demand more thorough testing and mandatory labelling of genetic crops and foods.
  
  Scientists are altering and augmenting the genetic make up of our food crops to increase crop yields by making the plants pest resistant, herbicide tolerant, disease resistant, cold, drought, salinity tolerant, etc and to improve the nutrition of the crop and/or to provide pharmaceutical properties via the crop to the end consumer. These crops are producing what is no…

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• Avoid Eating Endangered Fish

  Avoid eating over-fished and threatened fish species.
  
  Increasing our awareness of which fish are being harvested to the brink of extinction, can help us modify our fish eating and buying habits and cease plundering an invisible ecosystem that is in a state of stress and serious decline. Becoming aware of the impact of caged fisheries on our estuaries, bays, oceans, pond systems and wetlands will help us make informed choices next time we are at the fishmongers.
  
  How to do it now!
  Eat sustainabl…

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• Buy Paper and Wood Responsibly

  Help make the harvesting of the world's forests environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. Buy Forest Stewardship Council certified timber and wood products.
  
  The clear-felling of the forests of the Amazon or Borneo is done to supply wood and wood products for markets such as Australia. We stop buying it; they stop cutting it. The Forest Stewardship Council is a global certification organisation that allows its label to be used on wood and wood products that have come from fore…

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• Environmentally Friendly Mindset

  Become aware of the environmental implications of your consumption and purchase those goods that have the least impact on our future.
  
  Understanding the resources embedded in the products we buy and using this knowledge to guide our purchasing decisions is difficult. Advertising is a powerful influence on our purchasing decisions and there is often little information available about the energy, water and other environmental inputs required to produce the things we buy. If we are able to overcome…

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• Avoid Excessive Packaging

  Give priority to purchasing unpackaged products and save the earth's precious resources.
  
  The average Australian consumes 90 kilograms of resources in packaging each year. This is almost double the amount of many European nations. Along with this consumption comes the generation of huge amounts of waste - so it's not surprising that Australia is one of the worst waste generators in the developed world. Reducing the amount of packaging we purchase can help to significantly reduce our us…

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• Choose Green Service Providers

  Wading through the ‘green wash’ to find service providers whose pro-environmental behaviour goes deeper than their marketing department can be a challenge.
  
  As services consume a greater portion of our dollars we want to identify and engage businesses that are making efforts to operate sustainably.
  
  How to do it now!
  The following criteria can be useful in informing your decisions, as to the merit or otherwise of a business with regard to their sustainability performance.
  
  They are an efficient…

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• Invest Ethically

  Your investments may fund activities that are not sustainable and may be contrary to your ethics. Money talks, what is yours saying?
  
  Investing ethically considers your investment's impact on society and the environment as well as its profitability. A study by AMP (June 2006) found that the median ethical investment manager has outperformed the S&P/ASX 200 Index over one, two, three and five years to 31 March 2006 (Ethical Investment Association Australasia). So, you can now make money…

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• Community

  Progress is being made as we nurture and deepen our relationships with others and fire up our compassion toward those in need, the young and future generations of living creatures on this planet. Through these relationships, we will learn together, act together and kick environmental goals together. The sense of common purpose and achievement we will gain will provide essential fuel for the journey. So how can we nurture our compassion and engagement so as to contribute?
  
  Community actions
  
  Help…

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• Help Protect Our Waterways

  Our water practices over the past 200 years have brought many of our waterways to their knees. Help restore our rivers, lakes and estuaries.
  
  Over the last 200 years, our land clearing, unsustainable water usage and certain farming, industrial and business practices have contributed to the degradation of the health of our waterways. Signs of this decline include the loss of biodiversity; toxic algal blooms; declining water quality; increased salinity and sedimentation. This affects the health of…

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• Promote Sustainable Living

  Help spread the word about actions we can all take to reduce our impact on the environment.
  
  It is easy to feel that you're the only one trying to live sustainably, but as you talk to more people, you’ll find that many of us are on the same path. We are all teachers and we are all learners, so share what you know with others and you might just be rewarded by discovering something new yourself!
  
  The more we promote sustainable living, the easier it will be to build sustainable communities.…

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• Immerse Yourself in Nature

  Go hiking, bird watch, swim in the sea or simply enjoy nature and your connection to it. It's good for the body and great for the soul.
  
  We are blessed with a fantastic natural environment, with so many beautiful places for us to explore right on our doorstep. So organise a family picnic at a local park, pop down to the beach for a day or walk along a river or through a forest. Take a deep breath and be thankful for nature's wonders.
  
  How to do it now!
  There are over 3000 national and…

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