The Alpine Shire Community Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report 2021/22 was developed as a result of the Alpine Shire Community Climate Action Plan Roadmap 2023, which recommended that Council develop a greenhouse gas emissions inventory to provide greater insight into key emissions reductions opportunity areas across the Alpine Shire.

The report provides a detailed and locally accurate profile of emissions across the Alpine Shire for the 2021/22 baseline year, which will impact how Council prioritises and supports impactful community climate action. The report identifies the main sources of emissions across the Alpine Shire, which are derived from road transport, agriculture, commercial electricity and residential electricity.

The infographic below illustrates key findings of the report.

As part of its Climate Emergency Declaration, Council has partnered with HIP V. HYPE Sustainability to develop a Community Climate Action Roadmap. The objective of the Roadmap is to inform the future development of a Community Climate Action Plan, which will support the community to reduce its emissions and adapt to a changing climate.

The Roadmap provides an overview of the local climate context and elements of a community climate response, and identifies where a future Community Climate Action Plan can prioritise efforts for the most valuable impact and benefit.

Read the Community Climate Action Roadmap here.

Visit our Sustainable Households page for a range of tips and resources to help you reduce your household's carbon footprint.

Transport is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions across Alpine Shire. By choosing sustainable, low-emissions transport options wherever possible, we can reduce our impact on the natural environment and support healthy communities.

Several low-emissions transport options are available to Alpine Shire residents:

Active Transport

Alpine Shire has a wonderful bicycle and walking path network - both paved and unpaved - across the Shire to allow safe off-road cycling and walking between and within townships.

Electric bikes are also a great form of zero emissions transport when charged with renewable energy, and are an accessible option that can allow a more moderate exercise compared to traditional bicycles.

Public Transport

Mass public transport is more economical and less emissions intensive than personal modes of transport. Although public transport options are limited within the Alpine Shire, there are connecting VLine buses from townships within the Shire to train services in Wangaratta and Albury. There are also a number of other bus options for travel, including Omeo to Bright and from townships to the Alpine Resorts. When planning trips consideration should be given to public transport options where possible.

Bus transport servicing the Alpine Shire:

• VLine run connecting coach services to Albury and Wangaratta
• Omeo to Bright Alpine Bus Link connect Bright and Omeo, stopping at townships along the way
• Falls Creek Bus Services run bus services between Mount Beauty and Albury, as well as their snow service to Falls Creek
• Rotary Community Bus Myrtleford a community bus available for public booking
• Hotham Bus and Falls Bus also offer snow services in the winter

Carpooling & Ride Sharing

With limited public transport options in the region, another opportunity to reduce petrol use whilst also saving money is to carpool or ride share with others. This could be when commuting for work, driving children to school, or going to the shops.

Every saved trip can significantly reduce the number of cars on the road, in turn reducing transport emissions.

Electric Vehicles

There are many reasons to consider an electric vehicle (EV) for your next car purchase:

• Zero emissions when charged with 100% renewable electricity
• Lower maintenance costs due to less moving parts
• Lower running costs compared to fuel, particularly if charged at home with rooftop solar PV
• Ever-increasing EV options within the Australian market

Community energy is a space that is rapidly growing across Australia. Community energy is intended to maximise renewable energy production and use, in turn reducing reliance on electricity generated from fossil fuels, reducing energy inequality, and keeping the energy market (and therefore profits) local.

The Hume region is very active in community energy; it has a vast network of community energy groups and upcoming opportunities. To get involved refer to the Hume Community Power Hub.

The Community Power Agency has a range of resources available to assist community energy groups, along with a map of community energy groups within the region and across Australia.

Community Batteries

Excess energy generated from rooftop solar can be bought by and stored in community batteries for shared use during times of peak demand and low generation. This provides an overall more efficient solution to grid congestion, negates the personal investment in home battery storage, while still resulting in long-term electricity bill savings. The ABC has an easy-to-understand article on localised energy storage.

Indigo Power have recently received conditional funding support from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency to continue leading the roll-out of community batteries across sites in North East Victoria. This follows completion of a feasibility study on Aggregated Community-Scale Battery Storage in North East Victoria, which identifies suitable sites for community-scale batteries across North East Victoria, focussing on Bright, Beechworth, Mt Beauty and the Towonga Shire. More information on this project can be found here.

Community Energy and Electric Vehicle Charging Prospectus

Council has partnered with Indigo Power to develop a Community Energy and Electric Vehicle Charging Prospectus, which identifies opportunities for investment in community energy and electric vehicle charging infrastructure on Council-owned land. Funded by Recovery and Resilience funding from the Victorian and Australian governments, the Prospectus was developed to ensure Council has a number of investment-ready community scale battery sites and public EV charging sites to ensure a favourable position for seeking funding for this infrastructure as grant opportunities or commercial investment opportunities arise. Read more about the Prospectus here.

Virtual Power Plants

A virtual power plant (VPP) connects batteries in an energy sharing network, and offers households and businesses with solar panel and battery systems a way to further reduce their energy costs and share clean energy with the community. Excess energy from households or businesses with on-site solar storage is fed into the grid and shared to power the community energy network.

There are often funding opportunities for building owners wishing to install solar generation and/or storage to participate in VPPs. There are a number of VPP programs across Victoria and in the Hume region, many of which are approved by Solar Victoria and eligible for battery purchase rebates.

Read more about VPPs here.

Microgrids

Microgrids are similar to VPPs, except that they are located within a geographical boundary and are islandable, which means they can go off-grid to keep electricity available locally when the wider grid goes down. This enhances the resilience of the network to disasters such as bushfires and storm events, which can cause power loss to regions. Refer to the Energy Victoria Microgrids page for further information.

Alpine Shire Council Community Grants Program

Alpine Shire Council Community Grants are an annual funding opportunity provided to support community groups in various areas, including environmental sustainability.

Sustainability Victoria Grants & Funding

Sustainability Victoria regularly have a number of community and social enterprise grants available in renewable energy, as well as other areas such as circular economy and waste. For the latest grant opportunities visit Sustainability Victoria.

Community Group Zero-Interest Loans

CORENA is a not-for-profit organisation providing zero-interest loans for energy efficiency improvement projects for community organisations.

Patagonia Australia Grants Program

The Patagonia Australia Grants Program aims to support environmental organisations who work to address the root causes of the environmental crisis, and whose work seeks to protect both the environment and affected communities.

Grant Guru

Grant Guru is a search tool for identifying grants and funding sources for a range of project types, including climate, environment and sustainability.