Sustainability at home

Reduce your energy use

Make your home more comfortable, affordable, and environmentally friendly by reducing your energy use. There are many changes you can make to improve the efficiency of energy use at home and many of these solutions are no-cost or low-cost. Check out some simple tips:

Borrow a Energy and Water Efficiency Home Audit Kit from Connected Casey Library branches at Bunjil Place, Cranbourne, Endeavour Hills, Hampton Park and Doveton. The kits will help identify where you can improve the efficiency of your home, saving you money on your bills and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Install a solar system through Council’s trusted and affordable provider. Get advice and register your interest in a free quote on the Solar Saver’s website.
Check out the City of Casey’s Open Data Platform and use the emissions dashboard to compare your household electricity and gas consumption, costs, and emissions to rest of your postcode to see how well your house is performing. The Open Data platform is an initiative of the Council, which aims to improve transparency, accountability, and innovation through the provision of open data.
For other ideas to improve the energy efficiency of your home appliances including heating, cooling, and hot water head to the Sustainability Victoria website.
When replacing old appliances, the Australian Government Energy Rating website provides information about the star energy rating system so you can save on your energy bills.

Reduce your travel emissions

Choosing to walk, cycle or take public transport where possible is healthier for you and will help reduce your carbon footprint. Check out the Sustainability Victoria website for tips on how to make sustainable choices about your transport and travel.

Reduce your waste

A lot of our waste unnecessarily goes to landfill. Landfill sites take up space, which could otherwise be used for natural bushland, farmland, and other open spaces. Food waste in landfill also produces greenhouse gases as it degrades. There are so many creative ways to reduce your waste at home.

Subscribe to our Green Living in Casey newsletter to receive all the latest tips on reducing waste to your inbox every week, and join our Green Living in Casey Facebook group to share your successes.

Reduce your water use

Households are responsible for more than two-thirds of Victoria’s total water use. As our population in Casey grows, and climate change makes rainfall less reliable, we all need to look after this precious resource because if we each save a little, we all save a lot.

By saving water at home you can also reduce your water bills and improve the health of our creeks and rivers. There are so many ways to save water, you could try:

Creating water-saving habits such as shortening showers or turning the tap off when brushing your teeth.
Installing water-saving appliances
Installing a rainwater tank
Reusing grey water (water from the shower or the washing machine) in the garden
For outdoor water saving tips, you could:
Water your garden wisely Choose Native plants.
Install a rainwater tank
Build a raingarden

Greywater

Greywater is the relatively clean wastewater from baths, sinks, washing machines, and other kitchen appliances (excluding toilets). If handled properly, it can be safely reused for the garden, however, must be confined to within your property and shouldn’t leak into stormwater drains or waterways. Also, untreated greywater must not be stored longer than 24 hours. Overflow from a greywater system must discharge to a sewer or septic tank.

The Advantages of re-using Grey Water:

Reduces water consumption. Harvested grey water can be collected automatically and used for various systems, such as toilet flushing and outside taps
Quick and easy to install.
Tailored to your specific requirements.

There is no specific legislation banning the use of untreated greywater in Victoria, however, greywater contains bacteria, which could pose a risk to human health, pets and the environment. The Department of Health and Human Services does not recommend the re-use of untreated greywater inside the home.

Learn more

Learn about Council’s Integrated Water Management Plan here: Integrated Water Management Plan | City of Casey
Head to the Make Every Drop Count website for more information and great tips. Get to know Victoria’s permanent water saving rules to ensure you are doing the right thing at home.
For general information about how you can save water at home, visit Sustainability Victoria.

Sustainable and ethical shopping

Sustainability at home starts with what we buy and use at home. We understand it isn’t easy to be a conscious consumer, but we can all take small steps towards leaving a lighter shopping footprint. Here are a few ways to get started.

Think before you buy. Ask yourself, “Do I need this? Will I wear or use this on a regular basis? What is the impact of this item on children, communities or the environment?”
Shop local. Support small businesses, farmers’ markets, and the local economy by choosing items grown or made locally in Casey. Bulk buying is another great way to reduce packaging waste. Bulk buying is another great way to reduce packaging waste.
Learn to repair items or buy second-hand.
Eat sustainably. We encourage you to choose foods that are produced in an ecologically and ethically responsible way – kind to growers, kind to animals, kind to the earth, and kind to your health. Choose sustainably certified: Support products that are ethically sourced, ethically made and ethically distributed. Fairtrade is about fair wages, decent working conditions, and local sustainability for workers in the developing world. If a product carries a seal from Fairtrade, work has been done to ensure that the product was produced ethically.
You can also visit the (published by the Ethical Consumer Group) which provides useful information on the environmental and social record of companies behind the brand names of common supermarket products.

Sustainable gardening

Want a sustainable edible garden that nourishes you with delicious healthy foods and reduces your carbon footprint? We’ve got you covered. Here are some practical ideas that will help you get started:

Grow your own fruit, vegetable and herb produce. This will help reduce the distance your food travels from the farm to your plate , it avoids plastics and food packaging and promotes food security. Don’t have a backyard, why not join a Community Garden.
Keep chickens. They are low maintenance, provide fresh eggs saving you money at the shops, their manure can be used as fertiliser on the garden, they eat food scraps and are great pets for children.
Install a beehive. Bees play an important role in pollinating fruit and flowers, they support biodiversity and are crucial to our agriculture industry. Bees provide honey to eat and wax for various products such as candles, cosmetics, food wraps, furniture and shoe polish, waterproofing and so many more.
Use water wisely and consider adding a rain garden with native shrubs and perennials to an area that tends to collect runoff, where they will be able to absorb excess rainwater. Installing a rainwater tank can be useful too.
Plant indigenous plants. They are drought tolerant and need less water. Species that are best suited to your local soil and climate can be found here which plants are indigenous to your area.
Heavy rainfall events are predicted to increase in the future due to climate change. Prepare for heavy rainfall events by including lots of permeable ground such as grass, garden beds or loose gravels in your backyard. If you have large areas of hardstand, ensure there is appropriate drainage or gutters as flooding can cause significant damage to buildings.
Have a compost or worm farm and apply for a rebate.
Upcycle items in your garden to divert waste from landfill. Use old items for containers to grow vegetables or herbs in, get creative and build a sculpture, use old items such as a wheelbarrow or timber ladder as interesting focal points in the garden.
Nature strip planting has many benefits that you may have not considered.
Join Greater South East Permaculture Group who meet at the Old Cheese Factory, on the 2nd Friday of each month. You can contact them at [email protected]
Avoid plants that are known invasive species in our bushland and wetlands. Find out how to better manage weeds.
Create a wildlife-friendly garden
Avoid using synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.
Plant indigenous plants

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