African restaurants get cool for summer
January 2010
The Seven Star Café in Ascot Vale has great African coffee, a pool table and a commitment to sustainability. It was one of the sites of a training session in December where six people learnt how to do sustainability assessments of businesses.
They were East Africans from Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea taking part in Environment Victoria’s GreenTown program, and are currently using their training to assess 15 East African restaurants and other businesses in the Flemington area, to help them become more sustainable. At Seven Stars they learnt about saving energy on lighting, ways to cool the café without having to use the air conditioner, improving the energy efficiency of fridges, saving water with flow restrictors in taps, and more.
As part of GreenTown, the group isn’t just learning about businesses. In June-July they participated in a five-week GreenTown Home Sustainability Assessment Course delivered in partnership with Moreland Energy Foundation, and in October they visited a landfill site and a recycling plant to learn about waste issues. They’ve been using this knowledge in the sustainability assessments they’ve been doing of East African homes in the area – so far they have assessed more than 50 households, delivering energy and water saving products to families as well as sustainable living advice. GreenTown makes sure sustainability messages make it to people in their own language, and helps Melbourne’s multicultural communities cut their energy and water use, and their bills at the same time.
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Turkish community hears the message
While Nina Bailey of Environment Victoria has been busy working with GreenTown Community Liaison Consultant Abdul Wedai and the East African community, Susan Saka has been busy finishing off work with the Turkish community in Hume in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. GreenTown trained up a group of Turkish people who have now finished carrying out assessments of Turkish businesses and houses in the area. Susan is the GreenTown Turkish Community Liaison Consultant and has been making sure the message gets out to even more people in the Turkish community. In the last few months she has done presentations to hundreds of people, including Turkish schools, mothers’ groups, community groups and more. She and Nina were also at the Anatolian Alevi Festival, along with hundreds of community members, after organisers invited GreenTown to hold a stall, do a talk and be part of the celebration.
Next stop: the Indigenous community in Darebin
GreenTown is working with four communities over two years. Work has already finished with the Arabic and Assyrian Chaldean community in Moreland, and while Nina works with the East African and Turkish groups, Michele Burton of Environment Victoria is preparing for the fourth GreenTown program, with the Indigenous community in the Darebin area. The Aborigines Advancement League has been confirmed as the partner organisation, and training for the community, starting with a Home Sustainability Assessment course, will start in the next few months.
For more information on GreenTown, contact Michele Burton on 9341 8105 or by emailing michele.burton followed by @environmentvictoria.org.au.
Tell me about GreenTown at the Multicultural Eid Festival in Flemington in September 2009
