27 initiatives funded to enable change now and for the long-term

FRRR has awarded $685,242 in grants for 27 initiatives that will empower rural communities across Australia to adopt practices and solutions that reduce emissions and address the impacts of climate change. The projects will enable positive and sustainable environmental, social and economic outcomes.

Thanks to the support of FRRR’s donor partners, the Community Led Climate Solutions program (CLCS) offers grants via two streams, offering different grant funding. The program allows not-for-profit organisations (NFPs) to prioritise local needs and address factors affecting the community’s ability and capacity to adopt new ideas, adapt to a changing climate and take actions to mitigate the risks of climate change.

Organisations from every state and the NT will share $417,742 in grants via the Engage and Deliver stream. Initiatives funded through this stream promote or action practices and solutions that can reduce emissions and benefit their community’s ability to adapt to changes.

Through the Scaling stream, $267,500 has been awarded across four community groups to broaden the reach of locally-led initiatives that alleviate socio-economic challenges and enable communities to thrive.

Sarah Matthee, Climate Solutions Portfolio Lead at FRRR, said that the Community Led Climate Solutions program emphasises the importance of empowering local people to lead local climate solutions.

“Local NFPs and community organisations want to play a bigger role in creating sustainable and enduring climate solutions for their communities. This program responds to that need, which is why it continues to attract more and more applications.

“The intent is to empower and enable communities to lead change, by innovating and responding to local opportunities and challenges.

“The 27 projects funded showcase a diverse range of future-focussed, community-led climate solutions, including addressing energy supply, reuse and recycling, distributing knowledge and climate risk adaptation. This diversity reinforces the fact that each community’s experience of the social, economic and environmental impacts of a changing climate is unique.

“So too are the ways that communities want to respond to those circumstances. For example, more than half the projects funded in this round are designed to develop awareness, knowledge and skills. This perhaps also reflects that community groups are at different points in their journey – and each application reflected this,” Ms Matthee explained.

Larger grants to scale existing initiatives

FRRR recognises that NFPs in remote, rural and regional Australia can find it difficult to access funds for local initiatives that address climate change. In seeking to respond to organisations scaling their impact, FRRR also offered a small number of grants to support groups to scale long-term, future-focused solutions to address climate-related challenges.

“The four projects funded via the Scaling stream advance an existing, locally-led project to a more mature state, enhancing the capacity of the local community to take an active role in the mitigation or adaptation of climate change. We look forward to seeing the positive impact these initiatives have within their communities as they progress.

“Ultimately, we hope that the rural communities and organisations that are stepping up to roll out these initiatives will inspire and encourage other communities to take relevant action, engaging both business and philanthropy in local responses.”

FRRR is grateful to partner with a growing number of like-minded organisations including Boundless Earth, Hand Heart Pocket, Paul Ramsay Foundation and Elders Insurance, which is backed by the QBE Foundation.

FRRR and its donor partners are committed to funding community-led solutions that reduce emissions and address the impacts of climate change. FRRR welcomes further contributions to this collaborative pool of funds to grow the impact that can be generated across remote, rural and regional Australia. For more information, please visit https://frrr.org.au/giving/.

The full list of grant recipients and their projects are below.

By Sarah Matthee, Climate Solutions Lead

Reflecting on all the energy projects supported through our grants programs, it’s impressive to recognise that we’ve directly supported over 50 community groups to install solar and/or battery energy solutions, totalling almost $1.2M, in the last six years. That’s a lot of clean energy!

But if we dig into that, there’s some interesting motivating factors that leverage the impact of such clean energy installations and mean so much, to so many:

Lower operating costs

Solar installations are seen as great ways for community groups to lower their operating costs.

Of these 50+ grants, a third expressed financial motivations for their grant – with 14% indicating that their primary outcome was ‘improved financial security’, and 18% envisioning that it contributed to ‘stronger local economies’.

For example, the Hotspur Hall reported that the system already saved their Management Committee $200 in the first six months.

The Moree & District Historical Society tells us, “The savings which the Society is already enjoying with reduced power accounts will enable us to concentrate on further historical preservation projects. Without the grant funds the Society would not have been able to go ahead with the project as the huge cost would have been out of reach.”

Energy or telecommunications security

In the wake of disasters, such as the Black Summer bushfires where power was lost for prolonged periods, solar and battery installations have been sought after by organisations seeking to improve their energy or telecommunications security.

Forty-one percent of these grants indicated that their primary outcome was to improve community resilience, with 25% saying the grant would provide a greater ability to deal with and respond to community level challenges, and 16% saying the grant enables their community to innovate or respond to local opportunities or issues.

The Tarnagulla Fire Brigade’s solar panel and battery installation “gives us as a brigade a sense of comfort that our brigade facility preparedness means we will be able to function without disruption because of the backup power supply we have installed.”

Access to energy also underpins a functioning telecommunications system, with some communities seeking alternatives to ensure ongoing communication. A solar powered UHF CB repeater for the Mingoola community was identified as an important disaster preparedness initiative, “We have achieved stronger individual and community resilience through discussion and identification of our needs, especially during floods and other emergencies. Having the repeater station and the handheld CB radios has improved community connectivity and resilience. The supporting program of putting in place contingency plans for disaster preparedness in small groups, so they can support each other, not just as neighbors, but as a support network in need.”

Environmental health or sustainability

The environmental impact of clean energy is a motivator for some, but such considerations are usually bundled with the number of benefits such systems provide:

Only 2% of grantees indicated the primary outcome of their grant was to promote environmental health or sustainability.

The Manning River Aero Club shared a range of impacts with us, “I thought a 6kw solar system would be good, a 6kw solar system with a 13kw battery is unbelievable. The complete system has been installed for 40 days. In that time we have been self sufficient for 39 of those days… I am proud that we achieved what we set out to achieve that is reduce our costs and greenhouse gas emissions. Our latest  electricity bill tells us our costs are down by 65% for the billing period. Incredible reduction considering we only had the solar connected for a third of the period….Our greenhouse emission reduced from 0.9 tonne to 0 tonne for the month of December 2021.”

Likewise, the multi-pronged benefits were important to Tomorrow Today Foundation in Benalla, “The solar installation and meter consolidation have been spectacularly successful. The total power bill for our two companies (community foundation and education foundation) for the twelve months to September 2021 was an 80% reduction in power costs! As well as impressive ongoing cost savings, we are proud to be taking positive action to benefit the environment.”

While these examples are focused solely on discrete solar and/or battery installations, we also wanted to highlight the work of many who are investigating or establishing larger clean energy projects and require support across their project lifecycle, or where the support that is needed is not so much the installation, but instead in scaffolding or acting as a backbone to convene conversations and networks.

For example, FRRR has made a grant to Original Power supporting the work of Ngardara Cooperative Ltd to establish their own solar microgrid (2.1MW solar array, 3.2MW battery), providing a clean energy source and saving an estimated 1ML of diesel per year. The grant contributed to governance and capacity development of community members so that they are supported to lead the development and operation of a utility-scale solar microgrid.

FRRR’s grants supporting the work of Southcoast Health and Sustainability Alliance have included engaging a coordinator who supported a number of not-for-profit organisations locally to investigate their best energy solutions, with the organisation undertaking a range of bulk buy or community solar installations.

It’s important that there are opportunities for organisations of all sizes, sectors and locations, to investigate and act upon the clean energy solutions that are right for their community.