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Libby recently joined Sam Stove and Brigitte Duclos on 'The Daily Drive' to chat about the benefits of trees and the Cool Streets© initiative. It's great to get the message out there about the benefits of trees in our cities - especially whilst we're in the midst of a heatwave here in Sydney!
To take a listen to the segment, click here.
Or, to visit The Daily Drive's page, click here.
Yesterday, ABC Radio Sydney published an article "Sydney squeeze: Lower your electricity bills and reduce the heat island effect by planting more trees" as part of their week-long investigation into Sydney's future. The coverage includes everything from the cost of living to the impact on the environment, and our own Dr Libby Gallagher was contacted to provide insight as to how trees can help cool our cities, reduce CO2 emissions and reduce resident's power bills.
Amanda Hoh wrote:
Last year Blacktown City Council received State Government funding to trial a pilot program that saw more trees planted in Boonderoo Avenue in Glenwood.
The council partnered with the Cool Streets© initiative that was developed by landscape architect Dr Libby Gallagher, whose PhD found changes to street design could reduce CO2 emissions, cool neighbourhoods and reduce power bills for residents.
"I found that you could basically achieve much higher levels of reduced energy consumption by planting effective trees on their street," Dr Gallagher said.
"As the trees grow, the projected outcome for these streets was that when [the trees] were at maturity they could achieve really significant benefits ... provide shading, shaving electricity bills by up to $400 per annum."
To read the full article, click here:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-23/tackling-heat-with-trees-one-street-at-a-time/8380306
Great to see some press coverage for the Cool Streets Blacktown Pilot Project!
Last week, the Rouse Hill Courier published an article entitled 'Glenwood goes green' on their website. Meg Francis wrote:
A Glenwood street has brought down the temperature but turned up the heat on tackling climate change.
The Cool Streets project, hosted by Boonderoo Avenue, was recognised in the 2016 Local Government NSW Excellence in the Environment Awards when it won the climate change action award.
Gallagher Studio director Libby Gallagher, who led the project, said the organisation were blown away by the success of the Australia-first initiative. “The pilot project grew from my PHD at the University of Sydney into the potential of streets and street trees to tackle urban heat and mitigate climate change,” Dr Gallagher said.
To check out the full article, click here.
We are very pleased to share that Cool Streets won the Climate Action Award at the Local Government NSW Excellence in the Environment Awards.
The Cool Streets Pilot Project is a community – led implementation project supported by Blacktown Council and developed by Gallagher Studio in collaboration with CRED Consulting. This pilot is part of a wider initiative called Cool Streets, developed by the project team to empower communities to cool their neighbourhoods through interactive participatory decision making.
For more information about the awards, click here.
