The New Housing Forum was well attended and guests heard three guest speakers talk about the long term benefits and savings that come from sustainable building.
Ken Sibley Building Designer, NRG Systems spoke on ‘Sustainable, energy-efficient housing design and smart renovations’ followed by Lachlan Gales from Ovens and King Builders on ‘Practicalities of building and renovating for sustainable housing’.  Download Ken Sibley's presentation
Veronica Schilling, General Manager Development & Environment at Benalla Rural City spoke about Council working with owners looking at building new housing.

The second of BSFG's Sustainable Housing Forums for 2016, this time focusing on retrofitting existing houses to make them energy efficient and more comfortable all year round, is to be held at BPACC on Saturday August 13th from 1.00 to 4.30 pm.  

The average energy star rating for existing houses in Victoria is 2-3 stars while the requirement for new houses is 6 stars. There are many home owners of existing houses in Benalla who would benefit from attending this forum.

A recommendation from John Lloyd, 

"I have attached a flyer about a presentation by Hugh Mackay in Shepparton which has been organised by the SLAP Tomorrow group. I find Hugh Mackay’s work really interesting and will look forward to hearing him."

As you may be aware Benalla Council has been developing a 20 year plan, or as some members of the steering committee prefer to call it a “2036 vision for Benalla’.

A draft of the community plan is now available for consultation and feedback together with information about a number of consultation sessions.

The plan is also on the Council website and there is provision for some feedback there.
 
There is a section on Sustainable Environment that many BSFG members would be particularly interested in. I think this section, which has been copied from the draft plan could be greatly improved and I would like to encourage members to provide feedback to the council about this.

​I would also encourage members to go to one of the open house sessions to provide feedback.
 
Regards to all,

John Lloyd
​President