The idea is based around a community fund providing loans to install things like solar - with repayments based on the savings incurred.
REB president John Lloyd said the first project was one that was providing solar panels for Munro Ave Kindergarten.
“And solar is just one thing we will be looking at,” Mr Lloyd said.
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“There are other things like moving away from gas hot water to heat pumps, for example, which we can look at.
“So we have set up a donation-based fund.
“The idea is you make loans to community buildings to do energy efficiency projects.
“And the repayments of the loans are based on the energy savings.”
Mr Lloyd said the fund was kickstarted using a grant from the Winton Solar Farm.
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“That’s enabled us to go ahead with the first project without having to fundraise up front,” he said.
“We got $5000 from them and we thought we could start off looking at some local pre-schools.
“We got in touch with the North-East Regional Pre-school Association, who manage Munro Ave and Bernard Briggs Kindergarten in Benalla.
“We explained how it works and we decided Munro Ave would be our first project.
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“We spoke to Solar Gain in Benalla who took on the job and also gave a big in-kind donation in terms the cost of installation.
“Between the grant from Winton Solar Farm and the help from Solar Gain we were almost there.
“Luckily we have a very generous local family, Susan and Sandy Campbell, who topped up the fund to make sure the solar could go in.”
Mr Lloyd said a 6KW solar system was installed during the school holidays and they were now waiting on a certificate of compliance before it could be switched on.
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Once the repayments begin and fundraising starts REB can begin to look into a second community building to offer a loan to.
REB operates under the the Benalla Sustainable Future Group umbrella.
● For more information, visit www.reb.org.au or www.bsfg.org.au
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