The Little Sunshine Project

The big news is that this year IHK has committed to being carbon neutral by 2018. To make a bold step towards this target, fundraising efforts will support our “little sunshine project” so that we can install a 5kW solar panel system by late 2014. We’ve completed the research and consultation phase of the project and plan to purchase a European inverter, quality panels and an Australian made racking and railing system (full technical details are available to any interested parents).

The main fundraising method we are going to use for this project is crowd funding. This is where you raise money via contributions (typically internet based) from a large number of people, using a wide net of community connections. We will launch our campaign on Pozible, setting a target of $7000 to pay for our solar panel system. Pozible is an Australian company based close-by in Collingwood that provides an internet platform for crowd sourcing campaigns. The way Pozible works is if we don’t achieve our target no money changes hands. However, if we exceed our target we get the additional funds to further develop the project.

We plan to invest any funds raised over our $7000 target into (1) obtaining professional input to integrate the project into our broader sustainability programs and kindergarten teaching and (2) purchasing more panels to further offset our carbon footprint.

Being not for profit, all money we save from our energy bills each year will be used directly in the kindergarten programs into the future.