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
To visit the Cool Streets website click here:
www.coolstreets.com.au
