With more than 20 years experience in environmental education and demonstration, hosting 60,000 students a year, CERES last year provided alternatives and changing patterns of use to eliminate the outdoor use of high-quality mains water.

As part of this, they installed: a stormwater bio-retention system; a car park run-off treatment system; and an integrated treated stormwater irrigation system to supply the onsite organic farm.

“Onsite behavioural changes that focused on outdoor water use were significant last year at our active learning education centre,” says Mr Eric Bottomley, Sustainability Projects Team Leader at CERES. “The use of water-efficient landscapes and the provision of alternative water supplies have changed the way the outdoor areas of the park are managed.”

CERES also teamed up with Yarra Valley Water and Coombes Consulting to conduct research into the supply of rainwater for domestic hot water systems and monitored the evaluation of a wastewater treatment and reuse system with RMIT University.