Green Loans Program & Free Sustainability Assessment FAQ

On Thursday 8th July, the Federal Government announced further changes to the Green Loans scheme. The scheme will be phased out in the coming months, and replaced with a scheme called Green Start.

No real details have been announced about how or when this phase out will happen, or what Green Start will consist of. It's widely expected that Green Start will be aimed at lower income families only, and will consist of an energy audit. No funding will be available for home owners to take action on any recommendations made in these audits.

These should still be available for a while, as no date for stopping the Green Loans scheme has been announced. However, given the current delays in home owners receiving reports after an assessment has been performed (anecdotal evidence of 4-6 months of delays abound in the industry), and the current uncertainty around the scheme, you may not see any results from these assessments.

Although these cards were promised from the start of the scheme in mid-2009, they never materialised. Instead, the Federal Government announced that if you have had a Green Loans assessment performed on or before 11th May 2010, you may be eligible for the Green Loans – Green Rewards scheme.

If you have your assessment performed before 11th May 2010, you should soon receive a letter from the Federal Government that will give you details on how to claim this Green Reward. For this, you will need to have purchased, and have the receipt for, one of the items allowed by the Government listed on the website below.

For more information about the Green Loans - Green Rewards program, click here.

Where do we start? We feel that Green Loans was a great idea. Households currently produce approximately 25% of all CO2 emissions in Australia, and home efficiency can go along way to helping Australia meet it's carbon reduction goals. Utility bills will continue to rise, adding to the financial burden of Australian families.

However, the execution of the program has been little short of disasterous. On Thursday 8th July three reports were released by the Government department in charge of the Green Loans scheme (another three are still to be published). They don't make pretty reading.

The main report, an independent report by Ms Patricia Faulkner AO, is particularly damning. Shortcuts were taken, junior members of staff were left to make important decisions (and in almost all cases they made the wrong one), and communication was woefully inadequate. Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. For a full copy of the report, click here.

Unfortunately, the Federal Government is putting the politics of Climate Change above the requirements of the average person on the street. The fact that a scheme requires six reports to be produced to try and get to the source of the problem is in itself very telling. However, whilst the Federal Governments try and work out what to do, the CO2 is still being produced, and people are still getting their ever-growing utility bills.

This is the reason why we keep going. No-one can afford to wait around waiting for the Federal Government to make it's mind up. Action is required now. And that's why we're here!