Regional and Rural Mailorder

With the aid of a grant from the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change (formerly Department of Energy, Utilities and Sustainabilty), LESS undertook a regional distribution of energy savings kits to people who would not otherwise have had access to the largely city-based energy-efficient product give-aways in 2005 and 2006.

The mail-order promotion focussed on the Northern Tablelands Region, to help these residents save on their energy usage. The kits contained energy-saving light bulbs, a 3 Star WELS rated water-saving showerhead, a shower timer, an educational booklet on other simple household environmental actions and climate change tips materials.

Targeted marketing and local press supported the campaign. LESS received an overwhelming response with 15,000 responses received in the first 2 weeks. When 15,000 homes in rural NSW receive their packs and have installed the bulbs they will collectively prevent 81,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere – this is the equivalent of planting around 80,000 trees.

Installing all the showerheads will mean 230 Megalitres of water savings each year – around the size of 10 Olympic pools annually.

With the generous support from Country Energy, LESS was able to send out an additional 4000 packs to households beyond the subscription quota.