Emma gets a sticker too!
Posted by Mike Pulsford · March 26, 2024 2:57 PM

Julia gets a sticker!
Posted by Mike Pulsford · March 26, 2024 2:12 PM

Melanie leapfrogs Rob! How did she do it?!
Posted by Mike Pulsford · March 26, 2024 1:32 PM

Solar Our Learning campaign page

Posters and images

#SolarOurLearning printable posters for schools and childcares

A printable poster designed to be put up at schools and childcares to raise awareness of the #SolarOurLearning campaign. Includes a QR code for the open letter, for those who see it and want to get more involved.

Colouring-in versions

A great rainy-day activity - designed to be coloured in and then stuck up at a school or childcare. Space for kids to write their name and age too!

• Schools and childcares

•  School-focused

•  Childcare-focused

Pre-coloured poster

Want to download a higher-resolution copy, or a different file format? Use the Canva link here!

Templates

• Want to modify our poster and make your own? Use the template here!

Other colouring-in pages

Individual images are below, or find a pdf of all images here

Reports and briefing documents

Solar Our Learning report

Solar Our Learning: Saving millions for the early learning sector presents the benefits of clean energy upgrades for the early learning sector, the barriers the sector faces in taking advantage of them, and the ways governments can help.

• Report: Solar Our Learning: Saving millions for the early learning sector
  

Briefing documents

These are two-page campaign summaries for people or organisations in the early childhood or education sectors who want more detail about the campaign than the open letter provides, but don't need the full report

• Solar Our Learning 2024 campaign summary for early childhood sector partners and allies
• Solar Our Learning 2024 campaign summary for education sector partners and allies

Can you help us show the government there’s growing public demand for clean energy upgrades for schools and early childhood centres?

Our past campaigning has led to $71 million in funding across multiple states for clean energy upgrades for state schools. However, most schools still lack rooftop solar, and even those that have it don’t have enough to meet their energy needs.

And there is still no targeted support at any level of government for clean energy upgrades for the early childhood sector - for preschools, kindergartens and long day care services.

Can you help get more parents to sign our open letter to state and federal governments?

Parents like you have always been the powerhouse of our organisation's achievements. And with your help we can show the government there’s unstoppable demand for these reforms.

To help supercharge the Solar our Learning campaign (and get some sweet swag)

1. Click on the open letter link to get your personalised sharing links! (If you can’t see them, you’ll need to sign the open letter yourself first.)
   
   
   
   
2. Use those links to share the open letter on the platform of your choice, and our leaderboard will track how many people you’ve gotten to sign up
   
   
3. For every ten signatures you get by Budget night, we’ll send you a Parents for Climate sticker. Or if you’re more ambitious, for every hundred, we’ll send you a t-shirt!

The stickers will be high-quality vinyl prints, tough enough to use a bumper sticker on a car or bike, but equally attractive elsewhere. 

And Parents for Climate t-shirts in particular are highly prized. Look how excited these two young people are to have one!

Seriously though, too many schools and early childhood centres are missing out on the benefits of bill-busting clean energy installations.

We know that solar and batteries for all schools and childcare centres can save money, employ thousands of people, and cut climate pollution - it’s a win-win-win.

If the federal government steps up and makes a sufficient commitment to this project, it will be a step towards Australia’s largest clean energy proposal, benefiting every community in the country.

But they need to hear demand loud and clear from the community, and that that demand is growing and can't be ignored.

Click here if you can help! 

Thanks for all that you do,

Mike

Michael Pulsford
Parents for Climate Campaigns Manager

* Solar Our Learning: Saving millions for the early learning sector

We’re calling on state and federal governments to fund solar panels and batteries for every school and early childhood centre in Australia that doesn’t yet have solar - or needs more.

It's a no brainer: creating clean local jobs Australia-wide, slashing school and centre electricity costs, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions to protect our climate. We're asking state and federal governments to make this a reality.

Solar and batteries significantly cut power bills for schools and early childhood centres by using and storing free energy from the sun. 

• Save $114,000 in annual energy bills per large school*
• Save $12,700 in small schools*
• Saving $12,400 - $14,600 per annum for the average early childhood centre**

To achieve these savings, schools and centres need grant funding for their solar and battery system, and to become part of a "virtual power plant" where they can sell their excess solar power to the community.

Help make this a reality: take action now!

1. Help grow public support

• Sign the Solar Our Learning open letter
  • Want a printable open letter instead?
• Join the Solar Our Learning signup challenge (..and get some sweet swag in the process!)
• Put up a poster at a school or childcare 

2. Help demonstrate organisational support

• Endorse the Solar Our Learning campaign as an organisation

3. Share these resources

• Colouring in pages, posters, reports and briefing documents
• Download the Solar Our Learning report 

Sources:

* Beyond Zero Emissions ‘Million Jobs Plan’ 2020 - This plan, developed in conjunction with Tesla, provides for large schools to utilise 250kW of solar plus a medium battery and small schools to use 25kW of solar panels plus a small battery.  

** Based on a analysis of a random selection of 500 childcare provider energy consumptions figures, conducted for Parents for Climate by Utilizer Energy Consultants

Parents for Climate (formerly Australian Parents for Climate Action) welcomes today’s recommendation by the Productivity Commission that all Australian children be entitled to three days a week of high-quality early education and care.

“Along with this week’s announcement of the largest single investment in large-scale renewables in Australia’s history by the Albanese government, this has been a good week for every parent concerned for their kids’ futures,” said Parents for Climate CEO, Nic Seton.

“More clean energy keeps our kids safer, now and into the future. And the benefits of high-quality early education are huge, both for kids and parents.

Barry Beckett Children's Centre, Coburg VIC

Too many power companies are marketing electricity from fossil fuels as ‘carbon neutral’, claiming they can ‘offset’ that pollution with carbon credits - by paying other people not to pollute, or to plant trees somewhere.

But using so-called ‘offsets’ as a licence to pollute cheats our kids out of a safe future, and misleads parents who are trying to do buy clean energy.

We need all power companies to understand we've had enough of their greenwashing. Can you sign our open letter to let them know we won't stand for it?

To the power companies of Australia,

We, the undersigned, are parents and other caregivers who care about our kids’ climate.

Many of us are time-poor, so when we’re trying to choose the best products for our families we rely on companies representing their products honestly.

And we don’t appreciate being misled.

If we’re in the supermarket we expect the label to match what’s in the box. And when we buy power we expect the same.

If your products generate pollution that harms the climate our kids are growing up in, don’t market them to us as ‘green’ or ‘carbon neutral’.

If you’re misleading us into buying polluting products when we’re trying to buy clean energy, you’re misleading us into harming our kids when we’re trying to protect them.

It's our job to protect our kids. And it’s our job to teach them there are consequences for misleading behaviour, so we’re taking a stand.

Advertise the climate impact of your products honestly, so we can make real choices about what we buy.

And change your business from polluting to clean renewable energy.

Sincerely, 

Australian parents, grandparents, carers and family members.

Enough is enough: we’re calling out polluters for greenwashing

As parents committed to a safe climate for our children, we strive to make responsible choices. However, companies like EnergyAustralia have made this challenging by falsely marketing polluting products as ‘carbon neutral’.

In a landmark development, our legal action led to a settlement where EnergyAustralia publicly admitted that carbon offsets do not prevent or undo the harms caused by burning fossil fuels. They have ceased offering their 'Go Neutral' product to new customers and removed related marketing from their website.

This is a significant victory against greenwashing, demonstrating the power of parent-led action.

 This win has put the industry on notice—but we need your help to keep up the pressure. Join us as we fight for honest climate claims, consumer protection, and a future free from fossil fuel spin.

👉 Donate now or get involved to power our next wave of action.

DONATE TO STOP GREENWASHING SHARE THIS TO BUILD MORE SUPPORT

We held EnergyAustralia to account for greenwashing—and won

Energy giant EnergyAustralia had been marketing electricity and gas from fossil fuels as ‘carbon neutral’, claiming they can ‘offset’ that pollution. But so-called ‘offsets’ are a type of marketing spin that enables companies to continue polluting, without making genuine cuts to their pollution.

It’s our job as parents to stand up for our kids, and to teach them there are consequences for misleading behaviour.

So we took EnergyAustralia to court, arguing that they have engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct. In a successful resolution, we forced EnergyAustralia to admit to the key facts of our case through a powerful public statement and an email to its customers. The company admitted that offsets should not be used to delay or diminish the important work needed to actively decarbonise. This outcome sets a precedent, signaling that misleading climate claims will not go unchallenged