2019-05-07 P&E Agenda - Item 3 - Attachment 1 - Noosa Sustainability Institute - Concepts and Options Report

3                Research Findings
3.1              Assessment of information from desk top research on
                 Selected Existing Institutes
3.1.1            Examples of Australian and International Centres chosen as sources
                 of information.


Australian Institutes

1. Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies
https://ceres.org.au/




Institute model: Physical centre, located in Merri Creek, East Brunswick, Melbourne
Active organisation: Established in 1982
Background: CERES now stands where the Wurundjeri people lived on the land. The site was
quarried for bluestone during the development of Melbourne and then turned into a landfill site.
CERES has worked to revegetate and transform the site into a place that attracts around 400,000
visits each year through on-site education and training programs, Nursery, Organic Market & Grocery
and the Merri Table. CERES also offers community programs, venue hire and events.
Mission: CERES is a place for community-based learning and action to create environmentally
beneficial, socially just, economically satisfying, culturally enriching and spiritually nurturing ways of
living together.
Governance structure: CERES is an incorporated not-for-profit organisation, governed by a Board
of Management elected annually.
Funding: CERES aims to be financially sustainable, and to do so runs a collection of social
enterprises that support their program development and enables it to remain independent, innovative
and inclusive.
CERES also has multiple supporters and partners – both financial and in kind in nature.
Selection criteria: CERES is an excellent example of an education-based centre/institute with a
very strong focus on both including and positively impacting the local (and global) community. The
assessment of the Noosa project is that there is scope to consider incorporating some of the social
inclusion and/or financial systems used by CERES alongside a strong research component to have
a Centre that would enhance community engagement and financial independence.


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