Do energy saving devices equate to sustainability?

The Victorian Government should be commended on its environmental efforts, pushing for households to accept energy saving initiatives. These include shower heads, door trims, lighting, and a monitoring device on one’s smart electricity meter.

However, sustainability does not start or stop with greenhouse emissions or household energy cost savings.

Sustainability relates to economic and fiscal stability; the growth of domestic employment; efficiency across all sectors; and, addressing the flagging productivity of small business, which is still the lifeline of the economy, regardless of the COVID battering it has sustained.

After the barrage of calls, I agreed to accept shower heads for our two showers and the smart meter monitoring device. The following day, I went to Bunnings for a shower head for our main shower as I refused to run laps in such a small space to get wet. I am yet to open the App for the meter monitoring device.

Since the installations, the outsourced, overseas call centre has continued to plague me with calls to offer the products already installed. Scratch the domestic employment sustainability factor. Also scratch efficiency. One must wonder, how an overseas call centre costs when they call about products already installed. Do they get paid by the number of calls made in a day? If so, scratch fiscal sustainability and responsibility.

Every day, the overseas call centre calls no less than seven times to offer the same services. Thankfully, the landline is to be removed shortly but if my mobile phone starts to ping, I will be questioning privacy issues. This constant calling at the direction of the Victorian Government is akin to door-to-door sales. I thought legislation had changed this approach.