In 2019, Strathbogie, Benalla, Indigo and Towong Shire Councils, with the assistance of the Goulburn Murray Climate Alliance, formed a partnership to collectively create an online shared platform that calculated their energy and greenhouse data. As small rural shires, their capacity alone to undertake this task over thousands of square kilometres of assets and many hundreds of accounts was virtually non-existent. However, as a shared service, the Carbon Crunching Council project not only allowed an understanding of corporate energy, gas and water use and greenhouse gas emissions, but to make considerable financial savings via alerts on any utility issues.
Following a thorough business case by NDEVR into the shared service model and proposals that could collate the unique rural accounts that included aeration pumps in lakes, and remote community halls, a suitable provider was appointed after a tender process.