The Good Loaf is one of two charging stations for electric vehicles in Bendigo but – with a little help – the business could be doing a lot more to help the city reduce its carbon emissions.

Owner Laurie Whelan said the bakery sourced the power used for charging from the grid. He wants to make the shift to solar energy but, right now, there’s one major hurdle. 

“It’s a big capital investment and the reality is – it’s not our building,” he said. 

“If you’ve got a landlord who’s willing to support you that’s fantastic, but not all landlords are like that.

“Unfortunately, ours isn’t.” 

Mr Whelan wants to see council adopt a scheme to provide loans to landlords to encourage them to make the shift to renewable energy. 

He said The Good Loaf had seen a surge in people using its station since upgrading to a Tesla charger last year. 

“Since we started back in 2009 we only ever had two cars use it,” Mr Whelan said.

“Now it ebbs and flows but at some stages we get up to two a week.”