The Natural Step

Understanding the make up of resources a community uses to maintain its lifestyle is an important step towards integrating a local planning approach that can set a pathway towards a more sustainable future. In some groundbreaking research, the New Zealand Footprint Project is doing just that with selected communities in the North and South Islands. Ella Lawton from Otago Polytechnic’s Centre for Sustainable Practice is project managing the research and provides a quick update here on how the work’s going.

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Nelson City Council is embarking on a bold journey to find out what it means to be a sustainable community. Having engaged a Mayoral Taskforce, specific interest groups and the community at large, a clearer picture is emerging of what commitments Nelson will need to make to move the city towards a sustainable future. No one’s saying it will be easy, but Nelson has taking the first step by having the dialogue and getting the whole community on board.

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Fancy being told that your future shocks actually happened yesterday? The International Energy Agency acknowledged a few weeks ago that Peak Oil happened in 2006. On his recent visit to New Zealand, climate scientist and director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, Dr James Hansen, informed New Zealand that the climate change impacts we are experiencing today are the result of CO2 emissions from the 1970s. In fact since the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, New Zealand’s CO2 emissions have increased by over 25 percent.

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Sean Bowler, a TNSNZ accredited advisor working for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority has been very busy switching New Zealand organisations from fossil fuel to carbon-neutral renewable energy. A recent win for his team has been securing financial support for the conversion of the Waiouru Army Base to clean, renewable bioenergy. This project will avoid 10,500 tonnes of CO2 per year.

Project details

Customer:      New Zealand Defence Force

Location:        Waiouru Army Base, North Island, New Zealand

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 Twelve businesses on the Manawatu Sustainable Business Programme have achieved a quick return on their investment.  The innovative programme is a new initiative led by Otago Polytechnic in partnership with key local agencies and the Natural Step NZ.  Using experiential learning techniques, the programme is spread over a year and shows business owners and operators how to go beyond eco-efficiencies and integrate sustainable practice at a strategic level.  The programme also enables one staff member from each business to gain an NZQA approved qualification from Otago Polytechnic as part of the course.

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