One in five North Shore residents take part in council environmental education programmes

In the past year, 46,500 North Shore residents have participated in a council-supported environmental programme – that’s one in five of the city’s population.

Council programmes include home composting courses, tree-planting days, stream restoration projects and a range of school-based environmental programmes.

North Shore City Council Sustainable Environment team leader Trish Kirkland-Smith says that the total confirms her belief that North Shore residents are strongly interested in environmental issues and are prepared to take action to improve and protect North Shore’s environment.

“For example, at our Naturally Smarter Garden display at the North Shore Home Show, 2000 people – 20% of show visitors - stopped to find out what they could do in their own backyards to protect the environment.”

Ms Kirkland-Smith says that interest in environmental actions around the home is especially strong.

“People are keen to learn about composting and home gardening, they want to restore their backyard streams, they want to reduce the amount of waste produced, and they want to be more energy efficient.”

Many schools, too, are taking a strong lead with the Enviroschools programme and waste minimisation projects.

“There appears to be a growing belief that each and every one of us can make a difference; that each person’s small action contributes to a much larger whole, and young people are definitely taking a lead”.

Ms Kirkland-Smith says that the Council’s “Naturally Smarter” (www.naturallysmarter.co.nz) campaign introduced earlier this year has helped provide a central focus for North Shore residents who are interested in the environment.

Numbers involved in environmental programmes have doubled in five years – from nearly 23,000 in 2005, to 46,500 in the past year.

And this number, says Ms Kirkland-Smith, does not include the huge numbers of people who have chosen to use sustainable travel options such as biking to work or using public transport. Nor does it include those involved in non-council activities such as Department of Conservation work and the myriad of community groups which operate outside council.

ENDS

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