Sustainable Living At Your Fingertips

MEDIA RELEASE
20 February 2007

Sustainable Living At Your Fingertips

While the Government is focusing on 'sustainability' in 2007, it has always been front of mind for the Sustainable Living programme, which today launches its new, interactive website (www.sustainableliving.org.nz) to help New Zealanders live a more planet-friendly lifestyle.

Sustainable Living is an independent, community-based adult education and action programme. The new website features practical tips and techniques to help people make informed decisions about their choices affecting the environment. Visitors can also register online for more information on Sustainable Living courses that are being run in many towns and cities.

“Kiwi households chew through motoring and heating fuels, plastics, pesticides and other carbon-based products, generating CO2 emissions, the same gas that is now accepted as a main contributor to climate change,” says national co-ordinator for Sustainable Living, Rhys Taylor. “Compared with other industrialised nations, we leave an unacceptably large ‘footprint’ on the planet, hogging resources that poorer countries would never dream of spending so freely. We could do so much better, and reduce our footprint while maintaining good quality of life, given the know-how that now exists internationally.”

That know-how is now available free through the Sustainable Living website www.sustainableliving.org.nz and, for those who like to learn more sociably, at low-cost community education courses. Topics covered include electricity savings, waste reduction, shopping tips, changing travel habits, alternatives to toxic chemicals, efficient water use, gardening with nature, composting and growing organic food.

“We notice that even established ‘greenies’ find new things to learn, but the typical participant is a busy working person, often a parent or grandparent who wants to do their bit for the environment,” Mr Taylor says. “Creating healthier homes and saving money on shopping and power bills are also strong motivators to attend.”

He adds: “The Sustainable Living programme helps effect change because it is not presented as lectures. It’s fun, affordable and easy to use, and it suggests how your small lifestyle changes add up to a big difference to the environment.”
Sustainable Living groups have met in Alexandra, Ashburton, Brightwater, Blenheim, Christchurch, Dunedin, Napier, Hastings, Invercargill, Little River, Lyttelton, Mosgiel, Nelson, North Shore, Rotorua, Takaka, Tauranga, Waitakere, Whakatane and Wellington (among others). The programme was developed by local and regional councils in cooperation with a group of community educators, and start-up support from the Ministry for the Environment’s Sustainable Management Fund.

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