Pilot study prompts change

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Community Waikato is responding to climate change by reducing carbon emissions after participating in multi-agency pilot studies across the region.

The Hamilton based advisory agency was one of 21 businesses and organisations to participate in the 2022 Climate Response Programme designed to provide tailored support for emissions reduction.

YWCA’s Riikka Anderson

The pilot programme was delivered by Go Eco, Para Kore and Ecoes, with the support of Trust Waikato, Hamilton City Council, Waikato Regional Council and Waikato District Council.

“We expanded our thinking in terms of how we can make better decisions that impact our emissions and our resource usage,” said Community Waikato chief executive Holly Snape. “We have always recycled but the tool prompted us to think more critically about how we could reduce waste from all different aspects of our organisation.”

Participation in the pilot led to Snape’s team meeting environment advocate Go Eco and making more informed choices.

“We print much less,” Snape said. “We have spoken to the company that provides our waste management service to get details about what they do with the recycling.

“We have started replacing our vehicles with hybrids as they need replacing. We now have three from a fleet of six. We are having more deliberate climate resilience conversations, and we hold each other accountable.

“We have moved to a new building with a view to co-locate with others to reduce duplication of resources like photocopiers and audio-visual equipment.

“Our petrol costs have come down as have printing costs.”

Hamilton YWCA

YWCA also participated in the pilot and general manager Riikka Anderson is leading change as a result.

“We need to focus on educating our hostel residents on sustainability and how to reduce their carbon footprint by taking shorter showers and reducing waste,” Anderson said.

“Although we mostly have long term residents, there is still natural changeover of residents, so the educational work is never-ending.”

A key learning was continuous improvement in building maintenance.

“This will include changing our heating to a more energy efficient model, for example,” she said.

Anderson said the biggest impact of the pilot was staff awareness of sustainability and carbon footprints.

“They might not be everyday topics of conversation or top priorities for business decisions, but they do crop up in discussion a lot more than before and lead to different ideas of how to improve how we do things,” she said.

“The Climate Response Programme had definitely changed us for the better.”

Now environment Go Eco is inviting Hamilton businesses and organisations the chance to participate in the next Climate Resilience Programme.

“The process was an introduction to latest climate science, guided engagement in mapping to identify organisational emission sources and potential mitigation or management opportunities,” said Go Eco operations manager Kelli Pike.

Go Exo will host a free Climate Action Kickoff workshop at Trust Waikato on October 10 as an introduction to the programme.

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Chris Gardner is a freelance communications professional.