Nelson Environment News

eDay - Nelson/Tasman

Karen (NEC)

Was held on Saturday 4th October at

 ENZA International, Nayland Road, Stoke; &

 Fonterra, Takaka

We collected 45 tonnes of equipment from 910 car loads and a school's drop off in Stoke and 3 tonnes from 101 cars in Takaka.

Nationally 946 tonnes were collected from 16,522 cars

It was an amazing day and thanks go to the volunteers; the sponsors (locally they were Nelson City Council; Tasman District Council; ENZA International; Nelson Environment Centre; Fonterra; Nelmac; Fulton Hogan and BlueBerryIT); and the public for bringing their computer waste on the day.

The eDay website is at http://www.eday.org.nz This contains information on what will be done with the materials collected.

More staff, more projects - great energy

Karen (NEC)

We now have an expanded team at Nelson Environment Centre. We are intending to update our website shortly. In the meantime if you would like more information please use the contact details below.

Transition Nelson

Trevor and Kathy Houghton - more information on the project and how you can get involved at http://www.transitiontowns.org.nz/nelson. Email them on transitionnelson@nec.org.nz

Carbon Reduction Reward Scheme

Carolyn Hughes and Nick Kiddey - contact either for more information - carolynhughes@nec.org.nz or nickkiddey@nec.org.nz or 03 545 9176

Sustainability Centre Project

Ruth Copeland - is managing the project to develop a sustainability centre for Nelson. Contact Ruth at ruthcopeland@nec.org.nz or 03 545 9176

Sustainable Business Network

Kirsty Quickfall is running the Nelson SBN office from NEC. Contact Kirsty on Kirsty@sustainable.org.nz or 03 545 9176. The website for the SBN can be found at www.sustainable.org.nz

Kiwis at the Fore-Front

NEC

adapted from Stuff http://www.stuff.co.nz/4371540a10.html

Christchurch airport second in the world to go carbon neutral

Thursday, 24 January 2008

Christchurch International Airport has gone carbon neutral, making it the second airport company in the world to do so after Stockholm's LVF.

Chief executive Rene Bakx today announced that after much measuring, managing, mitigating and reducing, the airport had received its carboNZero certificate from Landcare Research.

To get certified a business must measure its emissions, develop a plan to reduce them and purchase carbon credits to offset any remaining emissions.

Mr Bakx said there were a number of ways to immediately curb the airport's environmental impact.

"We are using a building management system to maximise our energy efficiency, and energy, electricity is by far the biggest contributor to our carbon foot print from this site.

"We've got waste recycling programmes. We are recycling former road materials in the runway maintenance programmes. We are investing in specific grass species that don't require us to spray and don't grow as fast as other grasses."

Other initiatives include using ground water to cool the terminal and converting heating systems from diesel to LPG.

- NZPA

Five easy steps towards sustainability

NEC

Story taken from the Ministry for the Environment Website - link below

Businesses are often surprised at how much can be saved through simple, straightforward changes. By incorporating just a few of steps below, you could find that as well as saving money, you'll discover other ways to improve efficiency.

1. Switch off when not in use

Reduce your energy waste by switching off of unnecessary lights and equipment, especially when everyone's gone home for the day. Think about the savings this could make to your energy bill. Visit EECA's EMProve website (www.eecabusiness.govt.nz/emprove/) for more ways to manage your energy use and reduce your bills.

2. Green your office stationery

Save money and support environmental practices by reducing your paper use and buying stationery products which are kinder on the environment, for example paper that is non-bleached or from sustainable forests. Make a difference by specifying "greener" printing options when ordering your letterhead and business cards - and think carefully about print quantities.

3. Recycle all that you can

Reduce the amount of rubbish you're sending to landfill by recycling. As well as paper, you can recycle plastics, tins, glass, and your food scraps can be composted.

Visit the Reduce Your Rubbish website (www.reducerubbish.govt.nz/work/) for more ways to reduce your rubbish at work.

4. Choose greener and safer cleaning products

Choose products with ingredients that have less impact on human health and on the environment. Many cleaning products end up in local wastewater systems, and eventually in waterways. Reduce your rubbish by choosing products with minimal and/or recyclable packaging.

5. Choose energy efficient equipment and appliances

Buy energy efficient equipment and appliances. Check out the energy label - the more stars, the more energy efficient the appliance. Many appliances and office equipment now have powersave features too.

Visit the Australian EnergyStar website (www.energystar.gov.au/) to compare the efficiency of buildings.

Ready for more?

Check out the Ministry for the Environment website for more information - www.mfe.govt.nz/issues/sustainable-industry for more information

If You See Dead Birds...

NEC

What to Do if You See Numerous Dead Birds on the Shore?

If there is a significant number of dead birds, eg 3 or more, then there are two options:

Ring the MAF hotline 0800 80 99 66 as they are supposed to investigate die offs. They will be especially interested in shorebirds due to the risk of bird flu arriving in this way. The person on the phone may try to pass it off as a "DOC problem" but if you mention bird flu, it might get some better action.
The second option is to send some bodies to Massey. DOC has a contract which covers the cost of the post mortem and it will hopefully provide us with answers. Sending fresh is best, but frozen is ok as a second choice. Instructions on how to send are below:

For post mortem examination of threatened species:

See the website at htpp://ivabs.massey.ac.nz/centres/wildlife and read ≥Massey Submission Instructions≈ for details on how to submit a specimen.

Email: Brett Gartrell or Maurice Alley at Massey: B.Gartrell@massey.ac.nz or M.R.Alley@massey.ac.nz to let them know it's coming.

Email Brett for more information if you need interpretation of results or advice.

First it was "Slow Food"...

NEC

adapted from http://www.stuff.co.nz/4366832a4560.html

Slower boats to China

By ERIK KIRSCHBAUM - Reuters | Monday, 21 January 2008

Oil at more than $US90 ($NZ118) a barrel is concentrating minds in the shipping industry. Higher fuel costs and mounting pressure to curb emissions are leading modern merchant fleets to rediscover the ancient power of the sail.

The world's 50,000 merchant ships, which carry 90 per cent of traded goods from oil, gas, coal, and grains to electronic goods, emit 800 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. That's about 5 per cent of the world's total.

Also, their fuel costs rose by as much as 70 per cent last year.

The world's first commercial ship powered partly by a giant kite set off on a maiden voyage last week, in an experiment which inventor Stephan Wrage hopes can wipe 20 per cent, or $1600, from the ship's daily fuel bill. If the maiden voyage is a success, inventor and chief executive Wrage hopes to double the size of its kites to 320 square metres, and expand them again to 600 square metres in 2009. The company hopes to fit 1500 ships by 2015.

GO-SLOW

But if Skysails is a relatively elaborate solution, another development shows the march of progress is not always linear: shipping companies seeking immediate answers to soaring fuel prices and the need to cut emissions are, simply, slowing down.

Slowing down by 10 per cent can lead to a 25 per cent reduction in fuel use.

In Hamburg, the Hapag-Lloyd shipping company last year reduced the standard speed of its ships to 20 knots from 23‹ knots, and said it saved a "substantial amount" of fuel.

"We've saved so much fuel that we added a ship to the route and still saved costs," said Klaus Heims, press spokesman at the world's fifth-largest container shipping line.

"Why didn't we do this before? We calculated that 5 knots slower saves up to 50 per cent in fuel."

Slowing down has not involved a decrease in capacity for the company. For container ships carrying mainly consumer goods from Hamburg to ports in the Far East, the round-trip at 20 knots now takes 63 days instead of 56, but to make up for this it added a vessel to the route to bring the total to nine.