A year of sustainable schemes at Porirua City Council
The Porirua City Council has had their eye on sustainability for some time.
Zero Waste co-ordinator Dee Jones says this year has seen a focus on reducing waste and getting the message out that conservation starts at home.
“The projects can be hit and miss; at one compost workshop we had 60 people.
“Another project didn’t really take off, which was aiming to get people to use their networks in the community to encourage composting,” says Mrs Jones.
The push for increased composting and separation of green waste comes from a desire to stop methane emissions, which are a global warming gas. The PCC has had Zero Waste audits since 2000 in a bid to ease their environmental footprint.
“This year we have run four workshops on composting and kept up our education on worm farms and recycling.
“We have diverted all green waste from the landfill since 2006 and we really rely on people to separate their waste,” she says.
The most relevant council targets relate to waste minimisation as most other sustainable schemes are run by Greater Wellington Regional Council or at a government level. Two local businesses have signed up to the GWRC facilitated Zero Waste scheme; Whitireia Polytechnic and Porirua Autocrash Repairs.
In terms of internal sustainable targets, the PCC is working on a corporate plan at present.
“This has been driven by us signing up to the Communities for Climate Protection Programme -NZ and incorporates actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and will at the same time address sustainability.
“We will be working on a community action plan as part of the programme in the next few years.”
This plan will deal with encouraging and facilitating the reduction of greenhouse gas emission in the community, which will have sustainable benefits. PCC also pay for a local Enviro-schools facilitator to keep local school’s environmental schemes on track.
PCC has been monitoring energy consumption for some years which has raised from 13.5 million kilowatts in 2005 to 14.5 million in 2008. Factors impacting on their consumption includes rainfall (the more rain the harder the pump stations have to work) and temperature (longer colder periods require increased heating requirements). Also, the council has new energy drawing facilities on board, such as the Te Rauparaha Arena.
