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Journeying into assessing: learnings on health and housing

My name is Gareth, and I’m a new home performance advisor. This blog reflects on my experience of stepping into a job that's equal parts science, storytelling, and changing hearts and minds.I’m new to this work. A couple months in as a home performance assessor with Sustainability Options, and I’m still getting my head around the full picture. One thing that hit me almost immediately, is that most New Zealanders have no idea how much their house is affecting their health.I certainly didn�...

Our carbon footprint journey (so far)...

Despite Sustainability Options’ home visits increasing by 19% since the last financial year, we have decreased our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 8%!...

Listening for kiwi calls in the ngahere

The plopping sound of raindrops falling from the branches into my hot cup of soup is a resounding memory of my first night spent in the ngahere/bush listening for kiwi calls. We didn’t hear any on Saturday. Sunday however was a different story.My partner Cory and I, along with approximately one hundred other people responded to the Ōtanewainuku Kiwi Trusts call to join them for the GRŌKS. The Great Ōtanewainuku Kiwi Survey. The first kiwi survey in twenty five years to capture solid data on...

School Sustainability Workshops

It can be easy to get caught up in our own lives, the here and now. Many people live their lives at a million miles an hour, ticking off an endless to do list and making decisions based on convenience. But how often do we think about the world we are leaving behind? Today’s children, their children and their children’s children will be inheriting this world. Are we happy with what we’ll be leaving them?One of Sustainability Options’ core philosophies is to leave a more harmonious wo...

Energy Conference: Nik's perspective

I headed up to Auckland last week to attend a conference focused on supporting those who were really struggling to access the energy they needed to live in a warm, dry, healthy home. As you could imagine, with the recent huge leap in vehicle fuel prices, the challenge of staying warm, dry and healthy is getting harder. A couple of statements I picked up on:There are over 30,000 pre-paid electricity connections in New Zealand, and the research shows that all of these connections will experie...

Is the economy based on science?

Arguably, everything we do is grounded in science. We exist on a planet because of the conditions it provides for us for life. Therefore, anything within our closed system is an arrangement of those conditions. The economies we participate in are no exception. But are they science? Not exactly, while they rely on physics, our economies and the way we operate within them are based on ideas and philosophies.This distinction becomes vital in the argument between economic growth or investing in envi...

A Day in the Life: Connecting With MSD Te Puke

This blog has been written by Jessie, our Referral Hub Co‑ordinator. Jessie is often the first point of contact for whānau seeking a free home assessment, and she’s regularly out in the community building relationships - making sure people know about our service, and ensuring we stay connected to the wider network of wrap‑around support available....

Celebration, reflection and invigoration of the Healthy Homes Initiative

This blog is written by Caitlin at Sustainability Options (I manage our comms, referrals, and do some in-house research). For context, two weeks ago, a team of us from Sustainability Options (SO) went to a regional conference for the Healthy Homes Initiative (HHI). The conference involved 5 providers of the HHI service, from across our region, getting together for two days to learn from one another. I've written this blog to capture 'two days in the life of SO'. I hope you enjoy my perspective!...

Long past time for a new economic model

Jo was a guest writer featured on the "Taking the Long View" blog. She explores the notion of a Purposeful Economy. Follow this link to read the blog post....

Whānau Care Week

This mahi is a journey, it always has been. And that means we continue to check in to ensure we are providing the support we said we would. The best way to do that? Just ask!We make follow-up calls to check in with the whānau as our journey nears its end. We want to reinforce that we care about their whare and their progress. This isn’t a transactional service. We want to ensure they are living in a warmer, drier, healthier home. The follow-up starts with a general check-in, but can be about ...

A Connected Community: My Experience at the Murupara Hauora Day

Murupara is a community we do lots of mahi in. I once heard a colleague say, “I thought we had visited every home [in Murupara] by now, but new referrals keep coming in.” Through our regular visits, we have developed strong relationships with the community and the local hauora, Te Ika Whenua Hauora.Te Ika Whenua Hauora host incredible Hauora Day’s to connect Murupara residents with support services available to them. We have been invited to many of these Day’s and really value them to co...

Heaters Warming Hearts

The nature of our mahi means our assessors have no idea what situation they are walking into at each visit. Each whānau is at a different stage in their journey, at a different level of openness to our support, and a different preconceived idea of what we can do for them. This can be a really challenging position to start an educational kōrero from.Sometimes we enter a home where the whānau member who booked the visit, isn’t there. The assessment starts from square one with a person who may...

Healthy Housing Programme Receives $1.5M Through Collaborative Funding Partnership

Local funders and agencies have come together to tackle one of our region’s biggest problems; that our poor housing stock is having a serious impact on our health.The programme, called 20 Degrees, aims to work with over 500 homes in the Bay over the next three years, with a vision for each home to reach 20°C, as recommended by the World Health Organisation for individuals who are vulnerable, unwell and prone to respiratory illnesses.It’s a huge task to take on, but one that can make a trans...

Striking for system change, not climate change

This was the message Marama Davidson gave students gathered for the strike against climate change in Tauranga, Friday 24th May. She said the problem we’re facing has arisen from the power being in the hands of a few and she implored the students to stay strong in their conviction.Students have been striking all over the country.Much has been said about the rights and wrongs of them skipping school to march the streets.To the students, I say march and raise your voices louder.From my experience...

Water bottling - the new 'Gold Rush' industry

I oppose the expansion of the Otakiri Water Bottling Plant in the Eastern Bay of Plenty for a number of reasons, but it’s got me thinking about equity of resources and what that means from a humanitarian perspective. At some stage, unless we experience a massive global sustainability shift, water will become the most precious resource we have. We will need it and so will others.Owned by Chinese company Nongfu and run by Cresswell NZ the Otakiri operation will be, if they beat the appeals again...

The Zero Carbon Bill through the eyes of an everyday activist

The Zero Carbon Bill was released by the New Zealand Government on the 8th May, 2019 and everyone has an opinion on it. Will it be any good for us, the biodiversity we cherish and the planet? The jury is definitely out on that one as scientists, academics, economists, politicians and everyday activists like me try to figure out what it will mean.Its intention is to get New Zealand on a pathway of no more than 1.5C warming, in a way which includes all sectors. Although one of the most controversi...

Students taking on kaitiakitanga role for EnviroChallenge

Awareness became the theme of the day at EnviroChallenge 2019. Students from across the Bay of Plenty region gathered at host school Mount Maunganui College to share their own schools environmental journey, inspire each other and to compete for three awards.In its eleventh year, the secondary school programme continues to attract students with an environmental passion and commitment to making a difference in their community.For the past few years the EnviroChallenge tag line has been ‘be the c...

Are compostable bags as good as we think?

I've been doing a bit of research for Straws Suck lately about single use plastic bags...this is a local movement to help raise the awareness of single use plastics and the alternatives. Check out the Facebook page and make a pledge to reduce! There’s a lot of talk at the moment about banning plastic bags, this is a good thing right? Our nation drawing a line in the sand and stopping this nonsense of a single use plastic bag for everything from a loaf of bread (conveniently already in its own ...

Are you thinking about building a new home?

We're delivering a free public seminar in Rotorua to share what we know about building new, in a way that creates warm, dry and healthy homes for all Kiwis. We want to see new homes that use less resources to build, and to operate, which means lower utility bills for you, as well as lower maintenance costs.We're learning all the time from our own experiences as well as specialised training and research. This seminar will focus on performance.We've teamed up with Rotorua Lakes Council to bring th...

EnviroChallenge 2018 is a wrap!

EnviroChallenge is a one day, high energy event for secondary students from all over the Bay of Plenty intended to inspire environmental leadership. Participating this year were Mount Maunganui College (hosts for the day), Katikati College, Papamoa College, Tauranga Girls College, John Paul College (Rotorua) and Trident High School (Whakatane). The day was sponsored by Western Bay of Plenty District Council, Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Sustainability Options.Each year participating studen...

Five ways more people cycling will be better for everyone

We are a nation of car lovers. I grew up to the sound of a V8 engine and the smell of petrol. My dad was a mechanic, there was always one family car in the driveway, and another in the garage being ‘fixed’. It’s part of who we are. Car ownership as a young adult is a rite of passage, it signifies our independence and then as our income and age increases, it becomes a symbol of our wealth and status.It’s no surprise then New Zealand’s car ownership rate is the highest in the OECD. Howev...

We don't mow our lawns and we're still good people

When we were kids, our backyard was an incredible maze of pumpkin plants and guava bushes. We’d play hide and seek with the neighbourhood kids and eat the guavas when we got hungry. For me it was a magical place to play, full of life and mystery. Then, mum and dad, probably with our slave labour, pulled it all out and they planted grass. Our wonderland had turned into a lawn. Our weekends became about mowing and cutting the edges. It became important how our lawn looked. What would the neighbo...

Every climate action is a community action

Musings and key learning from the 2017 Eco City World Summit, a biannual international series that 'aims to unite people through a new way of living on the planet that ensures best possibly cities while enhancing, not destroying, the biosphere.'Sitting in a room full of academics gives me a thrill. Its the anticipation of knowledge that I love and constantly hunger for. Attending the Eco City World Summit fed my appetite on a grand scale. I came away with considerable learning and deeper insight...

Calling all tradies...Tradebank needs YOU!

As many now know, Sustainability Options is a social business committed to visiting as many homes as possible providing free, independent & trustworthy sustainability advice to help create warm, drier healthy homes as well as supporting good decisions now that will positively affect our future generations.We’ve visited hundreds of homes, identifying needs and providing advice on home performance (how to create a warm, dry, healthy home), but through our vast experience we know our advice t...

'Be the change where you are' - thoughts from the documentary Demain (Tomorrow)

‘A lion doesn’t attack antelope to sell them to its buddies.’ A lion hunts for two reasons, hunger and survival. When a lion is full, he is no longer a threat to antelope or any of the other animals that share the bush with him. A lion won’t keep attacking and killing antelope for fun. The law of the jungle isn’t based on who has the largest amount of fresh meat stockpiled, in fact there is no currency, but there is a system. It’s a system of balance and it would make no sense for a ...