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Diary of a new EV vehicle owner

Took the van on a drive over to Rotorua today - two of us in the vehicle. We were a bit nervous (a wee bit of range anxiety), but it all went very well!! Thanks Unison for the free use of the Rapid Charge Station! This enabled us to get home, with no sweat at all!Am now getting in to mode of happily charging the van at home, and on long trips, using a rapid charger.It's a great van to drive. Drove it around all last week with a full load - it went well.Dec 5th 2016Sustainability Options has purc...

Diary of an attempt at a sustainable home renovation

We have recently purchased a home that is our 'project' for renovation. Given my job is to promote household sustainability, I thought that this might be a worthy journey to share with others.My key focus is energy sustainability, but I will also be sharing my journey regarding water and waste sustainability.In this post, I want to give a bit of background as to 'the project' and the 'journey'. Then as time goes on - I'll seek to keep the posts up to date with how its all progressing.The home: I...

Urban design, is it rocket science?

Prior to attending an urban design presentation by a person with the name Ludo, my expectations for something pretty special were high. I was anticipating something provocative, something leading edge and something worthy of such an interesting name like Ludo. I wasn’t disappointed.The presentation was hosted by Project Tauranga, a unique programme that encourages organisations to invest in innovative and exciting projects that benefit the community. Sustainability Options are Project Tauranga...

Climate, Housing & Food

A couple of weeks ago I attended a seminar; ‘Climate Change & Health: Is food a major player?’ a science based presentation delivered by Emily Rushton (a health professional), and on behalf of Ora Taiao (New Zealand Climate and Health Council), check them out.A couple of years ago Ora Taiao submitted a briefing paper to the then incoming Minister for Health highlighting the ‘Health Co‐benefits of Climate Action’ and showing examples of this under three headings: increase active tra...

It's all about people

On Friday 1st April I attended a Climate Change Speakers Forum in Tauranga organised by Envirohub. The event began with a short Al Gore presentation by Michelle Elborn from Tauranga City Council, followed with a screening of Chasing Ice, a documentary about the retreating glaciers around the world, specifically Iceland and Alaska. It was such a powerful and haunting visual representation of the rapid transformation our planet is going through with magnificent and ancient glaciers shrinking, retr...

The EV Journey begins

Had the immense pleasure of attending Tauranga's first shopping mall EV station yesterday. Congratulations and well done to the Bay Fair team. Amazing effort. An electric vehicle owner can now fast charge their vehicle whilst attending the mall.The reason I write this, is because Jo Wills, our Sustainability development manager has been holding heaps and heaps of discussions with lots and lots people around establishing, promoting, and advocating for electric vehicles in the BOP. Jo has been a s...