Earth bag building at Awhi Farm with Bomun Bock-Chung
This low-cost building project is being built at Awhi Farm. Co-ordinated with its construction is the Timbrel Dome workshop run (more…)
The bright light of sustainable practice
On the home stretch through Canterbury we came across this canola field – it summed up a lot about this Sustainable Practice roadshow – many rich, golden experiences. It brought back into to focus the importance of a deep connection to the land and the importance of a sustainable land ethic as the baseline for sound, strategic decision-making for the long view – a sustainable future for our grandchildren.
Our choice to use biodiesel to fuel this roadtrip was brought into sharp focus while driving through these fields, highlighting that to transition from ‘business as usual’ is a matter of choice. Travelling with Steve Henry, nothing short of a high energy particle in the field of sustainable practice, has shown me that overcoming the barriers is A MATTER OF WILL. With the right vision, planning, preparation and collaboration around ideas that provide genuine win-win-win outcomes, we all benefit, the land included.
By shining a spotlight on all the great examples of sustainable practice in different pockets of the country we gain new ideas, fresh insights, inspiration and the knowledge that a sustainable future is a reality for all of us – we just need to choose it!
The depth of the connections along the way has been astounding, the communities we been fortunate enough to have continued real engaged dialogue have told us they are ready to embed sustainable practice.
This is, in no small way, testament to the vision, hard work and tireless efforts of Steve Henry and the team at the Centre for Sustainable Practice.
The message of this ancient Maori whakatauki speaks the language of sustainability in a way we can all understand.
Manaaki whenua, manaaki tangata, haere whakamua.
Care for the land. Care for people. Go forward.
What strikes me is that it’s message is even more relevant today.
Awhi Farm – Timbrel Dome workshop with James Bellamy
Dynamic, innovative approaches and a ‘can-do’ attitude have clearly made the Awhi Farm Sustainability Centre a community project to keep both eyes on.
Over two visits, Steve Henry and I have been able to see a number of great low-cost projects unfolding before our eyes – one in particular was finished on our return visit on Wednesday.
In this short video, James Bellamy took the time to talk to me about the Timbrel vault workshop while students worked around him.
On our return visit the structure was complete as you can see from the photo below.
Self supporting Timbrel vault structure
On our way north James Bellamy, running a 3-day Timbrel vault building workshop. The tiles are pressed from local crushed pumice, cemented together with gypsum plaster to create amazingly strong arch and dome structures in a very short time.
Check out the courses at http://www.ecoshow.co.nz/Courses.html
This excerpt is copied from the above webpage:
“A building technique that dates back 600 years and is now being rediscovered due to it’s low use of building materials and therefore low embodied energy. Made from locally pressed tiles, beautiful spanning shapes are built without extensive formwork and at minimal cost. The designs of these dome shells work with pure compression and no reinforcement steel.
At Awhi farm a hand press is used to make the tiles out of our local materials of pumice and stabilized with cement.”
I can see Awhi Farm becoming a significant and integral part of the ‘sustainable community development’ space in the central North Island in a very short amount of time.
Thanks again for the whole Awhi Farm community for extending your time to us so generously. Hopefully, these blog posts go some way towards raising the profile of the Centre and encourages more people to visit and be inspired by the space you’re creating.
EECA meeting in Wellington – a collaborative project around solar hot water
After a 6am start in Levin, Steve and I made our way down the beautiful Kapiti Coast for pre-work meeting with the EECA (Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority) team.
From left: Steve Henry, Julia Barton, Jane O'Loughlin, 'Mike the sustainable builder' & EECA CEO, Mike Underhill involved in a whirlwind Solar Hot Water demonstration at the Wellington Interislander ferry terminal
Thanks to EECA CEO, Mike Underhill, senior advisor, Jane O’Loughlin and Julia Barton from the EECA solar hot water team for taking the time to see a quick demonstration of the brand new Otago Polytechnic Solar Hot Water demonstration trailer (it’s existence is owed to EECA’s significant financial contribution).
In a show of high commitment, local sustainable designer and builder, Mike, made the early morning trip out to see us. He registered his interest in enrolling in the new sustainable practice graduate diploma, beginning in Feb 2011. “I’ve studied a lot of theory in this space. It’s time to get stuck in with some action”.
He jumped into our roadtrip ‘rig’ to continue the conversation all way the mouth of the ferry before Steve and I drove into the ferry bowels to cross Cook Strait. We’ve had these sort of experiences the whole way – passionate, committed people ready to embed sustainable practice in what they do for a living. It’s inspiring to be involved and makes the hard work we’ve invested to spread the message worthwhile.
The North Island leg of the roadtrip has been a resounding success – a rich and diverse range events, ranging from ‘top-of-town’ strategic decision making and planning events along with grass-roots activism and community projects and everything in between. The importance and relevance of sustainable practice in all segments of the community has been on full display – a demonstration of the fact that with a shared vision of what a sustainable future looks like we can all look towards a prosperous and healthy future.
Next on the event schedule is Nelson on Thursday evening with a lunchtime event in Kaikoura – please come join us if you’re in the neighbourhood!
Auckland event (and a paradise called Waiheke Island)
Our travelling circus vehicle (at least that’s what it felt like after driving all the way from Queenstown!) finally arrived in Auckland. We were greeted on our arrival by the ever smiling James Samuel, community organiser extraordinaire and one of the most generous people I have been fortunate enough to meet in a long time.
Our kick off event organised by James in Manakau City – a community garden get-together and one of 100 events throughout New Zealand to mark 10.10.10
A small gathering of a cross section of the Manakau City community gathered together at the local Papakura church to discuss some of the possible options for sustainable practice projects. The recent announcement of the election of Len Brown as major of the new Auckland Super City, a Manakau City local brought a buoyant mood to the group.
We were then hosted by James, Simon Harvey and Jerome (our host for the next days’ event at Jasmax Architects in Auckland) for a quiet get together on Waiheke Island. My first time to Auckland let alone Waiheke was eye opening and James, knowing we’d be exhausted after the long journey arranged for a luxury beach retreat. Simon arrived with local organic pizzas, all washed down with some of NZs finest ales.
For people whom I’ve met once, this was a show of generosity I’ve rarely experienced – testament to the strength and spirit of the local community on Waiheke.
After a much needed sleep, we woke to a beautiful calm morning – an early walk on the beach bringing a great photo opportunity and a timely reminder that with the rush of the roadtrip it is so important to take the time to slow down.
Some good breakthroughs and equal amount of mutual learning were achieved with James during the morning to develop a social media course for the ‘community development’ space.
My first experience of Auckland traffic was not as bad as expected although James’ calm navigation kept things sane – thanks and kudos to Jerome for arranging the Jasmax event which was well attended and received – what an amazing presentation space!
After narrowly escaping the parking inspector and driving circles trying to park and a lack of food, frustration started to creep in and by the time Steve was done with his final appointments I was not disappointed to be on the way south again by mid-afternoon to Hamilton.
Thanks to Berny for the car storage in Manakau City and get-away car speed driving to and from the ferry, James for your above and beyond hospitality and thoughtfulness, Simon for the food and beers, Jerome for arranging the event and everyone for being great company!
The Sustainable Practice roadshow begins
A big hello to our friends out there,
We’d like to announce that Otago Polytechnic’s Centre for Sustainable Practice (CSP) has just launched a length-of-the-country road-trip to promote the new sustainable practice qualifications. The new Graduate Diploma course course, based in the beautiful mountain lifestyle community of Wanaka begins in February 2011 and enrolments are starting to roll in.
Check out our cool road-tripping rig!
Starting from Queenstown and going as far north as Auckland, before returning back down south – check out when and where the nearest event will be to you!
In a truly collaborative endeavour, we’ve teamed up with two award-winning sustainable tourism operators from Queenstown – Ziptrek Ecotours and Nomad Safaris to help spread the message and highlight the success of the Queenstown Lakes Sustainable business programmes of which they have both continue to be active members.
Nomad Safaris have kindly provided us with a Land Rover Defender vehicle which will be fuelled with biodiesel provided by Allied Petroleum’s biodiesel facilities throughout the country. Both Ziptrek Ecotours and Nomad Safaris are naming sponsors of the Queenstown biodiesel facility. The success of the biodiesel facility has has received extensive media coverage since being installed in March 2010.
To ‘walk the talk’ of sustainable practice, we’ll be towing towing the brand new CSP brand Demonstration Solar Hot-water Trailer and will be offering free assessments along the way to demonstrate what sort of energy and cost savings businesses could benefit from by installing solar.
We’ll be updating the blog regularly so please subscribe to hear about all our exciting news in the lead up to the degree launch
You can also tune in for updates as the roadshow rolls out – Follow us on Twitter and connect with us on Facebook
Looking forward to connecting with you on the road or online!
Regards
Tom Walter and Steve Henry
Please tell your friends about our roadshow on Facebook and Twitter
