Funding approved for community climate projects

Thirty-three projects will receive a slice of the Council’s Sustainability Fund this year, selected from a total of 58 applications. 

The Council approved the funding allocation at its meeting today. 

The purpose of the fund is to support community, school, social enterprise or business projects that help meet the Council’s climate change objectives from its Kia tūroa te Ao Ōtautahi Climate Resilience Strategy. 

“We want to keep fostering new projects that will help reduce greenhouse gases or build community resilience in adapting to the impacts of climate change,” says John Higgins, General Manager Strategy Planning and Regulatory. 

“Through the Sustainability Fund, we can encourage new ideas and support anyone who’s motivated – including community organisations, schools, social enterprises and businesses – to achieve bigger benefits for our community and the local environment. 

“On behalf of the Council, thank you to everyone who applied for funding this year and congratulations to all of the recipients.” 

Among the funding recipients this year is an engagement programme which encourages children and families to walk, cycle, bus or carpool to school at least once a week (The Wednesday Challenge HQ); a project to divert e-waste from landfills and teach community members to repair it so it can be gifted to others (Digital Future Aotearoa); and a project to plant native trees and control predators at Waimairi Beach’s sand dunes, a site of ecological significance (Predator Free Eastside). 

Read more in the Council report on this year’s Sustainability Fund Allocation.