Grants support community climate change action

Twenty-two groups taking community action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and live more sustainably are going to receive funding support from Christchurch City Council.

The groups will benefit from more than $400,000 in grants from the Sustainability Fund, which was set up by the Council to encourage community, school, social enterprise or business projects that help meet Christchurch’s climate change goals.

“The Sustainability Fund is an important way that we can support community action on climate change and the calibre of funding applications coming through is really high,’’ says Sustainability and Community Resilience Committee Chair Cr Sara Templeton.

“There is some great mahi being done across our district to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and grow resilience to the local impacts of climate change. I’m pleased the Council can support this work in a practical way as we work with our communities to build a sustainable 21^st century city.’’

The Sustainability and Community Resilience Committee agreed to grant:

• $10,000 for Aranui Bike Fix Up – a project that is focused on getting people in Aranui and the surrounding areas into cycling and cycle maintenance/repair.
• $35,582 for Christchurch Envirohub, which is working with schools to improve the health of streams and habitat to support the native longfin tuna.
• $30,000 for the Christchurch Transitional Architecture Trust so it can continue to run Christchurch Conversations: Towards 2030, a free speaker series designed to inform and engage residents about ways to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions and grow resilience to climate impacts.
• $5000 for the Diamond Harbour Community Association so it can install solar panels on the roof of the Diamond Harbour Community Hall.
• $25,000 for Digital Future Aotearoa’s Recycle A Device project, which aims to help ease the digital divide by providing refurbished laptops to people who need them.
• $29,022 for Flourish Kia Puāwai Social Enterprise Limited’s Rubbish Talk project, which is a community-led initiative to reduce waste at the grass-roots level.
• $30,000 for the Food Resilience Network’s School Garden Catalyst project which aims to support teachers, schools and students to grow thriving edible gardens in schools across Christchurch.
• $30,000 for New Brighton Community Garden’s Propagating Young Gardeners Sustainability Hub that will teach people to grow food and adopt sustainable practices.
• $25,000 for the Ōtākaro Living Laboratory which is working to establish a world-leading living laboratory in the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor.
• $26,000 for the RAD Bikes Charitable Trust so it can continue its work to improve access to cycling, minimise waste and develop community wellbeing.
• $8950 for the Redcliffs Residents’ Association to help cover the cost of its native forest restoration work in Barnett Park.
• $20,000 for the Richmond Community Garden Trust’s Riverlution Sustainability Hub, which is trying to divert as much waste and food scraps from the suburb by setting up easily accessible systems and education programmes.
• $40,000 for Seed the Change He Kākano Hāpai to help set-up community composting services at locations where food is grown by the community.
• $10,000 for Styx Living Laboratory Trust’s Pūharakekenui Sustainabilty Project, which aims to reduce greenhouse gases through forest restoration and innovative transport solutions.
• $20,000 for the Summit Road Society’s restoration work in Avoca Valley which is aimed at protecting remnant native trees and planting 46,000 plants in Linda Woods Reserve.
• $10,000 for Sustainability 360 Limited which is working to help make businesses more sustainable.
• $4621 for the Cashmere New Life Church so it can create a new community garden at the St Saviours Church on the corner of Colombo Street and Roxburgh Street.
• $16,590 for Cultivate Christchurch Limited to help cover its running costs.
• $8267 for the Little River Wairewa Community Trust so it kick-start ridesharing and community transport in Banks Peninsula.
• $18,400 for the Molten Media Trust’s Ethical E-waste project which aims to reduce electronic waste by refurbishing and donating old equipment to those in need, and by stripping and recycling old computers.
• $12,000 for TOCK earth Limited which aims to educate and involve young people in waste reduction.
• $5500 for the Ōtākaro Avon Network for its 2022 World Rivers Day event.

Pictured above: Cameron Hodgkinson from Molten Media Trust, which recycles electronic goods in Christchurch. Residents can drop-off items to be recycled or refurbished.