Environment looks at living and working with our environment

localeye sees in 2004 with a new look and enhanced search features.

When you do a Canterbury Search, the first result will list localeye categories which use that key word, followed by individual website listings, then relevant news stories, followed by the results of a general search which lists other links of less relevance.

Recent News and Events

Motukarara Conservation Nursery
This nursery propagates plants for ecological restoration projects and public sales and operates advocacy and education programmes including a popular annual open day.
Canterbury fire season report
Four major fires and several smaller fires in rural Canterbury since Christmas are likely to cost in total more than $1.5 million in fire control.

Sites Added

Rural Fire Canterbury
Rural fire committee website to keep people informed about rural fire threats and countermeasures during this period of extreme fire danger. Current fire situation and fire weather reports. Advice on protecting your property.

Ecological Engineering Programme
Autonomous programme in Isaac Nature Conservation Centre. Applies knowledge of ecosystems and technical and engineering problem solving and design to achieve harmony human activity and natural systems.

Enviro Clean and Restoration
Nationwide commercial flooring maintenance and restoration services for residential, commercial and industrial customers. Branch in Christchurch.

Sustainability Expo

The Christchurch Sustainability Expo is on this weekend at the Horticultural Hall, Hagley Ave, Christchurch, January 31 and February 1, 10 am – 5 pm.
Adult admission is $4, children are free.

The website address for the Expo is http://www.ecoeng.co.nz/Sust_Cante.htm

The 2004 Expo includes a keynote address from Nigel Isaacs, Principal Scientist from BRANZ on the Household Energy End-Use Project (HEEP). HEEP is a long-term study with the objective of measuring and modelling the way energy is used in New Zealand households. The envisaged model will use physical building and appliance characteristics as well as socio-demographic factors to describe the energy consumption patterns and some of the energy services, in particular the achieved indoor temperatures. The model will be used to understand current and future national household energy requirements, and as a tool to evaluate the implications of building and appliance performance changes.

Sponsored by Environment Canterbury and Meridian Energy, the Expo is a one-stop shop of sustainable options for everyday suburban life as well as for businesses and farms. John Veix, the Expo's organiser says. “The aim of the Expo is to get people to think ahead and look at things they could do more wisely - simple things like switching off lights and not using plastic supermarket bags as well as bigger decisions like installing solar water heating.”

“More and more people are becoming aware of the need to preserve our environment for future generations and actively want to do something,” says Richard Budd, Environment Canterbury councillor and chairman of the energy portfolio. “But many people do not know what they can do and that is where the Sustainability Expo comes in.”

Exhibits or information include solar energy (photovoltaics), solar water heating, wind energy, sustainable transport, worm farms, organic farming in your backyard, water saving techniques, energy efficient design, building and renovation, composting toilets and a hybrid car.

Find out more:

Sustainability Expo, ECAN, 23 January 2004
Speakers' programme
localeye - Sustainability
localeye article

Buried Treasures - Energy use

Energy use is an important aspect of sustainability and localeye links you to a range of resources. This category includes:

sites offering energy savings tips
energy related businesses
tools to calculate greenhouse gases