Sustainability

EONZ is committed to working towards a sustainable future

We view... 

sustainable practice as underpinning good practice in the outdoors. This is because, if through our actions or inactions, we degrade or deplete the resources of the world and we will lose the very thing that we cherish. Sustainability is about considering all elements of the environment, biosphere and living organisms on the planet when making choices or decisions about how and what we do.

We encourage...

schools, organisations, and individuals to carefully consider the rationale and purpose of their activities and programmes, and how they can fit within a model of sustainability. We invite ideas and discussion about ways in which that could be achieved.

We would like...

to know what you are doing with your students and participants to develop thinking and programmes that integrate sustainability into your approach. If you would like to contribute to this page please email your ideas and material to us at EONZ

Sustainable Action Ideas

1.   Get in contact with the Department of Conservation about conservation projects. Check:

• the DOC Volunteer page
• Weedbusters

2.   Contact your local Councils to find out how your students/ school can become involved in conservation or restoration projects. 

3.   Contact with the Department of Conservation about conservation projects. 

4.   Grow plants from seed and plant a tree for every visitor.

See DOC's resource.

Find out how to grow native plants from seed.

5.   Link up to community organisations involved in sustainability projects. Try Eco Matters

6.    Do a beach tidy-up, rubbish pick-ups, add litter collection bonus points in a rogaine/ orienteering course.

7.    Read about a new PLOGGING trend:

• http://picknrun/.com
• From the Guardian - a rubbish way to get fit
• From Stuff NZ - plogging is the new fitness trend 

8.   Apply "leave no trace", "do no harm" principles to your activities:

• Go to Leave No Trace, and
• Know before you Go/Care Codes on the DOC website

9.   Set up worm farms or composting systems to deal with your school's or programme's compostable waste. Check these websites:

• Green Ideas - composting and building a worm farm
• The Rubbish Trip - great ideas with respect to waste when camping. Some camp venues have composting facilities whilst other may require ‘pack it out’

10.  Adopt an area of local land (through your local council or DOC)

Links to Sustainability Resources

• Ministry of the Environment - Manatū Mō Te Taiao has the environmental stewardship for a prosperous New Zealand. Find policy and guidelines on:

   AIR, CLIMATE CHANGE, FRESH WATER, MARINE, LAND, RMA, WASTE and more.

• There are teaching resources on the Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research site and information that allows you to find out the size of the carbon footprint (the quantity of carbon) that your lifestyle, school or business generates and suggests strategies to mitigate the size of the footprint.

• The Landcare publication, Hatched, the Capacity for Sustainable Development, is also useful, and see their Carbon Zero programme.

• A carbon emission calculator can be found at Enviromark.

• The background to ecological footprints can be found at the Footprint Network

• A New Zealand calculator for footprint is linked here but needs signing into. It gives a better indication to the New Zealand context than the UK based calculator linked below.
• The UK Climate Care Carbon Calculator allows you to calculate the likely carbon emissions of different aspects of your activities including individual airline flights and car/vehicle usage. It also discusses some of the myths about climate change like "it's too late for us to make any difference ..."

Conservation volunteer information:

• The New Zealand Trust for Conservation Volunteers, and
• Conservation Volunteers New Zealand