The 3 day Sustainable Communities Film Festival which opens in Wellington on World Environment Day (June 5) will showcase a number of short films with a shared focus - local communities working together to tackle climate change. Organized by the Sustainability Trust’s Environment Centre co-ordinator Emet Degirmenci-Alpay the festival features work from national and international documentary makers.

“With the focus for World Environment Day being  “kick the carbon habit” these films provide a unique opportunity for audiences to explore a number of situations where small communities have come together to address sustainability issues in a local context” says Emet. “The purpose of the event is to encourage the public to get involved with community actions for sustainability, we have a good cross section of films which, whilst showing what is possible, also draw attention to the difficulties and pitfalls other groups have encountered when tackling localized sustainability issues.”

The festival also hosts organized discussion sessions which will follow the film screenings and will enable audiences to explore the concepts surrounding community sustainability with the film makers. These sessions will provide people with an opportunity to learn from the experiences and knowledge of the producers and, hopefully, be motivated to create their own community sustainability stories.

The festival will run over three days with an Opening Gala at the Paramount Theatre on Thursday 5 June at 11.30am and evening sessions at the Newtown Community and Cultural Centre on 6 & 7 June from 7pm.

Starting up community action groups can be tricky in urban centres where busy lives collide and a sense of community can be hard to find.

A local film-making collaboration – set up to produce work for screening on World Environment Day 5 June – is presenting some solutions and inviting the public to share their knowledge at a series of screenings during World Environment Week in Wellington.

Wellington Environment Centre co-ordinator Emet Alpay, wanted to make a ‘how-to’ film to assist and inspire budding community environmentalists to take action. “We hear so many people say ‘we want to do something’ and I believe the first step is getting together with other like-minded passionate people”, says Emet who is originally from Turkey and feels a sense of community is often lacking in New Zealand cities.

The short movie tracks the progress of Emet’s current Newtown-based ‘community sustainability action programme’, and sets out the tools and resources groups need to get going as well as showing realistic case studies for inspiration. “The progress of ‘Sustainable Communities’ has been so inspiring I wanted to share it with others” says Emet.

The technical help in producing the film has come from Steve Leon who voluntarily runs internet video blog site “Inspirational TV”. Unlike television, Steve says, the site and its films are about inspiration, community and social conscience. Their 'programmes' highlight the good things in life, and are brought about by extraordinary generous, passionate people.

Emet and Steve’s film “Sustainable Communities” will be screened along with several other New Zealand and international short films as part of the Sustainable Communities Film Festival running:

11.30am – 1.30pm on 5 June at the Paramount Theatre

7pm -9pm on 6 and 7 June at Newtown Community and Cultural Centre.

Entry to all events is by Koha (donation).

- Anyone for a (Green) Drink?

Sustainability Trust in conjunction with Sustainable Business Network, Intersect and New Zealand Association of Environmental Educators are collaborating to put on the inaugural ‘Green Drinks in the Capital’ on Wednesday 4 June, the eve of World Environment Day. It will be the first of an ongoing series of networking evenings.

“What is green drinks?” - it’s an international, environmental networking movement. Its informal, open to anyone and aims to provide a regular place for like-minded people to meet and network – its socializing with a purpose! It’s cheaper than attending a conference, and less hassle than trawling the web looking for contacts, infact, what better way is there to meet the entire spectrum of sustainability enthusiasts and environmental nuts?

The first Green Drinks was established in London in 1989, and the idea has since spread to over 350 chapters worldwide. Wellington joins Auckland, Tauranga, Christchurch and Palmerston North as NZ centres with existing Green Drinks chapters. The initiative is entirely unfunded and the collaborating Wellington partners will contribute sponsorship and staff hours to keep the regular events rolling.

Southern Cross Garden Bar and Restaurant have kindly offered an ongoing home in The Lodge function room, and will sustain patrons with organic nibbles, in return for some tips and advice on greening up their business practices. With a regular base for this bi-monthly event, the partners hope the event will grow organically with everyone inviting someone else along.

A networking site has been set up to grease the networking wheels and provide a place to carry on green conversations anytime. The site also allows “green drinkers” to register and RSVP for the events – an ideal way for the organisers to cater for numbers

Venue:   

The Lodge,

Southern Cross Garden Bar and Restaurant,

39 Abel Smith Street, Wellington.

Happy Birthday Healthy Homes!

Students are the teachers on World Environment Day

Arihia Latham Coates and Kate Lowe have been working closely with a group of students from Cannons Creek and Brandon Intermediate schools in Porirua to develop a series of student facilitated workshops which will be delivered at the schools on World Environment Day.

Funded by the Ministry for the Environment’s World Environment Day fund, and designed with the Tuakana Teina method in mind, Arihia and Kate have developed the workshops with a group of older students who will be the actual workshop facilitators on June 5th. More than 180 children will attend the workshops where they will learn the correct methods for composting, managing and utilizing the products from a worm farm, healthy eating (including making sustainable choices around packaging and food miles), bike maintenance, seed planting, and making their own shopping bags.

Arihia says the Tuakana Teina system is proven to be a really effective method for communicating both practical and theoretical knowledge. “Children are more responsive when taught by their peers and often feel more inspired when taught by children they look up to.  Interestingly the students who are doing the teaching gain a deeper insight into the concept of role modeling because they find themselves in that position. They reflect on their own capacity as leaders and consider the relationships they have with the role models of their own lives. Sharing the teaching and learning experience in this way also provides a great opportunity for the students to discuss their enthusiasm for & opinions about sustainable living”.

Wellington documentary maker Edmund Wealthall is producing a video about the project and this will be available on the trust website once the video production work is complete.

For more information contact Kate Lowe.

Getting Around Wellington - Project Update

The Getting Around Wellington team have hosted more than 720 conversations with residents and businesses in Southern and Eastern Wellington about sustainable travel practices over the past 6 months. As the project’s current phase comes to an end, the team are excited about the possibilities continuing the program could bring for Wellington’s carbon footprint.

“The programme is really picking up steam and I hope Getting Around will eventually have a life of its own” says Project Coordinator Lee Barry. “The project is now on the radar with businesses who want to support and encourage their staff towards sustainable travel planning. Recently we’re had interest from Harvey Norman, Wellington Zoo, and NZ Post staff - and Meridian Energy have hosted a free lunch so we could talk to 100 of their staff. We’re still keen to hear from any other groups or individuals interested in addressing their transport related carbon footprint so get in touch if you would like to have a discussion about making definitive steps towards doing that”.

The final reports for this phase of the Getting Around project will be available by mid-July and Lee and the transport team are hopeful they will be able to continue the program in the next financial year. “By July we hope to have more news on any on-going support from our funding partners, and if successful we will be going city-wide so that all Wellingtonians can enjoy the benefits of getting around without a car.

To get in touch with the Getting Around Wellington Team contact Lee Barry by phone or email.

The project is supported by the Ministry for the Environment’s Sustainable Management Fund and Wellington City Council.

Eco Kiwi - Project Update

The Eco Kiwi team will have completed almost 1000 household engagements when the project reaches the end of its first phase later in June this year.

The Eco Kiwi program is designed to tailor sustainability advice directly to householders and the formal evaluations carried out by project co-leaders, combined with the follow up chats between networkers & householders,  indicate that the one-on-one, conversation based method is working well. “The majority of participants are going ahead with the actions they nominated initially” says Project Coordinator Sarah Pritchett. “They are reporting the changes they have made are either making their homes healthier, are saving the household money, or both”. The project will formally conclude at the end of June once final analysis of the methods used and outcomes achieved is complete.