Participants in Kāpiti Coast’s Greenest Street competition will be at the Sustainable Home and Garden Show this weekend to showcase their efforts so far in the nine-month competition.
The Greenest Street tent will be shared by the four competing streets who will be talking to show attendees about experiences working together with neighbours to be more self-sufficient and sustainable and hoping to impress the competition judges when they come by.
The ‘Streets’ started the competition by measuring their personal environmental footprint using a simple quiz and will check how much it has changed by repeating the quiz at the end of the competition in June.
Show attendees who visit the Greenest Street tent can be guided through the same quiz by experienced helpers over a cup of tea. The answers will be processed for an immediate result.
Stacey Gasson, one of the competition coordinators, says, “The beauty of environmental footprinting is that it gives us a sketch of the real effect of our actions and choices. If we’re really serious about reducing our impact on the environment, tools like this help us to see where our energy is best spent and give feedback when we make changes.
“But being sustainable is no easy task and is about a lot more than just the environment, which is why we’re encouraging and celebrating people getting to know their neighbours and working on it together.”
Attendees who would like to measure their footprint will need to bring information including personal kilometres they’ve travelled in the past year by car, train, bus and plane (including commuting but not travel for work), the name of their electricity provider, and the area of their garden used for growing vegetables and herbs.
In addition to footprinting, visitors to the Greenest Street tent will be able to get advice on starting a neighbourhood group from Neighbourhood Support, try out some of the Street’s home-grown produce and preserves and pick up some of their tips and recipes.
Around the Show site attendees can get useful advice and information from many of the Council exhibitions, trade exhibitors and the ‘No. 8 Wire Workshops’ held over the two days of the Show.
Ms Gasson adds: “We hope people will come along to hear the Streets’ stories straight from the participants themselves, and it will inspire them to take action back in their own homes and neighbourhoods.”
The Sustainable Home and Garden Show is on 26 and 27 March at Kāpiti Primary School, Paraparaumu. More information on the Show and the Greenest Street Competition can be found at www.kapiticoast.govt.nz.
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Competition Judges are