A Day in the Life of a Sustainability Advocate…

It has been a long time – almost two years – since we last blogged of our existence. But the near-Solstice winter sunshine beaming onto the Sustainability House garden seems to have stirred something up, and we feel inspired! Two years of earthquake recovery are under the bridge, but there’s a long way to go yet. But we are still here, and we have a lot to get done. The following is a little overview of a day of being a university sustainability advocate (Matt) two years after a massive natural disaster. It all began today before dawn, walking out into the streets where Matt lives at New Brighton by the beach. The gutters were still overflowing from yesterday’s deluge (that flooded many parts of the city). The footpaths were broken up and fenced off with Fahey fencing and traffic cones – earthquake repairs are on-going – but at least it was simple crossing the road which is down to one lane. As the sun began to rise it lit up a solitary cabbage tree, and the bus pulled in to Matt’s stop. An hour later and Matt is walking across a brand new zebra crossing on Ilam Road from the bus stop opposite Sustainability House. The Ilam Road upgrade that is now almost finished has been on the Council’s books for years and something the University pushed for. It’s had traffic calming, bike lanes and crossings all installed now, things that were asked for very very loudly in last year’s UC travel survey (run through our office). The design of this upgrade had a lot to do with the Transport Working Group (which is also coordinated through our office), so Matt smiled to himself as he paced towards the Sustainability House. Matt’s first task was to write up the notes from yesterday’s contract review meeting with our waste and recycling services provider, Mastagard. There seem to be some concerning issues coming our way regarding plastics recycling – to do with the buyer’s expectations – and we need to watch this very closely. We’re also concerned about takeaway cup recycling (which we can currently do, but which other companies are starting to reject). Katie (Sustainability Projects Facilitator) reported on her recent discovery (found whilst climbing through our recycling bins), that we recycle about 95,000 plastic bottles a year! Oh dear Lord. We’d rather people just stopped buying these things. But it looks like we might be needing a new education campaign around waste – we think probably early next year. After correspondence, the next thing needing attention was proof-reading the final versions of the documents Matt’s been putting together relating to a new piece of sustainability curriculum (an Endorsement to the BSc in Resilience and Sustainability, and a brand new course on sustainability and resilience). This project has taken months and months, and has been dragged around every college at the University and through countless committee meetings as it makes its way up a chain of decision-makers. It should go off to the Academic Administration Committee this week, and we hope to a national committee for a final sign-off around September. Matt has learned a lot about bureaucracy! Following this paperwork was an exciting meeting at Sustainability House with Simon (a Geography professor and active transport specialist), Annette (our Capital Projects manager) and Matt. Annette is in charge of the campus masterplan, and Simon chairs the Transport Working Group. With so much massive building work going on at the moment (all earthquake related), it can be hard to get the sustainability message heard when it needs to be. But we affirmed that the Transport Working Group needs to meet (urgently, it turns out), to help Annette with some of the big picture questions about planning for people movement on campus. There’s informing the briefing architects, responding to the City Council on a proposed new cycleway out to uni (very exciting), and thinking through what facilities for cyclists could be included in remediated buildings (more lockers and showers are coming, we hope!) for starters. By lunchtime Matt strolled around in the Sustainability House garden, where we now have three raised beds. He had planted out some seedlings of Cavolo Nero (like a kale) and silverbeet, which seemed very perky. But the weeds are getting pesky so after crunching his way through a very tasty Granny Smith (supplied in a veggie box delivered by our former community garden coordinator, Penny), he took to the beds with a garden fork and fed the compost heap. It’s Matariki, after all, and forking things over is exactly what needs doing right now. He looked at the hundred or so celery seedlings that were coming along (but sooo slowly!), muttered something about needing some Miner’s Lettuce, washed his hands and went back to the computer. The rest of the day is emails, phone calls, meeting with Katie and, of course, blogging. But tonight promises something special. Matt is on the organising committee for the next New Zealand Association for Environmental Education (NZAEE) conference – happening at CPIT and UC in January 2014. And tonight the committee is having dinner with the conference caterer (Guilio, from Roots Restaurant). Guilio is, like Matt, passionate about local food and has a radical vision for how communities can feed themselves. This fits nicely within the context of Lyttelton, where he has his restaurant, which has a plan to become self-sufficient in food. Matt is looking forward to the bus trip over to the port tonight.