A Wairarapa council\u2019s climate-change adaptation programme is showing early signs of success.<\/p>\n
From no-mow trials in public parks, to soft plastic recycling and addressing water processing issues, Carterton council is adopting sustainable practices across its business units.<\/p>\n
The council\u2019s policy and projects subcommittee was updated on the programme\u2019s progress at its meeting on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are doing really well,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is some great stuff happening. Things like the composting trials, waste-minimisation and progress on our district plan. There are good things in there from a climate perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
A report presented to the committee described climate-adaptation successes in the council\u2019s parks and reserves, water, waste, planning, community development and facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cClimate change, natural hazard risk, and resilience are central themes woven throughout the proposed district plan,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe strategic direction chapter outlines the key matters to guide decision-making and introduces objectives that focus on: climate change mitigation, adapting to climate change, resilience to natural hazards, water resilience and renewable energy.\u201d<\/p>\n
A no-mow trial had started in selected parks from September.<\/p>\n
This is a land management initiative where areas such as parks, road verges, or reserves are left unmown for a time to study the benefits of reduced mowing.<\/p>\n
The current trial is at Sparks Park, Carrington Park, Feist Street Reserve, Bird Reserve, Howard Booth Park, and South End Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not the entire park, it\u2019s just a strip of the area \u2013 encouraging the wild flowers to grow,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
The first two climate community forums, on afforestation and freshwater happened in October and November, with more planned.<\/p>\n
Soft plastic recycling was now available through a local supermarket, and community engagement had been encouraged through \u2018plastic free July\u2019, \u2018clean-up\u2019 week in September, and similar projects.<\/p>\n
The council had switched domestic rubbish bags to ones with higher recycled content, and provided support for Carterton\u2019s community gardens, foodbank and composting initiatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Waignawa process water project (first stage) was opened in September providing low-cost, non-potable water to businesses within the Waingawa industrial area.<\/p>\n
“This will reduce the use of chemicals and power by not using potable water for process water,” the report said.<\/p>\n
The council\u2019s climate change strategy \u2013 adopted in April \u2013 aimed to enhance knowledge and understanding and build a culture of change so that, as an organisation, the council would lead by example.<\/p>\n
\u2013 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Wairarapa council\u2019s climate-change adaptation programme is showing early signs of success. From no-mow trials in public parks,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-167225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-wellington"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}