A Celebration of Businesses Sustainable Practices.
On Friday 1st November over 80 people gathered at the Tai Tapu Community Centre to celebrate prize winners, receive certificates, and hear citations regarding the excellent work of all the businesses who participated in the 2024 Selwyn Responsible Business Awards.
The proceedings started by thanking the supporters of the project largely financed by Selwyn District Council Waste Management. Lincoln New World sponsored much of the food and Rossendale wines did the same for the wine all prepared by volunteers from Selwyn Lions. The major thanks of the evening were to the 62 participating enterprises for their initiatives surrounding the environmental impacts and the community involvement associated with their activities.
The awards are seen as a way of encouraging businesses to think sustainably, reward and celebrate their endeavours and the process is very much geared towards discussions of the issues associated with trying to be as environmentally sustainable as possible and how to benefit the wider community.
The event itself was most enjoyable. Councillor Sophie McInnes presented the certificates and trophies to the many participating businesses who attended, and the assessors’ citations made clear the commendable work being done.
The evening was enhanced by two excellent guest speaker presentations; Frank Haakart told us of the journey to restore the earthquake damaged pub in Hororata and establish the “Artists In” project of converting the building into a rural place of art learning and exhibition.
Wim de Koning from Lincoln University outlined the exciting plans for the Solar Farm in Lincoln and we at Lincoln Envirotown look forward to joining the University in community engagement as this Lincoln asset grows.
We have been invited to a workshop at the Rediscover Education Centre in Burnham this month (March). They run workshops during the week, which are fantastic to attend! Get in touch with Fiona if you are interested in attending using the contact details below and she will give you full details including date and time.
Have fun swapping your pre-loved clothes for other quality clothes donated.
Donated clothes will be on display so bring your friends and make an evening of it.
Women’s, Men’s, Kids clothing and accessories accepted, please no undergarments. If you don’t have clothes to drop off you can still come along on the evening and help yourself to free clothes.
VIP tickets are given to those who drop off their clothes prior to the event, this ticket will give you and a friend early entry to the event.
Drop off can be arrangement in Lincoln. We also have several drop off locations and times listed below, we can be identified by our blue Lincoln Envirotown t-shirt with a fantail on it.
We would again like to thank all the businesses and schools that participated in the Selwyn Responsible Business Awards 2022 along with our supporters that made it possible. There was a tremendous response this year and we hope that the many people who were able to attend the Awards Evening enjoyed the occasion. We certainly enjoyed the celebratory atmosphere and the citations delivered by our Assessors to each certificate recipient showed that there are great efforts being made to conduct business activity with the Environment and Community in mind. We heard about many excellent initiatives. All are to be congratulated. The area and overall winners are listed below along with all the organisations that took part this year.
In the forthcoming year we do not run the Awards but we operate a Responsible Business Network which we hope people will join. This is not intended to be a time consuming activity but simply a way of businesses, as they have time, sharing and receiving information largely on media and discussing activities and initiatives. There will be a few get-together’s with guest speakers for those interested.
It was a pleasure to hear from Tony from Loxley Innovation Ltd.The advancement of electric tractor technology is a fascinating topic and we certainly hope Tony and Duncan find success with their business.
Anyone wishing to get in contact with Loxley to further support or discuss their endeavors can find more about them here. Spread the word!
It was also a pleasure to hear from John Veix who has been busy planning the Selwyn Sustainability Expo which takes place in Rolleston in January 21st and 22nd 2023.John also supplied a gift of native plants to the award attendees, which was very much appreciated.
Thanks to Our Sponsors
Selwyn District Council, the Rata Foundation and Lincoln University are greatly appreciated as long term supporters. Many thanks also to Councillor Nicole Reid who presented the certificates and trophies.
This project also relied on specific supporters; The Waste Management Department of Selwyn District Council separately support the work of our Assessors and survey development which enables us to visit widely scattered businesses and make for a thorough and thoroughly enjoyable process; Lincoln New World enabled us to provide a great spread of food and some of the refreshments and Rossendale Winery supplied the wine; all of this support is at an extremely generous level.
And finally… Congratulations to our winners!
The OVERALL WINNER is….
A Little R & R Massage Therapy! Well done Thea, and thank you for such an exemplary model of how to care for your clients, your planet and your local community!
The area winners are….
Ellesmere: Fires N Things Runner up: Straight 8 Estate
The last two years have been challenging for many, and we wish to provide a friendly and comfortable space to discuss how we can become more connected, more resilient, and more in tune with what our community and environment needs to thrive.
We’ll explore what community resilience could look like in Selwyn / Waikirikiri, and how local businesses can contribute to these changes. A range of speakers will give short presentations on different issues including addressing environmental change, shifting towards regenerative agriculture, bringing biodiversity back, reducing building waste, and improving our education system.
There will be time for questions after each presentation, with a panel discussion at the end and refreshments throughout!
This event is being run by the Responsible Business Network with support from the Selwyn District Council, tickets are limited, subject to Level 2 restrictions. Any enquiries please contact Siana Fitzjohn at rbacoordinator@gmail.com
We hope to see you there!
Melton Estate
Weedons Ross Road West Melton,7675New Zealand+ Google Map
Stuart Reilly from Lincoln University will talk us through the Universities proposed Sustainability Action Plan. They would like to get feedback from the community on the plan, that falls within the consultation period. Stuart will talk through the plan for 10-15 mins and then take questions.
All welcome to come along.
This event will be preceded by a talk on Waste in America from Kate Gislason at 7pm.
There are four basic steps to establishing a native garden, they are: PLAN, PREPARE, PLANT and PROTECT.
This workshop will cover these steps, using the Mahoe Reserve, as an example, and will include a short visit to this nearby native planting area.
Our presenters:
Fiona Waghorn is an experienced horticulturalist, who has run her own nursery for 10 years. Fiona now manages the Living Streams Community Nursery Trust which grows eco-sourced native plants;
Dr Sue Jarvis was the foundation Chair of the Lincoln Envirotown Trust and was a driving force behind the establishment of the Mahoe Reserve on Boundary Road, and the Lincoln Envirotown Community Gardens.
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Please park on the street.
Gold coin donation requested to support the Community Gardens.
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Our Sponsors
A big thank you to our wonderful sponsors!
We extend our sincere appreciation to all our sponsors, Rata Foundation, Selwyn District Council, COGS, Lottery Community, Lincoln University and CDHB.
We hosted a very successful meeting of businesses who have shown an interest in a Selwyn Responsible Business Network in Rolleston on the last day of October.
People from local businesses were invited to a social occasion and treated to two high calibre presentations which examined concepts of sustainable practices relating to Power Use and Waste Management. Many of the ideas discussed looked at the cost cutting possibilities that result from adopting more sustainable practices, while others emphasised general environmental concerns.
Richard Briggs the Programme Partnership Manager of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) surprised the audience with the statistic that businesses typically waste up to 20% of the energy they use; most solutions to this problem are low or no cost solutions which look to making current processes more efficient before looking at any replacement of infrastructure.
He strongly suggested that businesses should start looking at the possibilities of making savings by undertaking an energy audit to really assess how much power is being used and where. Details of funding bodies that could help with long term solutions were also shared.
The second presentation by Andrew Boyd the Waste and Recycling Manager at Selwyn District Council gave some real insight into the recycling situation around the world and its impact on Selwyn. He explained how the old model of using resources to produce the things we need, and then discarding them as waste, cannot be sustained.
The concept of the Circular Economy whereby resources are used in production and then reused was examined with numerous examples cited. Andrew also advised on good recycling habits and gave an insight into the difficulties of the processes.
The evening was an enjoyable occasion and people took plenty of useful information away with them.
We would like to thank the Selwyn District Council for supporting this initiative.
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