Thanks to our sponsors:
2024 in review for The Green Lab (and a peek at what's to come)
Ngā mihi o te wā – Season’s Greetings! The Green Lab wishes everyone the best for the summer and festive season. It has been a busy year, and we are grateful to have supported so many community groups and the people of Ōtautahi with greening projects and celebrating our biodiversity.
Our highlights for the year include…
- Opening Te Kohanga Taiao Sensory Nature Play Park: Powered by Hummingbird for the Avon-Ōtākaro Forest Park, this project was a milestone for us. Being part of Bio Blitz also led to the development of a meaningful relationship with The Nature Lab.
- Launching the Hard Material Workshop at Phillipstown Community Hub: We began running workshops focused on reusing materials like ACM, further reducing waste destined for landfill. Thank you Jane horne for developing the building designs.
- Creating a Natural Dye Garden with The White Room at The Climate Action Campus: This has been a standout project. The garden is flourishing, and flowers have already been used for eco-printing projects.
- Supporting Developments at The Avon Hub: With the help of the Christchurch City Council’s Placemaking Fund, we’re excited to continue enhancing this space.
- Supporting the Rongoa Maori demonstration site at Ka Putahi Confluence Conservation Reserve with our Mobile Lab, helping to provide planter boxes and workshops.
- Developing resilience and emissions reduction with workshops at Terra Nova and the Community Energy Activator we have been looking at how we reduce our carbon footprint and help others.
Thank you to Christchurch City Council, The Rātā Foundation, The Trusts Community Foundation, and all the incredible volunteers who have helped bring these successful projects to life.
We look forward to continuing our work in 2025 and supporting more community-led initiatives.
- Community Energy Activator and Earth Positive Programme: In 2024, The Green Lab participated in two key programmes, fostering increased awareness of climate change and practical actions to address its challenges. Through these initiatives, we have deepened our understanding of the issues and expanded our capacity to educate and empower our community.
- Earth Positive Programme: Led by Terra Nova, this programme focused on Resilience and Emissions reductions and the impacts of climate change and how they affect our communities. Climate change might include extreme weather events like increased rainfall and drought, threats to our taonga species, the rise of infections and diseases affecting biodiversity, food security, and overall well-being.
From this programme and tool set we identified ways The Green Lab can reduce its carbon footprint and support community groups through our initiatives. Our workshops in backyard design and green space development, alongside our building projects, now incorporate practices that promote biodiversity, prioritize local materials, and support recycling initiatives to foster sustainable change. The Green lab was awarded the certificate of excellence from Terra Nova, Action Taker, A participant who’s committed to taking Earth+action since attending the workshop. - Community Energy Activator Programme: The Green Lab was proud to be selected for this 12-week pilot programme, designed to explore renewable energy solutions. Our goal was to understand energy systems with low environmental impacts and to learn how to educate communities about energy’s relationship to the environment. Throughout the programme, we gained valuable insights into the community energy landscape by collaborating with other groups. We explored both the basics of working with communities and the complexities of implementing renewable energy solutions. These lessons highlighted the importance of renewable energy not only for reducing carbon footprints but also for building community resilience and exploring financial sustainability for community initiatives.
As a result, we are excited to collaborate with the Computer Science Department to create a small-scale energy circuit. This interactive system will educate people about renewable energy by asking the question: Where does power come from, and can we reconnect with nature through electricity?
Aperahama (Hama) Te Aika Kipa from Kahukura Rongoa Maori Healing, with the flags that were installed at the Kā Pūtahi Rongoā Māori Demonstration Site for their talking circle.
Blaire from @the_white_room_chch, we potting up for the nature dye garden at Climate Action Campus, Ōtautahi.