Finding allies and building bridges to strengthen environment action
The Star, Thursday May 16 2024 p 17 – by Dylan Smits
Taking on environmental challenges can seem daunting alone, but there is hope when many green hands work together. Reporter Dylan Smits found out how Christchurch Envirohub is connecting sustainability groups for a more cooperative sector
CHRISTCHURCH Envirohub trust manager Ben Alder supervises a small team focused on delivering networking events, promotion and education to the public on behalf of hard-working but cash-strapped volunteer groups.
“We’re a pretty diverse group of people, but we’ve all got an interest in improving the local environment,” he says.
The services provided by Envirohub allow environmentalists to get on with the field work.
“It’s more about filling in the gaps, rather than doing what others are already doing.”
Christchurch was the first New Zealand city to host an environmental centre in 1976. It served green volunteers and helped them combine strengths until closing its doors in 2009 due to a lack of funding. For nearly 10 years, the Christchurch green sector went without any central organisation, leading to many hyper-local volunteer groups forming within neighbourhoods.
“A lot of groups started to address quite individualist work in the environmental sector, like plantings in a certain area, waste collection, river clean-ups, all sorts,” said Alder. “There were so many groups that ended up forming, when we came back into the fold, we had to make sure we were adding value to these groups by doing something different and useful.”
The trust was created in early 2018 to address the problems created by years of disconnection. The most critical issues were a lack of cooperation on projects and the limited resources small groups have to promote their work or volunteering opportunities to the public.
Alder finds environmental groups have many volunteers willing to give their time for field work, but often lack people interested in promotion and backroom work.
“There’s all the business and administration and marketing that sits behind it. That’s where a lot of these organisations tend to struggle. Because you can have all these groups, but unless they have brand awareness, not many people know about them.”
Avon-Heathcote Estuary Ihutai Trust manager Tanya Jenkins said Envirohub has been helpful building bridges with key allies such as the Ōpāwaho Heathcote River Network which are key allies in protecting the health of the estuary.
“We will always need a group like it to be proactive and help guide everyone. They’re really helpful people.”
Predator Free Port Hills coordinator Natasha Szczecinski McIntosh said Envirohub has helped erase barriers between groups and create a network for better communication.
“The environment doesn’t have any borders,” she said. “We have all these individual little niches that need to be filled in order to protect our future and without all these individual little groups working together towards a common cause, we’re not going to achieve it.”
The trust is a member of Environment Hubs Aotearoa which provides further assistance and funding to its regional branches, helping connect environmentalists across the country. Christchurch Envirohub, which relies on a small staff and volunteers for operations, receives most of its remaining funding from the city council, Environment Canterbury, and the Rātā Foundation. For the 2023-2024 financial year, Envirohub received $30,000 from the city council and $24,000 from ECan. The Rātā Foundation did not respond to requests for its grant amount.
Envirohub does not plan on having one central building to work from, but encourages network members to utilise the spaces made available for them. These include the Botanic Gardens kiosk building and the Riverlution Eco Hub. These premises, leased by the Horticultural Society and the Richmond Community Garden respectively, are promoted by Envirohub to be used for meetings and events by environmental groups.
“When there were those discussions around bringing back an environmental centre, the network agreed not to build a place just for the sake of it, but instead create a collaborative environment through multiple existing building spaces,” said Alder.
One of Envirohub’s promotional tools is its map and directory, found online and at the Botanic Gardens kiosk. This helps people interested in the environmental sector to find one of the more than 300 network groups in one place.
Envirohub also runs its own projects and events which aim to create a highly-connected network while avoiding duplicating the work of other individual groups. The Envirokids programme is the leading project for the trust’s public education efforts. Since 2018, Envirohub volunteers have showcased the work of network members through weekly activities every Saturday.
“We’re trying to get kids familiar with these environmental topics and themes because often it’s still not touched on much in school. “It’s something they can come to every week where they can engage with these issues through activities,” said Alder.
Predator Free Port Hills and the estuary trust have both participated in the Envirokids programme. “Three times a year we do a session on birds of our estuary and the kids really enjoy it. “We go out and look at birds and talk about birds, so it goes really well,” said Jenkins.
Other recent showcase events include Bee Awesome, where children learned how to craft a beehive, and the Avon-Ōtākaro Network’s river clean-up day.
Envirohub volunteers also engage with the public using the Stormwater Superhero Trailer to make learning about stormwater protection, made fun with touch screens and 3D model games.
“It’s a great way to engage with community because often people are more encouraged to play a game rather than just talking about stormwater,” said Alder.
He is proud of the engagement the trust is facilitating, especially the submission workshops which encourage people to discuss and write feedback for proposals from the city council, ECan and the Government.
“Often the public aren’t aware they can actually have a say on what’s happening in their community, so that’s what we hope to address with these sessions.”
Alder said the most recent workshops for the ECan and city council Long Term Plans held at the Botanic Gardens kiosk were well attended and encouraged the community to discuss their submission ideas in person.
“That can inform our own submission as an organisation.” Envirohub aims to be the facilitator of communication between environmental groups rather than leading the pack.
The Green Drinks event brings environmental groups together every month for a workshops and presentations, followed by casual connection-making.
“It’s a great way to bring people in the sector together. You know, people have even got jobs or internships from it, just from being there and connecting with others.”
Envirohub has ambitions to grow its programmes and create more as the organisation expands. Alder says the trust are looking for volunteers, donations and sponsorship to support its expansion. Inquiries can be made at benalder@chchenvirohub.org
- To keep up to date on all things Christchurch Envirohub or to donate to the cause, visit chchenvirohub.org or follow them on Facebook at facebook.com/ christchurchenvirohub
