January/ February 2017
January/February 2017 News
We are delighted to announce an exhibition of Climate Safe House work at the Gallery on Blueskin in Waitati from 4pm on Sunday the 19th of February. Make sure you get along to the exhibition opening to meet some of the people involved, or drop in during the following fortnight to look over the designs and ideas and to vote on your favourites.
The exhibition will sh
owcase the work from the partnership between BRCT and the Otago Polytechnic on the Climate Safe House and introduce the larger project. There are some really cool house designs. All student designers were asked to design a house that was:
- healthy to live in;
- affordable;
- transportable, so you can move with it if you had to;
- modular, so it can grow with your family, and;
- energy efficient.
Visit www.climatesafehouse.nz for details about the project. As you’ll see, we anticipate this project continuing to the year 2040 at least. In the present we also want interested residents who live in Long Beach, the flats of Waitati and Warrington Design, model and map by Sara Förg and South Dunedin to participate in a short survey. To do so, just follow this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BK5GDNS.
We also want to talk to you about your housing situation and view of what the future holds. Please let Kat know if you are willing to be interviewed and to share your opinion. And we are still on the look-out for people living on the flats of Waitati and in Long Beach who would value, at no cost, a detailed Home Performance Assessment. This includes an assessment of the house, a diagnosis of problem areas, and an assessment of options with prioritised recommended actions. Demand has been strong over the summer so far, and we’ve been hard pressed to get to everyone in a timely fashion, but we still want to book people in, so again, get in touch if you’d value a free Home Performance Assessment. Call 4822048 or email [email protected].
Like every organisation we had a bit of a break and time to ‘recharge our batteries’ over the holidays. Bit by bit everyone has come back to work and now we’re back up to our full team again and getting on top of all the work. A reminder of what we provide is below:
- Practical Services, including: Free Cosy Energy Advice; Home Assessments; Healthy Rental Certification; Affordable Firewood and Insulation; Carbon Offsets; Assistance to local food.
- Resources, including assistance (pro bono and sometimes financial) and loan of equipment to other community groups or initiatives that align with our values.
- Innovative Projects, including: Our Blueskin Turbine and Climate Safe Housing.
- Advocacy, from our experience and through sharing news, making submissions, giving presentations and being available.
- Key Support, for individuals and groups wanting to get things up and running, through advice, letters of support and networking.
From all of us at the Trust, we hope you had a good summer break and that your year has started well. Thank you to everyone who has sent in messages and support over summer and we look forward to another exciting year.
For Free Cosy Energy Advice local call 03 929 1323.
You can also find us on Facebook as Blueskin Resilient Communities Trust, on Twitter as @BlueskinPower and you can call the office on 03 4822048 or call in to visit and find out more about any of our work. Our office is located in Waitati at Waitati School, our website is www.brct.org.nz and you can contact us by email at: [email protected].
By Scott Willis