June 2014

June is the beginning of that time of year when we think about our own warm and cosy homes – or how to retrofit them at least.  The Cosy Homes governance group is still giving away free insulation but unfortunately that promotion ends as we move into July.  If you missed out or were not eligible (for whatever reason) then do not despair – Cosy Homes is all about finding ways to help you get your home warm and cosy.  Keep an eye out for our next promotion. 

BRCT held its AGM at the end of May, it was sad to say goodbye to Katie Parker, who has been with us for three years and our Treasurer, Tony Wilson, who has been with us for four.  We have really appreciated their voluntary role for us as Trustees, and personally I have thoroughly enjoyed working for them both.  Fortunately we don’t completely loose Tony as he, along with Charles Abraham and Chris Freear are directors of BEL (Blueskin Energy Limited).  We want to congratulate Charles for stepping up and becoming our Treasurer. Lastly, we would like to extend our thanks to Andy Barratt who presented Dunedin’s “Our Food Network”.

 

Our own work on food is currently about a Blueskin Bay foodshed assessment, which has gradually expanded to include an evaluation of some of the retail and distribution components of the Port Chalmers and Waikouaiti food systems.  Being much larger settlements, they offered insights as to the viability of selling local food as a regular part of a functioning local food system.  This has brought us to the completion of the second milestone, being the food system evaluation, which considered what is currently happening in the area in terms of food production, distribution and consumption.  We are now embarking on the initial development of a framework and some suggestions of options (gathered during the community research phase) for our community to discuss (in an upcoming community meeting).

Finally, we are proud to announce the release of our climate change work, our report (see here) was received by the Dunedin City Council’s Planning and Regulatory Committee with no comment or discussion.

If you would like to find out more about this project or anything else that we do at BRCT then please call in to see us (we are in the old dental clinic at Waitati School), call us on 4822 048 or email us.