Local Resourcefulness
In a trend that may just catch on, some local café & takeaway outlets are encouraging coffee drinkers to do there own bit, and bring their own mugs. Mindful of the sheer volume of plastic plus polystyrene (although I haven’t personally had my takeaway coffee out of anything other than cardboard cups for the last 2 years) containers that are wastefully filling up landfills everywhere, some determined local business owners have embraced the new BYOC (Bring Your Own Container) scheme.
Inspired by the Transition Nelson Was Group, the idea is believed to be the first of its kind in NZ. I note a fellow Real Estate blogger also interested in what the Transition Towns movement is up to.
The local paper the Nelson Mail reports that Divine Coffee Roasters in Wakatu Square, and Tasty Buggers in Hardy St were two of the first to sign up to the scheme. Divine said “What’s the point in cluttering the town up with needless throw-away cups? This way everyone has less of a litter problem to deal with.” Meanwhile Tasty said “I want to see customers bringing their own containers in rather than seeing a stream of non-reusable plastic stuff going out from the shop and straight into the nearest rubbish bin.”
Speaking on behalf of the group, spokesperson Chris Ward had this timely comment “Both the environment and our pockets suffer as we are paying for packaging that we immediately throw away”
Also launched this month, under the banner “Think global, act local: Think Climate Change, Act Code Red” was a brand new community based website for Nelson.
CODE:RED has been developed by the Nelson Environment Centre with funding from the Minister for the Environment’s Sustainable Management Fund which is administered by the Ministry for the Environment. Extra support has also been provided by the Nelson City Council and other sponsors.
Code:Red is the Nelson Environment Centre’s carbon reduction rewards scheme and its charter is to heighten awareness and advance thinking regarding the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Ultimately the encouragement of action, via ideas and methods mentioned on the site “while supporting your local community, saving money and improving your health” is their overall goal.
Highlighting something I’ve posted about before the site mentions the attraction in harnessing what we have heaps of every day here in Nelson…..yes you guessed right, the sun. To quote the Nelson Mail 20/3/2009 article mentioned on their site..
Harnessing the power of the sun is very much on the agenda in Nelson at this moment. In partnership with council, Nelson Solar City has announced the next stage of the project with the launch of a pilot scheme involving 25 homes and businesses.
“We are thrilled to be awarded funding for the project from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) ($100,000) and the Tindall Foundation ($50,000). EnergyShift will equal that investment in the development of the Solar City initiative.”
Trevor Gray of the Tindall Foundation comments, “The sun bathes the earth in an incredible amount of energy; in one day enough arrives to power the world for several years. Nelson is world-renowned for its beautiful climate and high number of sunshine hours. We hope that by helping this pilot we can show how homeowners can harness this natural energy to help power the city and fight climate change and develop a template to dramatically increase the uptake of this technology throughout New Zealand.”
Certainly can’t say that Nelsonians aren’t a resourceful lot.
UPDATE – the number of businesses is growing, you can now take your own cup/mug to the following local businesses; Kush Coffee, Cafe Affair, Cafe Yazza, Hardy St Cafe, Chai & Yellow Cafe, & Nelson City FreshChoice. Kush Coffee actually offer a $0.20c discount to someone who brings their own mug.
March 25 2009 | Nelson | No Comments »
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