Do you want to get Susd?

Hastings District Council (HDC), in partnership with Sustaining Hawke’s Bay Trust (SHBT), are next week launching their new household sustainability campaign to encourage Hastings families, neighbourhoods and communities to get Sus’d.

Sus’d aims to bring people who want to make a difference to their households, neighbourhoods and the environment together with Sus’d networkers who can teach them how to reduce their environmental impact.

Sus’d helps households make small steps towards big change – helping people get a vege-garden started, building a worm farm, bringing their power bill down, conserving water, shopping smarter, making responsible travel choices and reducing waste.

The Sus’d campaign allows participants to track their progress through a soon – to – be - launched website, provides information for how people can go even greener and encourages participants to spread the Sus’d message – Save Your Money, Save the Environment - to their neighbourhood.

To get the project started HDC and SHBT is providing FREE training to Hastings residents who want to learn about how they can make informed environmental choices at home and then share this knowledge with the community.

The project involves a course run over three days starting next Wednesday, July 15 for local groups and individuals who are keen to learn more about sustainability and share this with their local community.

Anyone wanting to join the Sus’d movement can email susd@hdc.govt.nz to register or request more information.

Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule says Sus’d is a community-driven project and both HDC and SHBT are keen for Hastings people to take the Sus’d ball and run with it.

“We see neighbours getting together and learning more as a street, families helping each other to set up a vegetable garden or community groups challenging each other to get Sus’d.

“The project has huge potential for making a real difference to our environment while saving us all money,” Mayor Yule says.

Training programme to focus on wellbeing for people and the planet

Marion Thomson of Sustaining Hawke’s Bay Trust says this training will be really valuable for all the great individuals and organisations in the Hastings area that make a real difference to their communities and the environment”

“The training will help develop understanding of key sustainability issues as well as enabling participants to positively engage others in identifying actions that can improve their own wellbeing and help care for the planet,” Marion says.

“You don’t need to have any previous experience in this area to attend the training. It’s more about having a personality that enjoys connecting with others, sharing information and communicating new ideas.”

As well as the specialist training, the campaign will be launched at an Information Evening on Thursday 16 July for others to get involved. All ages and interests are welcome.

The training and Information evening is free to attend and will be held at Hasting District Council For more information or to join the Sus’d movement, email susd@hdc.govt.nz or phone Council on 06 871 5047 or the Environment Centre on 06 870 4942.

Schedule
Training: Wed 15th July 2 – 5pm, Thurs 16th July – all day, Fri 17th July 9am – 1pm
Public Information Evening: Thurs 16th July 6.30 – 8.30pm