Kaikōura

Kaikōura District Council is actively working to reduce energy use. Its own open-plan office uses the sea breeze rather than air conditioning for cooling during summer, and sensor lights in meeting rooms to reduce electricity use.

The Council is upgrading streetlights in the urban area too, switching to LEDs that are more energy efficient. This change will also assist the area's unique Hutton’s Shearwater birds that sometimes crash into bright lights while flying from their home in the mountains out to their feeding ground at sea.

One way we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a key contributor to climate change, is to use active transport to get around.

Kaikōura District Council is proposing to increase its investment in footpaths and active travel through its Long-Term Plan 2021-2031. Improving the condition of the district’s footpaths will encourage more people to walk rather than drive their cars. The Council also provides a charging station for electric cars in the town centre.

More efficient use of water is promoted through Kaikōura District Council’s Water Supply Bylaw 2020, which limits garden watering by non-handheld irrigation to two hours per day.

The aim of the bylaw is to protect the security of the public water supply.

Healthy ecosystems will better withstand climate stress, while forests and wetlands are carbon sinks – natural systems that help to suck up and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Environment Canterbury provides funding so communities can plant trees and take action to restore waterways, habitats and wetlands.

The frequency and severity of storms is expected to increase, in turn increasing the risk of soil erosion during these events. Environment Canterbury's Soil Conservation and Revegetation programme helps landowners conserve soil in erosion-prone areas through planting, mapping and planning.

The programme also aims to reduce the amount of sediment washed into waterways and to deliver long-term environmental benefits.