What a Festival!!
A huge thank you to all who organised events, led workshops, helped out and attended gatherings. A total of 40 events took place over the week, all led by community volunteers. It was a massive endeavour. Discover hereafter a small recap!
OPENING NIGHT AT THE SUTER – Attendees filled the Suter Theatre to see Common Ground, a film about our global food system. The film, which is a sequel to Kiss The Ground, is another enjoyable and informative film about how regenerative farming can be part of a response to climate change. The human stories, which reached across political lines, left one feeling hopeful for the future. The film was followed by a discussion about regenerative farming in Te Tauihu with Sol Morgan and Kerry Cleland, moderated by Debbie Pearson. Kerry left conventional dairy farming five years ago and was quickly drawn back into dairy farming, but this time for a regenerative farm in Mohua. Sol is another community treasure who is a great teacher on many topics relating to resilience and sustainability. He taught the seed saving workshop on Sunday, and is also leading the Farm Tour in Golden Bay today.
EMPOWERING SOIL WORKSHOP – This soil workshop has brought us into the world of our tiny garden helpers, or microbial world, that exists beneath our feet. Elliot has showns through low-tech natural farming means that it is possible to nurture and nourish these helpers to improve the fertility of our soils.
REPAIR CAFE NELSON – Nelson Repair Cafe was bustling for its monthly fix up session on Saturday.
REPAIR WITH FLAIR FASHION SHOW – Soroptimists Waimea put on a fabulous event featuring a group of creative and talented college students.
WEED EATING: THE NOURISHING KIND – Sally Rees was a superb guide to the top 10 most common edible weeds in this workshop.
SEED SAVING WORKSHOP – Sol Morgan led this session about how and why we save seeds.”An interesting workshop to understand that alone this work is difficult, but that through a well-connected community, everything becomes much easier.”
BIRTHDAY FOR NELSON’S FIRST MICROFOREST! – On Saturday evening, people gathered at Whakatu’s first microforest to celebrate its three-year anniversary. After three years, the Miyawaki method states that the forest can be left unmanaged. The celebration brought together people who were new to microforests and curious to see one and those from the Nelson Whakatu Muslim Association who worked many long weekends to plant the microforest back in 2021.
COMPOSTING WITH REX HUNT – “None of our kitchen waste should go to landfill.” Rex Hunt lives and teaches how we turn our food waste into great soil. He built a compost heap to show how simple it is to make compost in one month – as long as you stick to the 60-70% carbon and 30-40% nitrogen rule! He demonstrated a one-week old heap that was steaming and active.
BIKE REPAIR AND CARGO HANGOUT AT VICTORY – On Sunday afternoon, Greg McIntryre from the Nelson Bike Hub hosted a bike repair workshop for beginners. Fourteen local bikers showed up to learn more about their bikes and gain confidence in basic repairs. At the same time, a large group of local cargo bike owners gathered for a ride out to Victory Community Centre for a veggie sausage BBQ. The sun was shining and everyone enjoyed connecting.
WEBINAR: STREETS FOR PEOPLE OR ROADS FOR CARS? – Simon Kingham presented research and case studies into how we can make streets into gathering places with small interventions such as putting up a basketball hoop or park bench. We need better separated cycleways on main roads, but on smaller streets, slower speed limits can make them much safer for people and bicycles, he says in the webinar. Christchurch has transformed the Riverside Market area by removing the road, and it’s a great example of a change people might initially complain about, but then after it is implemented, people couldn’t imagine changing it back into a road again. Trialing new street designs is the best form of consultation, because people can experience it in their day to day life, says Simon. The entire presentation is online here. For a researcher’s detailed analysis of the benefits of investing in cycling, see Simon’s article in The Conversation here.
TALK TO AN ARCHITECT AND MAKE YOUR PROJECR CLIMATE FRIENDLY – Magdalena and Mathew, from Fineline Architecture in Nelson, generously donated their time to advise aspiring builders and renovators on their future projects. We thank them for that!
BIKE TO WORK BREAKFAST – Nelson City Council’s Biker’s Breakfast on Tuesday morning attracted an estimated 100 bicyclists of all ages who chatted, tried some bike gear and tasted all the goodies on offer from Yum Granola, Hattie’s Cafe and the Black Coffee Cart. This event was among our most popular online, yielding the most liked Facebook post (thanks Lucy Byrne!) with lots of great feedback and photos. From Viv Coaster online: “Thankyou for nice breakfast and Thankyou for the free gifts- the bag, the bag pouch, the safety belt and bell. I am using all items starting today on my bike travels to work.”
FARM TOUR – The Golden Bay Farm Tour Bus filled up quickly, showing the high level of interest in regenerative farming techniques. The Nelson Mail spoke with Sol Morgan before the event for this article previewing the festival. The bus tour was a great way to connect people interested in regenerative agriculture and to discover together the ways to farm while respecting the life of the soil.
MOTUEKA ENERGY TIPS – At Tasman District Council’s Energy Tips session, Dave Pullen of the NZ Home Heating Association shared advice on how to keep the house warm during colder months and at the same time keep the costs down. He reminded people they may be eligible for free or discounted insulation installation, and warned people to check their electric blankets and make sure that fire alarms are in place. Now is a good time to service heat pumps, clean the filters and check that nothing is blocking the outside unit. For those thinking about buying a portable heater, Dave’s advice was to choose those with fans, they warm up room more quickly resulting in less power consumption.
GARDEN POTIONS – At Garden To Table’s Potions event on Tuesday, participants learned about making gardening amendments to enrich their soil. They also learned about the great work being carried out by Garden To Table to bring education about gardening and food preparation into Kiwi schools.
MOTUEKA FILM NIGHT – The Motueka Community Film Circle was launched during this year’s Climate Action Festival with Once You Know, an honest and beautiful film about coming to terms with climate change. The interactive discussion following this sold-out event was heartfelt and enthusiastic. This is the first of a series, so we can watch and grow together in our community. You can follow us on Facebook here.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY WORKSHOP – On the face of it, circular economy is about reducing waste. But this concept goes to a deeper level, addressing a throwaway culture that incentivises us to consume much more than Earth can sustain. Bluemoth’s Lucy Byrne led this workshop about creating circular economy, attracting a strong crowd of Nelson professionals. She led a creative exercise in circular economy and shared useful resources for those looking to dig deeper into the topic. If you’d like to know more, contact Lucy at: lucy@bluemoth.co.nz. Thanks to Tim Cuff for the photo.
BUSINESS ACTIVATION WORKSHOP – Those lucky enough to nab a spot for Mission Zero’s sold out Behaviour Change workshop were treated to a fast-paced afternoon of tactic sharing and networking.
The event included an introduction by leadership coach and change management expert Jon Lasenby, plus a number of round table discussions looking at change opportunities within the business areas of procurement, transport, energy and waste, led by experienced sustainability professionals from across various sectors.
Key outtakes included the value of education (knowledge and data) and engagement (impactful comms) when it comes to driving change, as well as meeting people where they are and celebrating early wins for ongoing engagement. Attendee surveys reported demonstrable progress in their collective understanding of behaviour change concepts and confidence in being able to influence this at work.
Be sure to sign up to Mission Zero’s e-newsletter for alerts to climate action-related learning events for businesses in future.
FOREST BATHING – We were thrilled to have a forest bathing event in Nelson for this year’s festival, hosted by Maire Stream Guardian Anne Dickinson.
SYSTEM CHANGE – Peter Lawless led a workshop about Systems and Change on Sunday, helping participants navigate the challenge of affecting higher level change.
URBAN FORM AND CLIMATE CHANGE WEBINAR – Timo Neubauer speaks from international experience in urban design. He sees it as essential for an adequate climate response that we move to more compact urban design – higher density towns and smaller dwellings. He drew on research to show that the further out from a city centre a dwelling is, the higher per capita are the residents’ emissions. Timo points out that this doesn’t mean that very tall buildings are the most climate-friendly. The optimal urban form is high-density, low-rise with inviting walking and cycle paths and many green spaces. We must strongly resist expensive urban sprawl on to arable land or natural spaces. Councils must measure the impact of their planning options and match these to their carbon budgets.
“Councils tell us to drive less and walk more, but it’s just not convenient. There are certainly some individual actions but we cannot rely on a few individuals to get this right. We need actions to come through our councils, through our planning. Until we create an urban form that invites walking. We will keep driving.” The full webinar can be watched on the NTCF Youtube channel here.
PLANT-BASED EATING DONE WELL WEBINAR – Wondering how to shift to plant-based eating while maintaining your energy and good health? In this webinar, Kate and James at NTS Nutrition provide interesting and practical information about how one can shift towards a plant-based diet. Some brief takeaways: Protein is very important and you should try to get at least 30g per meal. Soy milk is an excellent complete protein food with all the amino acids (with a comment on the research about its estrogenic effects). Everything in moderation, even some processed foods are okay. And a quick tip on transitioning – “nail it in your own time” says James. A good way to start is to decide to only eat dairy / meat when you’re out. Plus lots of tips about great tasting plant-based products. The full webinar can be watched here.
FESTIVAL CELEBRATION PARTY – On the last Friday evening, we celebrated our event hosts and supporters who brought an effervescent energy to this year’s climate action festival. A memorable moment of the evening was a surprise “Do It Now” song, led by the gifted Debbie Pearson and James Moran. This was followed by another apparently spontaneous moment when Colin Davis stood up and performed his poetic Take The Jump song.
The Do It Now song from the party can be seen here (Thank you John-Paul Pochin for the video). It is based on an original Belgium version you can watch here. A huge thank you to Melrose House for the beautiful location and food and to all the hard working community members who have made this year’s festival a success.
