Profile - Grange Park Ave, Raumati South

Grange Park Avenue in Raumati South has entered the Greenest Street competition to get to know their neighbours better and enhance their sense of community spirit and belonging.

Residents realise becoming greener may take quite a lot of  effort, but consider reducing waste by using fewer resources is a worthwhile goal.  Some of the street sees ‘being greener’ as making choices about what to do without, while for others it is about doing things differently. A welcome outcome for all is saving money by using fewer rubbish bags and less energy in their homes and vehicles.

A major attraction of Grange Park Avenue is that it is a cul de sac. The first residents arrived in 1947 and watched progressive houses get built. There is now a mix of long-term and new residents, and lots of children. Though not everyone knows each other well, street residents are known to look out for each other.

The street describes itself as full of ‘normal’ people who have cars and bikes, work, watch TV and eat food that is not necessarily the healthiest. The Greenest Street competition is a challenge to make a difference and try to reduce their environmental footprint. It is a great way to share the knowledge, experiences and differences each can bring to achieve a common goal.

Visit the Grange Park Ave blogspot here.

Environmental Footprinting

Footprinting is a way of measuring our individual environmental impact and expresses it as 'Earths' - the number of planet Earths needed if all the world's population used the same resources.

The average individual environmental footprint for the Grange Park Ave team is displayed below.  They have nine months to work with their neighbours to reduce it.

= 3.6 Earths (as at January 2012)

Learn more about footprinting here.