Council highly commended in EECA Awards

Kāpiti Coast District Council has been highly commended in the 2012 Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) Awards, held in Auckland last night.
The awards celebrate organisations and individuals who have demonstrated excellence and innovation in energy efficiency or renewable energy.
Mayor Jenny Rowan says the commendation, in the Public Sector category, recognises Council’s leadership in promoting and supporting sustainability initiatives across a range of activities.
“This award shows when it comes to sustainability Council not only talks the talk, we walk the walk.  I am very proud of the efforts of all our staff that have made this possible.  This is a national award and, with so many public organisations competing to be greener, effectively winning second place is extremely significant.”
Some of the sustainability initiatives mentioned in the Council’s entry included:

• Wood fired boiler. Council has substantially cut its operational carbon emissions through using a wood-fired boiler for sewage sludge drying at its waste water treatment plant.
• Ōtaki Pool solar thermal array. Council has installed an array of solar thermal panels to help heat the pool and has introduced other energy savings measures on site.
• Pensioner housing solar and insulation upgrade. Council has upgraded its 118 pensioner houses with roof and floor insulation and installed 44 solar water heating systems.
• Free compact fluorescent light bulbs. Council used savings from the wood fired boiler to fund the purchase of 49,000 energy saving light bulbs which were distributed to households.
• Ōtaki Library and Memorial Hall Solar PV System. In conjunction with Electra, Council has installed a 2.0kWp grid-tied photovoltaic system on the buildings to publicly demonstrate the technology, which converts the sun’s energy to electricity.
• Monitoring and promotion. Council tracks its energy use and has carried out energy audits on all of its significant facilities. It promotes sustainability through events such as the Greenest Street competition and the annual Sustainable Home and Garden Show, and helps residents with saving energy at home with its eco design advisor service.

Last year the Kāpiti Coast District Council won the ‘Local and Central government Stepping Up’ category in the Ministry for the Environment’s Green Ribbon Awards.