Environment

The trust is a member of the Sustainable Business Network, which promotes sustainable development practice (integrating economic growth, social equity and environmental management), and undertakes a number of initiatives to reduce its impact on the environment. Some of the Trust staff at the Colonial Cottage Museum before heading out to plant trees on the town belt Photo by Justine Hall While a number of facilities have taken their own environmental and sustainability initiatives in recent years, we accelerated this process in early 2007 by establishing a trust-wide environmental working group. The group’s first action was to join the Sustainable Business Network and to commission a full report on the trust’s current status as part of the “Sustainable challenge”. The trust and its facilities were found to be doing well in a number of areas and the feedback was extremely useful in helping us prioritise new initiatives. In a very short time, we have implemented new policies and practices that are already seeing positive benefits. We have now: Put in place a full recycling service at every facility. This means that 90% of total waste is now recycled compared with less than 40% before the programme began. Arranged a tree-planting day for trust staff, who helped to plant 1,500 trees on the Wellington Town Belt, to raise the awareness of our community and environmental responsibilities Made good progress on reducing the amount of copying paper used across the facilities; and Most importantly, raised awareness among our staff of their broader environmental responsibilities.

Some of the Environmental Committee at the Sustainable Business Network Awards night Energy use is another area of focus as our three largest facilities are significant energy consumers. At the Museum of Wellington City & Sea full climate control is required 24 hours a day, while full climate control is also required during certain exhibitions at the City Gallery Wellington where this is specified in the loan agreements. A significant effort was made to reduce the Gallery’s overall energy consumption during 2006/07 and this led to a reduction of 13.6% in the amount of electricity used over the year.  While there was a small increase at the Museum of Wellington City & Sea, we plan to install additional software so staff can manage the plant more proactively. Capital E’s slight increase during 2006/07 reflected increased activity including the biennial Capital E National Arts Festival: again, this is being actively monitored. As a result of these initiatives, the trust was a finalist for a trail blazer award (in the not-for-profit sector) at the Sustainable Business Network’s 2007 awards and was singled out for a special mention. It was also nominated for an innovation award for Capital E National Theatre for Children’s production of Paper Shaper, which has a recycling theme. The environmental group’s current tasks include determining benchmarks so we can continue to measure and assess our progress. The group will also develop new policies in areas such as waste management, energy conservation and procurement.