One of the top priorities for Eric Park as the new Sustainable Christchurch Leader was to take stock of the sustainability of his own organisation, the Christchurch City Council.

“The simple act of decisions on what sustainability means to the people of Christchurch, what it should mean to Christchurch City the corporation and how we should measure, evaluate and move forward are huge questions to which we have some, but not all, of the answers,” he says.

What is clear, he says, is that the organisation needs to be a model for best practice in creating a sustainable organisation. “That means getting our house in order.”

A small staff group, with the support of councillors, has started on projects that move the CCC toward the goal of being a sustainable organisation.

“We have the advantage of working with, and comparing ourselves to other leading organisations like the nine companies which committed to sustainable actions at the inaugural redesigning resources conference in mid-2000.

“We’ve made huge strides in some areas already, cutting Council’s energy bill by around $2 million a year and reducing CO2 emissions by 21% after appointing of an energy manager in 1993,” says Mr Park. “Sustainability is about doing things like this that are good for the environment, good for people and good for the economy.”

Sustainable Christchurch Leader

Eric Park spent four years in London as a civil engineer before returning to Christchurch to work as a consultant on environmental issues, specialising in contaminated site assessment and remediation.

“Moving up the pipe” from cleaning up spills to reducing waste and eliminating the possibility of spills, he become an environmental engineer with the Christchurch City Council.

By the end of 2000, following the redesigning resources conference of that year, the Council had decided it needed a person with specific responsibility for co-ordinating, initiating and nurturing sustainability in Christchurch. Eric began working in the role of Sustainable Christchurch Leader soon afterwards.

Two years later, he says he loves the enthusiasm people have for the sustainability message across the organisation and the city.

“People want to do the right thing and help save the planet. It’s exciting to part of an organisation that is leading the way, not only in New Zealand, but internationally,” he says.

• Natural Capitalism — www.natcap.org/
• Redesigning Resources — www.redesigningresources.org/
• Sustainable Energy Forum — www.sef.org.nz/
• Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment — www.pce.govt.nz