Palmerston North to host national healthy homes conference

Palmerston North City Council is hosting the national Eco Design Advisor Conference Workshop next month as the award-winning service celebrates its tenth birthday.

The Eco Design Advisor service provides New Zealanders with independent advice to make homes warmer, drier, healthier, and cheaper to run.

Palmerston North City Council is one of seven around the country with an in-house Eco Design Advisor (EDA) to deliver the service to residents through a free, two-hour home consultation.

The others are Auckland Council, Hamilton, Hutt, Invercargill and Nelson City Councils, and Kapiti Coast District Council.

“Residents who have followed through on our advice report that their homes are warmer and more comfortable to live in, with less mould and lower water and heating bills,” says Palmerston North City Council EDA Nelson Lebo, who describes the service as “the best kept secret in New Zealand”.

Last year EDAs carried out more than 2,100 home consultations and several thousand phone and email consultations.

Everyone who uses the service is invited to take part in a survey every two years. Lebo says the results are outstanding.

Survey results for 2015 show that 95% of clients found the EDA service to be useful or very useful, 88% changed their behaviour based on advice from an EDA, and 93% noticed benefits to their health and quality of life from the changes they made based on EDA advice.

The Eco Design Advisor Conference Workshop is at Palmerston North Central Library on 15 April 2016.

This year’s event takes a closer look at the EDA service, its origins a decade ago, and the incredible diversity of work that the current crop of advisors carry out on a regular basis. The day will include plenary and workshop sessions on a range of topics from home heating options to raising the standard of rental housing.

An invitation to attend the conference is extended to sustainability practitioners, health professionals, designers, architects, building professionals, researchers, local and central government officers, elected representatives and students.

“Anyone can come and get a taster of what the EDA service is all about,” says Lebo.

For more information and to register, go to ecodesignadvisor.org.nz

For more about Palmerston North City Council’s EDA service or to book a free, two-hour consultation with Council Eco Design Advisor Nelson Lebo, go topncc.govt.org.nz

ENDS

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