Nelson Research Institute Wins Funding

Friday 24th July, 2009

Nelson Research Institute Wins Funding Towards Regional Sustainability

Sustainability efforts in the top of the South Island have been given more than a million dollar boost through a government research grant.

Nelson based Cawthron Institute will use the funding from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology to work with local councils and community groups to foster change to help the region become increasingly sustainable, and will measure progress as changes are made.

The project also involves collaboration with the Sustainable Cities Research Institute at the University of Northumbria in the UK, which has worked for over a decade on the development of sustainable cities and settlements.

Sustainable Business Group Manager, Jim Sinner, says, “the project will target what is known as the ‘soft infrastructure’ of communities. By that we mean the networks and relationships that create the capacity of people to change the way they work and live.”

“Focusing on just the ‘hard infrastructure’ – such as the roads and public services – won’t get us to where we need to be. We need to advance understanding from ‘what needs to happen’ to ‘how to make it happen’,” he explains. “The issues we focus on will be chosen by the communities themselves.”
The research will be led by Dr Marg O’Brien, a social ecologist with over 20 years of experience working at the interface of communities and the environment, and Mr Ian Challenger, who helped to develop and implement environmental indicators for the Kaikoura community prior to joining Cawthron.
The project has strong links with four councils, district health board staff and community groups in Nelson, Takaka, Picton and Kaikoura.

Jim Sinner says these groups will help develop, test and then implement new techniques to achieve change and measure progress.

Cawthron is also a partner in two other new projects that received funding last week, which brings the total new funding for the Institute’s work to $2.7 million spread over six years.

The first is led by the Centre for Ecological Economics at Massey University, and will work with Ngati Raukawa and Tauranga iwi to restore and enhance coastal ecosystems. Cawthron’s contribution will be understanding and modelling coastal interactions to help inform resource management decisions.

The second is led by NIWA and involves improving stormwater management in the Auckland region. Cawthron will provide resource economics, also to help inform decision-making. This project builds on two years of work Dr Chris Batstone of Cawthron has performed for the Auckland Regional Council to estimate potential benefits to that community of improved coastal water quality.

Cawthron Chief Executive Gill Wratt sees the new funding for the Institute’s Sustainable Business Team as “a great vote of confidence” in our relatively new team of social and economic researchers at Cawthron.

“It will enable us to further build our capacity to help businesses, community groups and government agencies integrate and utilise science to build a more sustainable economy and society.”

ENDS

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