Minister for Climate Change James Shaw will deliver the keynote address at this year’s Strengthening Communities Hui on Friday, September 17. The annual conference brings together three networks: Environment Hubs Aotearoa, the Community
Energy Network and the Zero Waste Network, who connect more than one hundred community organisations and thousands of
workers.
Executive Officer of the Zero Waste Network, Dorte Wray, said the organisations look forward to hearing from James Shaw
about how the government sees the role of community enterprises in delivering on our climate commitments.
Ngāti Porou scholar and scientist Tina Ngata will be the other keynote speaker. Tina brings a wealth of knowledge and
experience as a board member of Māori zero waste organisation Para Kore, as well as her research on plastics pollution
and waste colonialism.
“We see climate change as intimately connected with other issues, including colonisation, inequality, energy hardship,
waste, pollution and devastating biodiversity loss. We have practical, real-world solutions that address these issues,
and we want to expand our relationships with other groups and individuals who want to see this kind of transformative
change,” said Ms Wray.
Friday is the final day of the conference which is free and open to the public. It follows on a fantastic week of
speakers addressing the critical pathways towards a zero waste, zero carbon world with community-led solutions. These
include systems change to deal with organic waste streams, electronic waste and beverage containers and strategies for
changing consumer behaviour.