Combined effort for Ecofest success

What began a decade ago as a small, student-led initiative to focus on environmental activities is now a highly anticipated event on the student calendar.

Urban planning and design students and ’Placekit’ planters Mia Bigalk Shanks, Etienne Baring and Lucy Rossiter

This year’s Ecofest featured a coordinated focus which saw a diverse range of activities from the various clubs and organisations involved.

The main attraction was themed around sustainability and the home, with the aim of influencing students to take ideas and apply them in their personal lives.

A model kitchen, bathroom and wardrobe were set up in the quad to demonstrate some simple sustainable practices like a zero-waste kitchen with no packaging, beeswax wraps to replace cling film, and how to make your own dishwashing tablets.

Working with Plastic Diet, a youth-led organisation dedicated to reducing single-use plastic waste and consumption, the bathroom workshops focused on practical initiatives like  how to make deodorant, toothpaste and body scrub. A clothes swap was the feature of the wardrobe model, proving particularly popular.

Other features included ‘Placekit’, a collaborative project between Auckland Council, the Auckland Design Office (ADO) and the University’s Grounds Management and Urban Planning students to fill the colourful planters on Alfred Street with pollinator-friendly plants.

Dr Lee Beattie, director of the Urban Programme at the School of Architecture and Planning, believes urban interventions like these are really important to the development of our city.

They remind us that our streets are fundamentally about people and not cars. They must be about creating opportunities for people to meet and interact. Streets are the basis of our public open spaces, linking us together, creating the urban fabric we want and desire

Dr Lee Beattie School of Architecture and Planning

He says if we really want to create liveable, walkable and sustainable cities and towns we need to encourage greater walking and cycling, and provide the opportunities for public transport to work.

“This requires the creation of high quality and well-designed buildings, streets and public realm, including the space in between them.”

One of last year’s most popular events, the ‘Your Future in Sustainability’ careers evening, was a hit again in 2018. The evening event, organised by Social Innovation New Zealand (SINZ) and the Sustainable Future Collective, featured key note speakers and stalls from industry and grassroots organisations in transport, civil, environmental and mechanical engineering, finance, architecture and electricity retailing, illustrating the options for students seeking to combine various careers with sustainability. It offered good networking opportunities for students and was particularly useful for the practical course requirements.

AUSA Environmental Affairs Officer, Alex de Guzman, said the support, assistance and encouragement received from the sustainability office was a significant factor in the success of the four-day festival. It also helped engage the staff community resulting in a multi-campus event.

Sustainability office engagement coordinator, Charlotte Blythe, said it was exciting to see the various campus-wide environmental and social justice clubs and groups collaborate so closely to make the 2018 Ecofest the biggest and best yet.

“Following hard on the heels of Plastic Free July, Ecofest was a wonderful demonstration of activities throughout the University and was a great credit to the team that pulled it all together,” said Charlotte.

Ecofest was a joint venture between the AUSA and a number of university environmental and social justice-focused student clubs, including the Sustainable Future Collective, Plastic Diet, Social Innovation New Zealand and the New Zealand Jane Goodall Institute.