Topics & Themes Environment & Community From a Hotel to a Home: Vision Waitakere Gardens Eco Village
From a Hotel to a Home: Vision Waitakere Gardens Eco Village |
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From the outside, Vision Waitakere Gardens in Henderson looks like an ordinary high rise retirement village. But on the inside it's a hive of community-led activity. Recently, I got to tag along with Waitakere City Council staff to hear about the changes that have been taking place over the last few years. Waitakere Gardens is currently home for 337 residents and they talk with much pride about the Eco Village they've been creating, and the actions they've been taking, from keeping organic waste out of landfills and in compost bins, gardening, and reticulating tank water. But it's taken some time and many conversations. One of the Village's resident leaders, Max Peers, tells how when Project Twin Streams Community Coordinator Wendy Claire first came to talk to villagers, her environmental ideas were pretty much rejected. After some initial reluctance, the successful community planting day was held on the stream bank backing onto the village - with families of residents joining in too, along with local Henderson Primary School. But it was after Wendy held a screening at the Village of Al Gore's film, "An Inconvenient Truth", that things really started to happen. A small group of residents immediately began planning what action Vision Waitakere Gardens could take to help save the planet.
Waste collection is now a real community project. From an initial 8 units, Peggy Lowndes and her collection team currently visit 67 units each week to gather food scraps and to see how people are doing. The worm farm, managed by Ken Thom and Sandy Matheson, produces much needed nutrients for the 90 garden plots which allow people to plant and crop the way they want to. There's also a communal garden led by ex-commercial vegetable grower and aircraft engineer, Les Dalkie, and the team. For a small donation, residents can take what vegetables they'd like from a communal table, with income re-invested back into buying more seeds for the garden. Les commented that reticulating tank water to the vege plots has worked quite successfully, noting that having water on site also provides residents with security for civil defence purposes. Here rain water doesn't just feed the rain tanks but can also feed the people if there's an emergency!
Max and his group want to see their Village as a role model for other businesses and retirement villages - encouraging them to do the same. They talk proudly of plans and their desire to keep building one project after another. In Max's words - "we're now prepared to open up the village for schools and other groups to come and see what we've done here. We want to inspire others to be eco-wise....we want to be the BEST village in New Zealand." Unsurprisingly, the Village received the 2008 BNZ Waitakere Innovative Business Award. Megan Courtney July 2009 |
Residents I spoke to said that as a result of lots of hard work, persistence and fun, Vision Waitakere Gardens has gone from being a hotel to a home. People talked about the talents that exist and the skill sets they've been able to call on - from authors, to poets, gardeners and engineers. It also extends beyond the environment, with residents participating in community leadership training at Sport Waitakere so they could teach exercise classes at the Village to fellow residents.