Waitoriki & Inglewood Crop Swap continues to put a smile on everyone’s faces, as a strong wave of community aroha is felt by regulars and visitors alike who attend to swap their backyard produce, seedlings and excess household products. One of the first Crops Swaps to be established in Zealand, it is still as popular as when it began.

Properly care for the clothes you already have. This sounds quite obvious but it’s good to keep in mind. What have you got already? Do you really need more? If you care properly for what you’ve already got, they will last longer and you won’t need to be buying more things. And if your clothes need some fixing, have a look at our list of shops that can help you out.

There are 178 other coffee retailers in New Zealand that have also implemented “Borrow A Cup” which are stainless steel, reusable cups that come in two sizes (eventually pint size for the keen festival goer…hint hint WOMAD), and cost $3.

Plastic waste is one of the main causes of pollution around the world. What’s the best solution to this problem? Reducing, reusing and refusing! We too often end up purchasing plastic that we cannot reuse, and the next best thing we can do is to recycle them. What plastic can be recycled will depend on where you are.

Taranaki has just hosted 3 Regenerative Farming workshops titled "Building Resilience Into Farm Systems" bringing groups of 24 to 35 together near Ōpunakē, Oākura and Inglewood/Koanga Moa. These inspiring and practical Workshops were run by Jules Matthews, a Regenerative Agriculture Coach & Educator with Integrity Soils.

This month our Sustainable Business Champion is TGM Creative, a family owned, local graphic design and marketing agency that recently celebrated 30 years in business.

Caring for the environment is not about ticking a box or following a trend. Making real, sustainable lifestyle changes to reduce your impact on the natural world has to start in the home.

Ngā Whare Ora Taiao o Ngāmotu provides support to households to undertake a wide range of sustainability improvements to both their house and their property, repaying the costs through a voluntary targeted rate over a five or nine year period. In the process, local suppliers receive work, the local economy, health and our resilience in the face of climate change is boosted.

One of the latest terms in the sustainable fashion industry is slow fashion, which is highly accredited to Kate Fletcher. But what is slow fashion? How different is it from ethical and eco fashion? And what is the difference between slow and fast fashion?

Together with Ōpunake Communities Kindergarten, Sustainable Taranaki is embarking on its new Project “Our Green Ōpunake Journey”. This is one of the four initiatives from the Curious Minds fund supported by Venture Taranaki. Curious Minds works with school and community groups who have questions or ideas that can be explored or tested with science.

Food event specialist, market gardener and garden-to-table cook, Maria Lempriere has used her past experiences as well as her passion for food and sustainability to develop an inspiring business model.

Darlene Gibson lives in Lepperton. In 2016 she and her family purchased 1.7 acres of fence-free land and a self-care house with shrubbery gardens. Thank you, Darlene for sharing your story with us!

Our Behavioural Change Project has just started its second year of implementation and we would like to share some insights about what year one was all about.

This April, we'd like to recognise the Bishop’s Action Foundation (BAF) for their outstanding efforts in reducing their climate impact by implementing a Response Map. We hope these initiatives will serve as inspiration and a template for other businesses to use in our region.

Taranaki TimeBank and Sustainable Taranaki are both working towards the same goal: building sustainable and resilient communities through conscious relationships. Our partnership unites us in our goal of creating connections for those who want to grow and learn.

Thank you to Claire Mullin, who is the first to share her family’s sustainable initiatives with us. Claire is based in rural Opunake. Her family produces their own meat and milk; they have pigs, sheep and cows; and are trying to reduce their home expenses by producing more of their own food.

It was a lovely Wednesday evening at the TSB Hub in Hawera for the second screening of 2040, filled with lively and interactive conversations with community members, who shared their enthusiasm in living more sustainably and proposed some great ideas to further improve our current practices.

Pine Forest consists of nine "totems of timber” made of H3 wood offcuts which have been discarded by local construction sites around Taranaki and collected by Rose. She gives new life to these misfit pieces by fitting them together like an intricate jigsaw puzzle.

It's been a positive start to the new year for the Impact project with the good news that we have secured funding from the Ministry of Youth Development for another year. This is good news indeed and means we can roll out the programme until July 2021.

Friends of Sustainable Taranaki, old and new, gathered to watch the screening of 2040, a positive stance on climate change and examples of how sustainable initiatives happening right now can result in a wave of potentially ideal outcomes for our future.