Blueskin Resilient Communities Trust
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BLUESKIN RESILIENT COMMUNITIES TRUST Blueskin People Power: A toolkit for community engagement A report to the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority Report prepared by: Scott Willis, Blueskin Resilient Communities Trust Janet Stephenson, Centre for Sustainability, University of Otago Ros Day, Rosalind Day Environmental Planning Page 1 Blueskin Resilient Communities Trust 31 Hill Street, RD 2 Waitati, 9085 Dunedin District Tel: 03 4822048 Email: [email protected] www.BRCT.org.nz October 2012 This document may be copied provided that the source is acknowledged. This report and other publications by the Blueskin Resilient Communities Trust (BRCT) are available on the BRCT’s website www.BRCT.org.nz Page 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The primary purpose of this report is to inform the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) of the outcomes of and insights from a community engagement process which was partially funded by an EECA grant. The engagement process related to the BRCT’s plans to establish a small wind turbine cluster, which was part of its broader vision of establishing an integrated energy community in the Blueskin area. We thank EECA for its support for trialling a specific set of community engagement processes in 2011-12 (as outlined in Section 3), and hope that the report will be useful to guide other communities as they seek to follow a similar path. Writing the report also provided an opportunity to capture the community’s journey over the past five years, over which time the idea of a resilient community has grown from a small seed to a well-established sapling. This report, and the activities it outlines, would not have been possible without significant support from individuals, organisations and funding bodies. We acknowledge the generous funding from EECA, DIA Lotteries, Hikurangi Foundation and the Otago Community Trust, as well as countless hours of effort from those mentioned below. The lead authors were Scott Willis, project manager at the Blueskin Resilient Communities Trust, independent planner Ros Day, and Dr Janet Stephenson from the Centre for Sustainability at Otago University. Senior planning consultant Andrew Henderson, at Boulder Planning (Otago) Ltd, provided review of key sections of the report. Intern Seth Gorrie from the Centre for Sustainability is author of a pre-feasibility report which provided valuable insights for this report. Staff at EECA, and particularly Hamish Trolove, gave invaluable support. Community officer Taryn Lane and executive officer Jack Gilding, both of Hepburn Wind (Australia), and Mary Dougherty, a director at Embark (Australia), were generous with information about the Hepburn experience. Past and present BRCT trustees and officers Lynnaire Johnston, PJ Clarke, Antony Deaker, Ross Johnston, Tony Wilson, Gerry Carrington, Chris Skellett and Katie Parker gave essential governance support. Janie Walker, of Janie Walker Communications, along with the Hikurangi Foundation gave helpful communications advice. Greatly appreciated assistance from Julie Cook, Jenna Packer, Antony Deaker and Luke Johnston contributed to the high standard of this publication. The study was supported by substantial voluntary contributions from Ross Johnston, Laurence Hay, Seth Gorrie, Barbara Johnston, Gerry Thompson, Therese Hailes, John Kaiser, Charles Abraham, Nathan Clarke, Steven Jenkins, Hank Rebmann, Leone Rousselot, Phillipe Gelis, Alison Gilmore and further BRCT trustees. Valuable advice was received from senior planners Debbie Hogan, Paul Freeland and Doug Spittle, from the Dunedin City Council Development team, and key technical advice and assistance was generously provided by network manager Terry Jones and commercial services manager Aaron Sinclair, of PowerNet Limited. Analyst Molly Melhuish, of the Domestic Energy Users' Network, assisted with information on and appraisal of the electricity industry. Chris Freear, of Our Wind Limited, and Lindsay Leitch, of WindFlow Technology, provided key technical and capital cost advice around the wind cluster development and senior lecturer Nicolas Cullen, of the University of Otago’s Geography Department, provided a peer review of technical information. Help and advice on developing the online survey was received from lecturer John Williams, of the Marketing Department, University of Otago. As always there have been many more contributions and we apologise if we have neglected to mention anyone in person. Page 3 Page 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................................................... 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................... 9 LIST OF ACRONYMS .............................................................................................................................................. 11 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................ 13 2. 1 HOW IT ALL BEGAN............................................................................................................................. 17 2.2 COMMUNITY ENERGY ACTION IN 2008 ............................................................................................. 19 2.2.1 Application to Sustainable Management Fund............................................................................... 21 2.2.2 Launch of the Blueskin Resilient Communities Trust ...................................................................... 22 2.2.3 Waitati Household Energy Use Survey ........................................................................................... 23 2.3 COMMUNITY ENERGY ACTION IN 2009 ............................................................................................. 24 2.3.1 WEP Insulation Retro-fit Project ..................................................................................................... 24 2.3.2 Wind data collection pilot ............................................................................................................... 25 2.3.3 Community visioning workshop ..................................................................................................... 26 2.3.4 Hikurangi Foundation ..................................................................................................................... 28 2.4 COMMUNITY ENERGY ACTION IN 2010 ............................................................................................. 28 2.4.1 Feasibility Study ............................................................................................................................. 28 2.4.2 BRCT revised structure and functioning ......................................................................................... 29 2.4.3 Field trip to Horseshoe Bend .......................................................................................................... 30 2.4.4 Wind cluster becomes BRCT’s flagship project ............................................................................... 30 2.4.5 Application for structured engagement process with community ................................................. 31 2.4.6 Public perceptions research commenced ....................................................................................... 31 2.5 COMMUNITY ENERGY ACTION TO MID-2011 .................................................................................... 32 2.5.1 Public perceptions research completed ......................................................................................... 32 2.5.2 Our Wind Ltd ................................................................................................................................... 34 2.5.3 Energy Project Forum ..................................................................................................................... 35 2.5.4 Democratising Energy Hui............................................................................................................... 36 3.0 STRUCTURED ENGAGEMENT PROCESS 2011-12 .................................................................................... 39 3.1 LOCAL PUBLICITY ................................................................................................................................ 40 3.2 ONLINE SURVEY .................................................................................................................................. 41 3.3 OPEN DAYS ........................................................................................................................................ 42 3.3.1 Aerial Maps ..................................................................................................................................... 43 3.3.2 Poster Displays ................................................................................................................................ 44 3.3.3 Vox-Pop Forms ................................................................................................................................ 47 3.3.4 Graffiti Strip .................................................................................................................................... 47 Page 5 3.3.5 Straw Poll ........................................................................................................................................ 48 3.3.6 Comments