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Wellington after Paris – learnings for future resilience

Economate’s Nick and Katy attended the Wellington Civic Trust’s Wellington After Paris seminar. Experts including Motu’s Professor Arthur Grimes, Wellington City Councillors David Lee and Iona Pannett and Waste Minimisation manager Rodney Boys who presented along with representatives from Forest and Bird, Zealandia and many others to highlight just how a circular economy is key to future resilience.

It’s the concept of circular economy that makes schemes like Economate so relevant. It’s not just about making money, or working ethically and environmentally consciously. It’s about all of these things rolled together into a business that benefits all involved. The presentations highlighted how we as a society need to change our way of thinking. There is no room for entitlement, no room for dismissiveness. Waste needs to be re-conceptualised to be thought of as ‘material’ looking instead at it’s properties for use. Importantly we must all play our part, even if that is to act as an enabler to help others adopt more sustainable ways of living. That is one role of Economate – to help bring about behavioural change within both the education sector and construction business.

The greatest learning was that we simply must do as much as we can, as quickly as we can, if we are to reach the targets for climate change mitigation before the impacts become irreversible. and with greater number of wildfires, rising sea levels and extreme weather events there is no sugar coating this. Change must happen.