Second-Hand September

Five ways to take part in second-hand September: 1. Choose second-hand before buying new. 2. Donate quality items you no longer need. 3. Repair instead of replace. 4. Swap, borrow or share. 5. Learn to service and maintain. Details here. Image: Auckland Council

Continue reading

Winter lecture 2026

Our winter lecture this year was held on the afternoon of 23 August at Kāhui St David’s, 70 Khyber Pass Road, Grafton, a Category A historic heritage place. About 60 people attended, enjoying the playing by Aleksy Kowalski of the 1905 Croft organ as they entered the Great Hall, then...

Continue reading

NGOs call for RMA replacement bills to be dumped

New Zealand’s largest environment NGOs – Forest and Bird, the Environmental Defence Society and Greenpeace Aotearoa – want to see the Natural Environment Bill and the Planning Bill thrown out. They say the bills are designed to undermine environmental protection in our country and would cause deep and lasting damage to...

Continue reading

Environmental reporting must lead to action

New Zealand’s environmental reporting system should not simply document environmental decline, it should require the government to say what it will do about it, says the Environmental Defence Society. EDS has lodged its submission on the Environmental Reporting Amendment Bill. “The Bill contains some genuinely useful improvements, but there are...

Continue reading

Update on Building One

Mt Albert electorate MP Helen White has met with MCERT officials to share her concerns about the state of Building One. She is considering drafting a members’ bill to make it an obligation for owners or managers of heritage buildings to protect them from neglect. “What is not acceptable is...

Continue reading

Urban trees under threat

The Tree Council is calling on the public to contact their local MP and ask them to vote against the Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill when it goes for its third reading in a couple of weeks’ time. The protection of urban trees, other than notable trees with historic...

Continue reading

Tackling water pollution

Throughout the year, Auckland Council and its community partners plant hundreds of thousands of native plants to protect and restore our waterways. A new trial on the North Shore in Wairau Valley is testing a Swiss-engineered technology to reduce sediment from stormwater ponds. It aims to lower carbon emissions and has the...

Continue reading