Northern 

Labour list MP Su'a William Sio and Environment Minister Trevor Mallard is pleased to announce that provisional funding has been approved for three environmental projects in Auckland under the Sustainable Management Fund for 2008/2009.

"The purpose of the Sustainable Management Fund is to support the community, iwi, industry and local government to take practical action that produces long-term environmental benefits. The objective is to promote real community involvement and awareness of environmental issues," Trevor Mallard said.

"The Labour-led government is pleased to back our commitments to sustainability and carbon neutrality by supporting projects like this because we know that even small eco-friendly actions count. These projects encourage wide community involvement and promote practical action to produce long-term environmental benefits," he said.

"It's great to see our government supporting such valuable projects in Manukau and the wider Auckland region which encourage so many members of our community to take part," Labour list MP Su'a William Sio said.

The Manukau Enterprise and Employment Trust will target business sustainability with their ‘Food and Beverage Sector Environmental Organic Waste’ project. It has been provisionally granted funding of  $193,800 over two years to survey food and beverage manufacturers and processors and existing waste disposal providers.

"The trust wants to ascertain the volume and make-up of organic waste and to establish current methods of disposal. The project aims to identify new and innovative organic waste disposal processes to be adopted to meet the ideals of the sector group," said Mr Sio.

The EcoMatters Environment Trust is set to receive just over $307,000 in funding over three years for their  ‘Sustainable Homes’ programme.

This focuses on providing households with the practical skills and tools they need to reduce their energy use, minimise waste, conserve water and increase walking, cycling and public transport use.

Support, advice, information and encouragement will be provided by EcoMatters through one-on-one sessions in the home or through workshops. 

Children will also be encouraged to become more environmentally aware through the Urban Ecoliving Charitable Trust’s ‘Tread Lightly’ initiative which involves Enviroschools, Unitec and the Auckland City Council.

"The programme, which is set to receive $182,000 over one year, will supplement the existing environmental education that occurs through Enviroschools. It will be mobile and fully interactive and will travel around Auckland schools initially demonstrating what households can do to reduce their environmental impacts," Trevor Mallard said.

The Sustainable Management Fund is a contestable fund. Thirty-nine projects in total were provisionally approved for funding subject to the development of an acceptable project plan, with final approvals to be decided by about June.

The fund sits alongside other initiatives by the Labour-led government to promote sustainability, including the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme, and household and business sustainability programmes.

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