Citizen-blog

Read below this well researched and important call for action... and act!

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On the 28th of May the Government announced in the 2009 Budget significant cuts to environmental education and sustainability initiatives funded by both the Ministry of Education and the Ministry for the Environment.

The NZAEE Auckland Branch who coordinate Green Drinks believe these funding cuts to be short-sighted in the context of a global shift towards environmental protection and sustainability, and also reckless in these times of recession when education, training and upskilling is vital and community demand for support initiatives is intensifying. As a supporter of Green Drinks, we know that you will care about these funding cuts as well.

The 2009 Budget includes cuts to the following programmes and initiatives:

· The Enviroschools Foundation (who coordinate the Enviroschools programme nationally involving 670 schools)

· Education for Sustainability Advisory Services (EfS Advisors who provide curriculum support for teachers)

· Matauranga Taiao (EfS support for Kura Kaupapa Maori)

· The Environmental Education Guidelines Review Project (technical EE/EfS support for teachers in schools)

· Adult Community Education (provision of community-based life-long learning classes - ie "night schools" - which fund sustainable living skills courses)

· Householder Sustainability Programme "What's your next step?" (coordinated by the Ministry for the Environment)

· Public Place Recycling Programme (funded by the Ministry for the Environment)

· Govt3 Programme (coordinated by the Ministry for the Environment to deliver leadership in sustainability practices by government agencies)

· The Sustainable Business Network (part-funded by the Ministry for the Environment)

These are small funding cuts in a financial sense, but will impact hundreds of thousands of people across the country, as well as severely compromising New Zealand's own "Clean and Green - 100% Pure" global brand. NZAEE think it is simply crazy that a government who supposedly believe "New Zealand's environment is at the core of our quality of life, our national identity, and our competitive advantage" [National Party 2008 Environment Policy] and who care about business achievement and a knowledge economy, would go ahead and cease funding to programmes and initiatives that would make New Zealand a global leader in sustainability and safeguard continued trade and tourism advantages derived from our natural environment.

We believe it is time to take action and let the government know how we feel

As supporters of Green Drinks we know you and your organisations care about the sustainable future of New Zealand - our people, our businesses, and our environment. It would be fantastic if you would take some action to show how much you really do care.

PLEASE:
1. Distribute this message as soon as possible to anyone you know who believes in a healthy, prosperous and sustainable future for our people and country - family, friends, business leaders, neighbours, community groups, schools - and encourage them to take action.

2. Write a letter or email ASAP urging the government to continue to support these programmes. Please use your own words and make your correspondence positive, focusing on the what our environment and a sustainable NZ means to you, your family, your business, your organisation.

Send copies to the following people:
A. The Prime Minister. RT. Hon John Key, (Freepost Parliament, Private Bag 18 888, Wellington 6160
john.key@parliament.govt.nz)
B. The Minister of Education, Hon. Anne Tolley (Freepost Parliament, Private Bag 18 888, Wellington
6160, anne.tolley@parliament.govt.nz)
C. The Minister for the Environment, Hon. Nick Smith (Freepost Parliament, Private Bag 18 888, Wellington 6160, nick.smith@parliament.govt.nz)

D. Your Local Member of Parliament (Freepost Parliament, Private Bag 18 888, Wellington 6160, firstname.surname@parliament.govt.nz)

E. The BlueGreens - the National Party's environmental team of MPs (environment@national.org.nz)

3. Write to:
a. Your local paper
b. The New Zealand Herald (short and to the point)

4. Go and visit your local MP to discuss your letter/email. We all know that talking with people one-on-one can be very effective at communicating your message.

Thank you for taking action.
The Green Drinks Team & NZAEE Auckland Branch

Citizen-click contributed a new visual design as part of the re-launch of The Big Idea website project. The project coined “TBI 2.0” saw the site migrated and relaunched on the Drupal open source framework.

Winning the design aspect of the project allowed our Drupal theme-ing expert, Ben McNicoll, to put to use industry standards in social networking and magazine style website design. The site now sits comfortably amongst recognised global community based websites – being both functional and stylish in its display of vast amounts of compelling content contributed by both the community and editorial staff.

With around 20,000 registered members and thousands of articles, forums, and directory entries, few sites in New Zealand can compete with this new and improved community-orientated site.

As well as look and feel, Citizen-click also provided consulting expertise on a range of implementation issues, including media handling, SEO, and editorial content promotion functionality.

Highlights of the Drupal based site include:

• High volume of well presented imagery – which far better represent the creative communities output
• Allowance for all kinds of media inclusion - including video and audio
• Ability for the editor to quickly and regularly attract attention to new content, by placing content into a pool of rotating featured articles
• Multiple ways to access content, through navigation, searching, tags, and detailed filters.

The theme-ing work has involved taking all aspects of display into account, including giving weighting to some content over others, navigational style, advertising placement, and cohesiveness between home, sub-pages, and super-sub pages. Standards in display are now set by the website itself – allowing for a consistent and aesthetically pleasing look on every page.

Congratulations to TBI and the project team for a seamless migration and launch. We look forward to a strong and ongoing relationship with The Big Idea Trust.

The online hub for creative people The Big Idea is about to get a major design and technical face lift. The site, which is one of New Zealand's busiest online communities - it has 50,000 visits per month and a membership of 17,000 - is moving to Drupal and Citizen-click has won the work of designing and implementing a new look and feel.

The project was won through Citizen-click already being part of the online community. Additionally, Citizen-click is still one of only a few web-houses offering offering expertise in Drupal in New Zealand.

To read The Big Idea announcement of their TBI 2.0 project click here.

The 2-month project is timed for an early 2009 launch.

The Sustainable Business Network commissioned Borderless Productions to develop a review of how "Sustainability" has changed over time.

Two short films were produced and launched at the 2008 NZI National Sustainable Business Network Awards. The films feature entrepreneurs who have been influential in the NZ sustainability industry.

Embedded YouTube Film - Part 1:

Embedded YouTube Film - Part 2: