(front left) Rose Nahu, Tammy Kemp, Michelle Nahu, Rose Nahu, Kerry Mason and
Betsy Murray (front right).
The Rotorua Trust is contributing $8000 towards a programme to reduce costs at 14 local sports clubs.
LiteClub helps sports clubs reduce their environmental impact by saving energy and water, and encouraging waste minimisation. Run by the charity Project Litefoot, the initiative helps free up money for sports activities, at no cost to the clubs involved.
Sarah Macky-Dunn, Project Litefoot’s Manager, says the funding from the Rotorua Trust was highly important in enabling more clubs to take the steps towards energy savings and reducing environmental impact.
Their field team spends two to three hours at each club. Immediate changes are made, such as upgrading traditional light bulbs to more efficient models, insulating old hot water cylinders and copper pipes, fitting water saving devices to taps and toilets and setting up sorting bins around the clubrooms to reduce how much waste is sent to the landfill.
A report is prepared with recommendations on larger efficiency improvements, which they can then assist the club achieve.
LiteClub has recently been working with the Central Rugby League Club, and Sarah says it was great to see how keen people were to start on the project, to get recycling and save some money.
“Quite often rugby and rugby league clubs have older facilities and we are able to make a lot of improvements.” At this club, 52 light bulbs were changed, leading to a saving for the club of $8070 over the next eight years (the life of the bulbs). One hot water cylinder was wrapped and two metres of copper pipe-lagged. Eight bins were left for recycling. The total saving was estimated at $9081 over the lifetime of the products installed. So, with some support from the Rotorua Trust, LiteClub will be targeting the big, older clubs, which stand to make the greatest savings, freeing up more money for sport.
For more info:
Sarah Macky-Dunn
Partnership Manager
Project Litefoot
09-377 6792
Sarah.macky@projectlitefoot.org