Y - because we can!

A couple of weeks ago, we received a very welcome email from Anne Bennett, Manager of the YWCA in Hamilton, asking if we had anywhere to stay while we were visiting. One thing led to another, and I’m now writing from a room in their hostel just out of the centre of the city.

BTC meets the YWCA: The Be The Change bus parked outside the YWCA Hamilton, where climate saving activities are the norm.

The YWCA in Hamilton looks like a normal hostel. And for all intensive purposes it is a normal hostel, but when you have a closer look, you’ll find it is really pretty special, in a climate hero kind of way.

Like many of the people we have met on this tour, Anne and her team have been quietly getting on with the job of doing what they can, when they can, to reduce their environmental footprint.

Check out just some of the things they have done -
- replaced an old boiler and installed interior thermostats, time
switches and exterior temperature compensators reducing gas heating consumption by 25%
- The installation of movement sensors for lighting in public areas reduced their power bill by 10% alone.
- worm farms deal with the scraps from preparing 21000 Mobile Meals (and 7000 desserts!) every year, and its now virtually zero waste.

Mal checks out the worm farms at the Hamilton YWCA: YWCA worms get fed scraps from the preparation of 21000 meals on wheels every year

- A recycling program has halved the amount of rubbish bound for the landfill.
- installed a solar hot water system that will have a huge impact on their water heating bills. And are about to lag their pipes as well.
- Installed insulation, some energy efficient light bulbs and run efficiency awareness programs with residents

And they’re not finished yet. One of the next things on the agenda is a water tank to capture rainwater that often floods the carpark, which will then be piped into their toilet systems. And Anne is eyeing off more solar when it comes time to replace the hostel roof.

As she says “There's always more to do, and it's not easy to retrofit old buildings, but we've been part of this change since we installed our first eco bulb in 1999.”

Solar water heaters: The latest initiative of the YWCA Hamilton is the installation of solar hot water heaters on the administration block.

See, it’s about doing what you can, little or large. Reducing your impact starts with how you think about it. It doesn’t cost you anything to change your mind, not much more to replace a light bulb. The team at the YWCA made up their mind some time ago about how they would go about their business and they are now reaping the rewards in economic, social and environmental terms.

The staff are quite rightly proud of what they are achieving though now see many of the changes such as worm farming and energy efficiency as “… just an everyday part of our life and work.”.

They should be proud, and its great to know they have been duly recognised for their efforts with major awards for sustainability at both the Waikato and National Sustainable Business Awards.

A final word from Anne..“We've started on our own sustainability/climate change journey, but there's always more we can learn too!”

So to Anne, Belinda and the team at YWCA Hamilton – good luck and thank you for your hospitality, inspiration and all the little and not so little things you are doing to lessen your impact on the climate. It was a real treat to meet and stay with and we look forward to returning soon!