From Scouts to streams –building a workshop for the future

In the heart of suburban Karori, Wellington MTA member Craig Fair has used a blank canvas to design and build the greenest possible automotive workshop from the ground up.

Now he’s keen to share what he’s achieved, so others can understand the benefits.

On the surface his three-yearold suburban workshop, Karori Auto Services, blends in well, with native plant gardens out front and around the boundary, a front fence in 60’s roughcast style and tucked well back off the street is a weatherboard- style workshop.

Dig beneath the surface and there’s a raft of reasons and logic for the gardens and the low-profile setup. Craig wants the business to be part of the suburban landscape and green as possible.

“I have always been interested in the environment and when I had the chance to build a new

His efforts haven’t gone unnoticed, with world-renowned wildlife sanctuary Zealandia championing his work and inviting him to show other businesses what can be done in a pilot scheme called ‘Sanctuary to Sea’ (see page 18).

Craig believes with a change in thinking anyone can balance being a car nut and an environmentalist.

Scouts a lifelong influence

Craig puts his green leanings down to childhood experiences learning to care for the world around him and he’s carried that mantra through life.

“I went through Scouts as a kid, and I always had this thing for environmental stuff and put a lot of my ideas into the new workshop,” he says.

“When we built the building, the idea was to try and future-proof it as much as we can.”

On the list of improvements was a sump to catch run-off from the workshop floor to stop contaminants running into a nearby stream.

It quickly proved its worth, with the channel down the centre of the workshop capturing water and dirt when the floor is washed down, flushing it into two sumps out the front of the workshop where the solids settle, and the clean water is pumped out to the stormwater system.

“When we emptied it out the first time, we got 10 litres of dirty, oily water that would have gone into the stream.

“While it might not seem a lot, it wouldn’t be good for the stream and this is the sort of thing Zealandia are trying to get other businesses to help with in their

Sanctuary to Sea project,” he says. “When they saw the rubbish in the bucket that hadn’t gone out into the steam, they were absolutely stoked with what I was doing.” workshop I planned to do as much as I could to be as green as possible while not affecting the business,” Craig says. What Craig found is it’s not about changing the business, but a shift in thinking on what you do in the business. He still does the same work, building Ford GT40 replicas, and fixing cars from classics to EVs.

His way of thinking was just the type of thing Zealandia was looking for and he was asked to join a pilot project to clean up another waterway, the Kaiwharawhara Stream, and share his practices with businesses in the area.

Sustainability

“They told me there were 130 businesses on the stream and they are hoping to get at least 100 on board, and there’s around six others like me on the pilot scheme.”

Lizards and orchids

Craig also put in an EV charger as part of the improvements, an exhaust extractor, soundproofing insulation to curb noise pollution and the building’s foundations were dug deep into the ground to avoid it being too imposing. He’s collected rocks for the workshop gardens, which were purposely created to attract wildlife.

“I’m trying to get the lizards to come and live and things to attract the insects and invertebrates.”

And his efforts paid off; he saw a lizard early last year in the wood pile.

It’s simple things like that, or finding a native onion orchid in the garden that are signs to Craig he’s doing something good.

“They were growing on the site before the diggers came in to dig out for the foundations and I wondered if they would come back, and they have which is great.

“There are tuis feeding in the flax growing along the boundary and fantails visit the workshop to check things out as well.”

Cardboard and paper are recycled along with wood, metals and plastics.

“We don’t split it up; all of it goes into the bin and the recyclers split it up and it doesn’t cost us - we actually get a return, which offsets any cost.”

This coming winter there will be a new waste oil burning heater,

“It’s great to show what can be done, even with a business like this.

“I still have a lot to learn, I don’t know everything by any means, and I would love to hear from other businesses what they are doing and what I can do better,” he says.

“All I need now is an extra mechanic or two with the same mindset.”

Further community involvement is in the planning too. He hopes to have students from Samuel Marsden School in Karori come along and do lizard monitoring in the gardens, and maybe the addition of weta hotels at the back of the property.

CRAIG’S TOP TIPS FOR GOING GREEN

• It won’t affect your business; you can keeping doing the same work.

• It can have a positive effect on income.

• Think about where the run-off is going when you wash the floor down.

• Plant a garden if you have room. We have found customers like it, and it makes a difference to the local environment.

• Put in an EV charger - customers are looking to businesses who are doing something for the environment.

• Sponsor a local event like a stream clean-up, run a BBQ to support community environmental efforts.

he says, that is rated to the California Ambient Air Quality Standards (CAAQS),which surpass anything New Zealand has.

He’s in the process of making a press to squash oil filters and get the last of the oil out of them so they can go in the recycle bin.

All the thought Craig has put in has reduced real rubbish to a trickle and, he says, it costs nothing to dispose of it.

“We used to put out three 205litre drums of rubbish a week and often they were overflowing. Now we have a council green bin, and some weeks it is only a third full – and that includes rubbish from home!”

All the food scraps from lunch are composted and there is a worm farm on the property that Craig is in the process of getting up and running.

Do you have a sustainability success to share with members?

Contact gerald.rillstone@mta.org.nz.

About Sanctuary to Sea

The Sanctuary to Sea – Kia Mauriora te Kaiwharawhara is a Zealandia-led, multistakeholder project that involves mana whenua, local authorities, businesses, community groups and schools. It aims to restore freshwater and forest ecosystems in the Kaiwharawhara water catchment.

The project is a community-focused initiative with a 100-year vision of the ecological restoration of the Kaiwharawhara Stream catchment, restoring the health of the waterways and forest in the area. The catchment is home to various species of native wildlife such as tuna/eel, native fish like kōkopu, and the now iconic Wellington kākā. The Kaiwharawhara catchment is unique in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. It extends from Zealandia

Te Māra a Tāne to the Kaiwharawhara estuary. It is the largest stream system and the only catchment in Wellington City with an open estuary on Te Whanganui-a-Tara, the Wellington harbour. The 100-year vision for Kia Mouriora te Kaiwharawhara is that the water quality and biodiversity values of the catchment are restored, and the community are connected to the stream as it travels from the sanctuary to the sea.

Cat Ayres project Leader Kia Mouriora te Kaiwharawhara Sanctuary to Sea is stoked to have Craig on board as an ambassador.

“What Craig has achieved demonstrates the potential that the automotive sector has for making positive changes for the environment,” Cat says.

Creating Zealandia

Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne is the world’s first fully-fenced urban ecosanctuary, with a 500-year vision to connect people with nature and help native wildlife flourish in Wellington and beyond. The 225-hectare ecosanctuary is a ground-breaking conservation project that protects over 40 rare native wildlife species. It was founded by Jim Lynch, and his wife Eve, who joined the local branch of the Royal Forest & Bird Society as committee members in 1989. Early in 1990, Jim proposed developing a strategic plan that would be a comprehensive inventory of all the natural assets of Wellington city. It would describe how they should be managed and preserved for the future and was called ‘Natural Wellington: A Plan to Preserve and Enhance the Natural Treasures of Wellington City’. This document was the inspiration for Zealandia. Its theme: “Bring the birds back to Wellington.”

Sustainability is a growing field. The number of organisations employing dedicated sustainability staff is growing. Some of our larger members will know this.

Now, Oxygen Consulting has launched their fourth annual survey on the sustainability profession. Over the past three years, this research has benchmarked the demographics, core capabilities, and remuneration of sustainability professionals, as well as identified the barriers and enablers to progression and future growth areas in the industry.

Oxygen Consulting and their research partners invite those working in organisations who have sustainability responsibilities as part or all of their role to take part in this year’s survey. ‘Sustainability’ includes responsibilities to address social, environmental, and economic risks to the organisation.

The survey, as well as past research insights reports, can be found on oxygen-consulting.co.nz