Greenpeace New Zealand Weblog

Akiraho Street April 2008 (C) GREENPEACE / TAYLOR

We’re cleaning out the inside of the building - lots of dirty work but we’ve had lots of good keen volunteers down to help so we’re making good progress and it’s not costing too much.

Primarily the building was chosen because of it’s proximity to Mt Eden Railway station (right next door), proximity to major bus routes, several on Mt Eden Rd as well as Symonds st and finally as the CBD, very close. Size was also a factor. Greenpeace NZ has grown in size over the last 10 years and continues to do so. The new building offers enough space to combine the functions of the campaigning and operational arms of the organisation and leaves a bit of room to move.

One of the best things about refitting an old building like this is that it gives us a blank slate to work with. We’re now in the happy position of being able to do some ECO innovation that was either infeasible or just plain impossible in our old rented space in Valley Road.

Here’s some of the things we’re trying to fit into the budget. Read more »

The new Greenpeace NZ building in Akiraho Street, Mount Eden, Auckland April 2008 (C) GREENPEACE / TAYLOR

Hi there, My name’s Rob Taylor, I normally work as a Greenpeace international action and logistics coordinator or project manager, I was asked at the beginning of the year to consider doing a couple of contracts with the NZ office. Now this suits me just fine, being based in NZ and having most of my work happen overseas always increases my carbon footprint and takes me away from my family, two very good reasons why I increasingly dislike going overseas.

Read more »

Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS), the technological poster child for the future of the global coal industry has just had its biggest supporter pull the rug out from underneath its feet.

With the Bush administration withdrawing its support for the FutureGen CCS project the future of the project and the unnecessary and unproven technology seems doomed.

CCS was the last hope of the coal industry to stay relevant in a world hungry for carbon free energy. The idea behind CCS is simple enough, as the carbon dioxide is released from burning coal, you capture it, and dump it underground and hope it doesn’t escape and end up in the atmosphere.

The problem is that no one has successfully done it on the scale required to halt climate change and no one can guarantee that the carbon dioxide will behave and stay where it was dumped. Read more »