Helping Bay sports clubs

Club Captain, Huntly RFC Keiran Maka-Buisson and Sustainability Adviser at Litefoot Claire Keeling.

Commonwealth swimming record holder Moss Burmester is one of ten New Zealand sporting heroes leading the way helping local sports clubs save money and reduce their environmental impact.

During September, the LiteClub project Moss supports will be providing a free service to Bay of Plenty sports clubs.

'We have funding available to visit 23 clubs across the whole region,” says LiteClub Operations Manager Antonia Gerlach.

'Ten have already registered, which leaves us with 13 spots that are still available for clubs. Particularly in Rotorua and Kawerau, we still need a number of clubs to register, as we have funding tagged specifically for these regions.

'Spots will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis.”

Project Litefoot is an award-winning charitable trust led by ten NZ sporting heroes: Conrad Smith, Sarah Walker, Brendon McCullum, Daniel Kereopa, the Evers-Swindells twins, Michael Campbell, Barbara Kendall, Marina Erakovic and Moss Burmester.

They have been leading by example by making changes in their own lives to reduce their environmental impact.

Litefoot looks at electricity, water and waste as the three areas where efficiency can be improved. The goal is to reduce clubroom running costs, which frees up money to go back into what really matters - sport.

By being more efficient with resources, the club has less of an impact on the environment too.

LiteClub's field teams travel New Zealand in a van stocked with efficient products: LED lightbulbs, water saving devices, hot water cylinder wraps, pipe lagging and indoor waste sorting bins to help clubs with their recycling.

Over a two-to-three hour clubroom visit, LiteClub assesses opportunities for improvements and then makes them on the spot, transforming the club into an efficiency champion.

The clubs that have already registered for the September programme in the Bay of Plenty are Lynmore Tennis Club, Omanu Bowling Club, ARGOS Gymnastics Club, Netball Whakatane Centre, Te Puke Bowling Club, Katikati Rugby and Sports Club, EBOP Gymnastics Club, Ohope Bowling Club, Waikite Valley Squash Club and Whakatane Athletic and Harrier Club.

'Since 2011 we have already visited 93 community sports clubs in the Bay of Plenty,” says Antonia. 'Across all these clubs, the LED lighting upgrades and hot water pipe insulation are calculated to save and free up $478,649 over the lifetime of the products installed, and prevent 191 tonnes of carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere.”

'We have gone from spending $216 a month to $46 by simply working smarter and using a smaller container,” says Owen Enright from Kawerau Golf Club. 'We save around $170 a month and it helps keep our course clear of rubbish too.”

'The initiatives implemented were an eye-opener to all members. As a whole we're thinking about the environment and our impact on it through these simple strategies - not only for our club but also for members and friends,” says Annie Heke from Judea Community Sports Club.

Bay of Plenty clubrooms also had 426 waste sorting stations set up, to make recycling more effective and easier for club volunteers to manage. Simple water saving devices installed in taps and toilets will conserve more than three million litres of water each year.

At no stage do the clubs involved incur a cost. It is completely free thanks to funding from The Lion Foundation and NZCT and local funders like the Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust (RECT) and Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust (TECT).

Moss Burmester, an Olympic and Commonwealth swimmer, won a gold medal in 2006 in Beijing in his main event - the 200m butterfly. He has been making simple efficiency changes in his own life and has been competing against the nine other sports ambassadors to see who can reduce running costs and environmental impact the most.

'What I hope to be able to do is inspire others to do what I'm doing,” says Moss, 'even if it's only little things.

'LiteClub is great because it engages right down at the grassroots of the club. It gets in there and helps young people coming through to understand what sustainability means.

'Also, it's got the wider benefits of power saving, cost savings, and it gives back to the club so they can reinvest the money that's been saved back into the sport.”

Since launching in 2011, LiteClub has visited 1,264 clubs from Kaitaia to Invercargill and made changes calculated to save $7.4 million dollars for sport and prevent 9091 tonnes of carbon emissions.

'It's very worthwhile in both saving money, and the planet, and helping to educate members,” says Warwick Brew from the Otumoetai Tennis Club. 'I have since noticed discussions about how people can recycle more at home than they had previously bothered to, and more people considering LED lighting at home when replacements are required.”

'The programme is absolutely free for the clubs, including all products we leave at the clubs,” says Antonia. 'All we require from them is for a club official to meet us at the agreed visit time.

'On average, Bay of Plenty sports clubs save over $5000 on their bills after a LiteClub implementation.”

Interested Bay of Plenty sports clubs can secure a visit by the LiteClub team ahead of their September 2018 visit by registering at: liteclub.org/register-your-club

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