WAIHEKE SUSTAINABILITY CENTRE

Welcome to the Waiheke Sustainability Centre!

Waiheke Resources Trust opened the Waiheke Sustainability Centre in July 2016.

Our center is designed to promote sustainable living and community involvement. We offer a variety of resources and services that support a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle on the island. Moreover, our center serves as a hub for numerous community groups dedicated to building community capacity and protecting and restoring our natural environment. It provides a unique and welcoming space where people can collaborate and connect with the Waiheke community.

Explore Waiheke Sustainability Centre

Open Monday – Friday 9am to 5pm

BikeBox Waiheke

BikeBox is a not-for-profit do-it-yourself-with-help bicycle workshop for the community. People can fix, build and learn about bikes in a safe and friendly environment. BikeBox provides tools, knowledge and training for you and your bike. Open every Saturday & Sundays.

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Shop

At our center, we have an Ecostore refillery that allows you to refill essential items without the need to purchase another plastic bottle. Additionally, we offer composts, compost worms, compost bins, bokashi bins, and septic care products for sale.

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Venue Hire

We welcome everyone to make use of our facility for private and community events. The centre is welcoming, solar powered and a Zero Waste facility. Booking is essential.

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Events

Check out our events calendar to find out what’s happening at Sustainability Centre.

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Our Solar Journey

How we did it?

WRT’s solar journey started with a French electrical engineering intern Solene who did a study of our energy use and recommended we ‘go solar’. At WRT we know how to party so we turned our Chairman’s birthday into an international event with scripted videos, a live stream, fabulous food, music and a very special brew. Great volunteers, generous friends and our partners at Clean Stream Waiheke Ltd partied hearty and together we raised enough for a solar system. A total of $5,000 was raised which Clean Stream Waiheke Ltd matched, giving a grand total of $10,000 to go towards funding solar panels.

What’s Next?

We do not yet produce enough to cover everything for our busy days, such as Kai Conscious Café, or when people use the centre in the evenings or on weekends. But we can work towards this by raising the funds to complete the next two phases of our solar power journey.

Phase 2:

We are now looking to invest in an expansion with another row of panels, allowing the centre to be off-grid and completely self-sufficient, reducing our impact on the environment through energy savings.

Phase 3:

We will then be investing in a battery so that surplus energy generated can be stored and used on cloudy days or in the evenings, when the panels will be generating little or no power.

Once we have these essentials, we will look to install e-bike and car charging points, to help encourage and support the use of electric transport on Waiheke. If you would like to help us with these goals, get in touch.