$35,000 of Environmental Leaders Fund grants allocated
11 Dec 2024
 |
| Pouto School received $3000 ELF funding for its project Ngā Kaitiaki o Pouto: Wetland Guardians. They are pictured testing water quality. |
Media release | Twenty-three Northland schools and early childhood centres are to share in $35,000 of Northland Regional Council Environmental Leaders Funding for projects ranging from ecosourcing and propagating native plants to a solar panel project.
Council Chair Geoff Crawford says the Environmental Leaders Fund (ELF) aims to support schools and early childhood centres (ECC) with projects that increase their students' knowledge and passion for the environment.
"As we respond and adapt to a changing climate, these projects will help to build climate resilience in our schools and surrounding communities."
Chair Crawford says schools and ECC can apply for up to $3000 each in categories including exploring alternative energy and sustainable transport, improving biodiversity, supporting a circular economy and reducing waste, protecting and preserving water and growing kai.
In total schools had applied for $96,898 in ELF grants, almost three times the available funding.
Successful applicants, their project name and the amount granted are:
- Arapohue School, Bin It! $1500
- Bay of Islands International Academy, Food forest for everyone - Kai Ngahengahe Uru Kahika, $1500
- Dargaville Intermediate School, Solar Innovators, $3000
- Educare Totara Park, Giving Back, $1500
- Kaikohe Christian School, Thorpe Rd Wetland Restoration, $1500
- Kaiwaka School, Our Rongoā Garden, $1500
- Maromaku School, Growing our Mara Kai, $2899
- Maungaturoto Primary School, Maungaturoto School & Community Garden: Growing Together, $3000
- New Shoots Childcare Kerikeri, Growing our own Kai, $1000
- Nga Tamariki o Te Tai Ao, Maara Kai, $2200
- One Tree Point School, Garden to Table, $1500
- Opononi Area School, Food Waste Prevention, $1142
- Oromahoe School, Ecosourcing and propagating native plants, $1000
- Parua Bay School, Solar Panel project, $1500
- Pouto School, Ngā Kaitiaki o Pouto: Wetland Guardians, $3000Riverview School, ‘Roots to Resilience’ Rebuilding our Māra Kai, $1000
- Ruakākā School, Ruakākā School Eco Warriors Compost Project, $1500
- Springbank School, Food Forest, $1500
- Tangiteroria School, Community Mahi - capturing the collaborative effort and the work involved in the project, $2000
- Tauraroa Area School, The Joy of Composting, $700
- Te Hapua School, Native planting and Food forest diversity, $3000
- The Ridge Childcare, Feed Our Mara Kai, $1277.51
- Whangārei Girls High School, Manse St Restoration Project, $1500.
print this story
Fifth new petroleum application targets Taranaki
Wed 8 Jul 2026
Media release: New Zealand Government | An application targeting frontier deepwater in the Taranaki Basin marks the fifth permit application to prospect or explore for petroleum since the removal of the exploration ban, Resources Minister Shane Jones says.
Government supporting Wairarapa farmers after heavy rain
Mon 6 Jul 2026
Media release | The Government is working closely with farmers and rural communities in the Wairarapa to assess the impacts of recent heavy rain, which has damaged local roads and bridges and caused significant erosion on hillside farms.
Tarakihi on verge of extinction: Stock collapse exposes major fisheries management failings
3 Jul 2026
Media release: Environmental Defence Society | Fisheries NZ is consulting on new sustainability measures for the country’s two tarakihi stocks.
New report sounds alarm on risks of unregulated radioactivity from deep-sea mining
3 Jul 2026
Media release | A groundbreaking scientific report released today by the Deep Sea Mining Campaign exposes a critical, unaddressed threat to global ocean health: the mobilisation of naturally occurring radioactive materials by proposed deep sea mining operations.
Next Govt must restart action on plastic pollution
1 Jul 2026
Media release - Zero Waste Aotearoa | Plastic Free July begins with an urgent call to put plastic pollution back on the political agenda. Plastic Free July is a worldwide campaign to reduce plastic waste and eliminate single use plastics.
Fed Farmers back National’s plan to slash solar red tape
30 Jun 2026
Media release | Federated Farmers says the National Party's commitment to make small-scale solar projects a permitted activity is exactly the commonsense farmers need.
What whale poo reveals about survival in warming seas
30 Jun 2026
Media release: University of Auckland | During his morning runs, Rod Keogh had no doubt that the whale poo he saw washed up on the beach had value. Science has finally caught up with him.
The Reality of Everything: A sold-out symposium at VUW
25 Jun 2026
Media release: Victoria University of Wellington | What do rising grocery bills, soaring insurance premiums, food producers under pressure, and growing international instability have in common? According to organisers of The Reality of Everything Symposium in Wellington, they are all part of a much bigger story – one that New Zealanders urgently want to understand.
New map highlights mining threat associated with controversial conservation reforms: Greenpeace
24 Jun 2026
Media release | Greenpeace has launched an interactive online map exposing the overlap between known deposits of minerals the Government has deemed "critical" and the public conservation land that would be easier to sell off and exploit under the Government's Conservation Amendment Bill.
Sustainability profession ‘comes of age’ – but pressure remains beneath the surface
24 Jun 2026
Media release: Sustainable Business Council | New research shows the sustainability profession in Aotearoa New Zealand has firmly established itself at the centre of business strategy – but ongoing pressures around capability, career pathways and pay are threatening to stall its progress.
