Former mayor powering up NZ's first climate action campus

Harry Truman famously labelled his Oval Office desk with a sign stating: ‘The buck stops here.’ While Vicki Buck reveals her desk also featured such a sign, this Buck shows no sign of stopping, not yet anyway.

"Yes, but [the sign] wasn’t put there by me," she laughs. "It was just people being silly. Actually, I think we get much more done by working together with a lot of people."

When it comes to running a city or a project of any scale, it takes many hands to make light work – literally in some cases. Despite being set to step away from her role as convenor of Christchurch’s Climate Action Campus, Buck remains focused on a plan to bring a solar farm to the site.

“I'm not quite retired yet! There are a couple of things I want to finish off including the solar farm.

 

“It will generate 300 kilowatts – which is much more power than we need with enough to power a major shopping centre, Eastgate, just down the road.”

Establishing such solar farms could prove crucial, especially in light of recent reports concerning New Zealand’s electricity prices.

“Rod Carr [Climate Change Commission chair] estimates we need three times the amount of renewable energy that we currently have. Even Christopher Luxon was saying we need twice the amount over the next 10 years, so that we can decarbonise the fleet and big industry,” Buck says.

“It’s terrible to say, but in solar we are way behind Australia. Putting solar panels on rooftops is really easy, but when it comes to solar farms I'm finding a few things need a wee bit of change,” she laughs.

While there is still some paperwork to be negotiated, a supplier is in place and Buck is optimistic the Climate Action Campus solar farm should be up and running by next year.

 

A satellite of Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery, a special character state school, the Climate Action Campus is based on the former site of Avonside Girls' High School, which sustained irreparable damage in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Underway from 2021, the campus effectively rose from the rubble and now covers a 15 acre site along the Avon River.

Offering a vast range of programmes, the campus provides a living resource from which students can learn about our natural environment and climate change. The emphasis is on action – ensuring the younger generation will instigate vital change.

PHOTO: Climate Action Campus

One of the earliest actions taken at the campus was to mount solar panels, Buck confirms, with panels also installed at Ao Tawhiti's city campus.

Few schools may be in a position to build solar farms, but many more could switch on to solar. Kiwi schools are perfectly positioned to play a valuable role, Buck contends.

“We have a lot of government and community owned buildings but they don't have solar panels. I find that weird! Schools have rooftops, connectivity to the grid and they don't tend to use solar power in the evenings, so they're in a position to do quite a lot. It's also a valuable teaching resource as well – you want kids to understand clean energy because it's going to be a huge business.”

Lack of funding remains an obstacle for schools, Buck says, but there is a way to overcome this obstacle.

“Schools seldom have money and they don't have a huge incentive to go solar because their operations grant usually covers their electricity. We've looked at a situation where a solar supplier will lease their rooftop, but instead of paying them in a discount on their electricity, which is the usual way, they give them a revenue stream they can use for whatever they like. That doesn't have to go into their electricity pool, the school can use it for learning support or a trip they desperately want to take the kids on, or whatever else.”

 

This is no pie in the sky promise; Buck confirms action is already being taken right in her own backyard with aims to create a community energy scheme involving schools in Christchurch. Another school embracing solar is Rangiora High, which is also working towards a solar farm as part of its larger 'future farm' project. 

 

"Rangiora has 32 hectares, which is very unusual for a school. Once we get all the rules and regulations for having solar farms on schools sorted, it'll be five times bigger than ours [at the Climate Action Campus].” 

 

Buck is not claiming to be inventing the wheel. The initiatives in motion in Christchurch have drawn on powerful sources of information. In particular, she credits Rewiring Aotearoa with ensuring New Zealand embraces an electrified future.

“There are lots of other people doing cool things. Rewiring Aotearoa has shown how sensible solar is economically as well as environmentally, and Orion and Ara Ake are starting a course for community energy initiatives, which is being held at the campus over the next three months.”

The campus solar farm is far from the only recent project still drawing on Vicki Buck’s energy. In effect since May, Trash 2 Treasure is another bright idea, benefiting construction companies and locals alike.  

 

"The emissions profile for construction firms is awful as is their waste and Naylor Love was trying very hard to reduce this. We've both gone out to various companies since,” she explains. “Very often it’s new material because they've over ordered on something. It's difficult to allow people on construction sites to clear it, so they deliver materials to us and people can pick it up for free. Recently, we received our biggest load of second-hand Bremworth wool carpet and bags of sound insulation – it was gone within a week!"

 

Street art adds vibrancy to many of the campus buildings PHOTO: Liz Kivi

Orchards, gardens, poultry, pest control, upcycling, recycling all feature at the Climate Action Campus as does another new addition, a street devoted to pollinating insects.

"We have most of a street we're turning into Pollination Street where kids can learn all about pollinators, not just bees,” Buck says. “That’s the joy of a place like this; it becomes a landing pad for all sorts of people and all sorts of ideas.”

Leading by example

Garden City ratepayers have received much from their Buck. First elected aged just 19, Vicki Buck became Christchurch City Council’s first female mayor in 1989.

"I discovered political science at university – I love having the capacity to do stuff. I tend to be reasonably impatient and not good with silly rules. I've lived in Christchurch all my life and there is so much good in the community. Politics gets a bad rap, but it makes so much possible – it's the means by which you can enact things and make them happen.”

 

Although Buck says she had many reasons for pursuing politics, environmental issues were high on her list.

Although identified as a major issue, climate change wasn't as talked about back when Buck began her political career in the 1980s. Since then, the evidence has become too clear for the general public to ignore. 

 

"I would hope so!" She exclaims. "It's become far more evident. These days you can't turn on the news and not see an event somewhere – there's flooding, fires, massive, much more frequent and much more disastrous weather events."

During a lengthy career, within and beyond politics, Buck has played a role working with various businesses looking to help shape a more environmentally-friendly world. Such efforts saw her named one of 50 people who could save the planet by the Guardian in 2008.

In the wake of the Christchurch earthquake, Buck was back at Christchurch City Council. From 2013-19, she began the groundwork that would lead to the formation of the Climate Action Campus.

"I wasn't loving what was happening in Christchurch after the earthquakes so I stood again and, during that time, we worked on the council’s climate strategy,” she recalls. "We had a hearing and a lot of students, some as young as eight, came along. As they spoke, it became clear there was a degree of real angst – they were almost saying 'you've stolen our future', and I can't argue with that. It was really powerful."

 

The first School Strike 4 Climate provided further impetus, Buck explains.

 

"When the strike was starting up, schools were saying students couldn't take part because climate change wasn't part of the curriculum! Here's the biggest threat they face and they can't take any action? That struck me as silly. So, I emailed the then minister of education asking if we could develop a special character school focused on climate change."

 

On leaving council for a second time, in 2019, Buck focused on the campus. By 2021, the green light shone on the campus' red zone site. Unfortunately, establishing it was far from straightforward.

“It was my fourth school and they never are!” Buck says. “But Coralanne Childs, who is in charge of the Ministry of Education here in Canterbury was amazing, as was Ao Tawhiti.”

PHOTO: Liz Kivi

Although the campus is operated under the auspices of a local school, Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery, other schools and members of the community are also reaping the benefits.

 

"We have primary and secondary schools involved. Initially, there were eight schools and it was established as a type of cooperative, which is quite unusual. Now, any school that wants to be a part can come along and do anything to take action on climate change. They come with their teachers and stay enrolled with their own schools. We have a range of programmes or they can do something they've decided they want to do. We also have a climate action fund so they can set up their own enterprises.

"I think there's about 40 educational institutions involved now, in one way or another, from preschools right through to tertiary.”

Children can be particularly ingenious, Buck adds. While teaching is its bedrock, the campus also benefits from giving youth a voice.

 

"This is absolutely vital because climate change is the biggest issue of our time. One of the best remedies for that feeling of powerlessness and inevitability that goes with climate change, especially for young people, is to take action.

 

"We want the kids to be able to take any action they can. You never know what's going on in young minds – it can be absolutely amazing – with ideas we've never thought of.”