About Community Energy Action

Community Energy Action is a Christchurch-based charitable trust committed to providing warm and healthy homes for all. Community Energy Action was established in 1994 and works throughout Canterbury north of the Rakaia. We are governed by a board with six voluntary trustees.

What we do

Our main activity is the installation of insulation and heating in the homes of all incomes with surpluses going to additional assistance for vulnerable people on low incomes. We also run a Curtain Bank which recycles lined and thermal curtains into the homes of those on low incomes and we provide free home energy efficiency advice for all households through our website and a free phone service. In our shop and through our website we sell DIY home energy efficiency products.

Our vision, mission and strategic objectives

Our vision is warm, healthy homes with minimum environmental impact, being accessible to all in our community.

Our mission is to provide householders with accessible energy solutions to achieve good health, good environmental outcomes and the relief of fuel poverty for all in our community.

Our strategic objectives are to:

Provide advice and education
Provide advocacy and leadership within our community and contribute effectively at a national level
Ensure relevant energy efficient solutions are available to all households in our community
Develop activities and relationships that ensure our ongoing ability to meet the needs of households in our community

Or in short:

Community Energy Action Charitable Trust - keeping our community warm.

How we fund our activities

Community Energy Action does not organise any fundraising. Instead we ask people to get their insulation and heating installed by Community Energy Action as surpluses from our regular work are used to fund the charity part of our organisation together with funding from other charities, the government and our loyal sponsors.

A bit of history

In 1993 Delle Small, a specialist in community development, Ian McChesney, an energy researcher, and Richard Cottrell, a Christchurch lawyer, developed and carried out a community consultation project with local funding from the Christchurch City Council, the Canterbury Regional Council (now: Environment Canterbury) and Southpower (now: Orion New Zealand Ltd). The project investigated people's home energy needs and the practicalities of how these needs could be met. The consultation confirmed the need for action on home energy and recommended three key actions: energy efficiency retrofitting through 'Neighbourhood Energy Improvement Projects' (NEIP), energy advice and focussed energy issue campaigns.

A pilot NEIP followed shortly thereafter, undertaken with Te Whare Roimata Trust in inner Christchurch. This was the first energy efficiency retrofit project in the country. It pioneered a community-based, DIY projects approach, providing workshops, technical help and training on home energy efficiency issues. The project was largely funded from a grant received from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA), with assistance also from the Hagley-Ferrymead Community Board and Southpower's energy advisers.

In 1994 Community Energy Action Charitable Trust was established with Delle Small, Ian McChesney and Jim Lamb (coordinator of the Beneficiaries Advice Service) as founding trustees. It began operating from the 'Bunker' (the old Civil Defence Headquarters HQ in Manchester St), kindly provided by Southpower. From here Community Energy Action developed its insulation retrofitting projects, home energy checks, hot water cylinder wrapping service and set up the Curtain Bank in 1995.

In 2000 the Warm Babies Programme was set up, providing subsidies for vulnerable families with a newborn baby. In 2004 the Elderly Health Programme was added to Community Energy Action's activities, providing financial assistance for retrofit insulation. In 2009 the Community Energy Action Discretionary Fund was established to help those in need of extra funding on top of government subsidies and not eligible for either the Warm Babies or Elderly Health Programme.

Delle Small served as a voluntary trustee until her retirement in 2009. She also twice served as Community Energy Action's coordinator during its formative years. Jim Lamb served as a trustee from 1994-1997. Roger Sutton (former Chief Executive of Orion New Zealand Ltd, now Chief Executive Officer of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority or CERA) became a trustee in 1999 and served until 2007. Ian McChesney continues to serve as a trustee and was its chair from 2002 until 2009.

Community Energy Action today

Today Community Energy Action is a professional organisation with nearly thirty staff, including six insulation installers. It is guided by seven voluntary trustees.

Learn more about Community Energy Action's trustees and management.

Community Energy Action has installed insulation in more than 17,000 homes since its establishment in 1994 of which 2,385 homes in 2010. Of the homes fitted with insulation in 2010, 70% were occupied by low income households: More than half of the homes we insulated (55%) were low income homeowners with a Community Services Card (1,317) and another 15% were rental properties with low income tenants (373). The Advice Centre responded to more than 3,300 queries in 2010 and the Curtain Bank helped 274 low income households with free curtains in that year.

Community Energy Network

Community Energy Action is part of a national network of community organisations called the Community Energy Network. We are working together to create warm homes, strong communities and a healthy environment for the benefit of all New Zealanders.

Awards

2001 - Joint winner of EECA's Energywise Residential Award for energy efficiency

2004 - Runner up in the Energywise Sustained Achievement Award

2008 - EECA award as top achiever for delivering subsidised insulation to low income households

2010 - Winner of the Community Category of 2010 EECA Awards (Home Energy Advice Centre)