Ministry’s priorities

Only practical community-driven environmental projects that directly support one or more of the Ministry’s priorities will be eligible for funding.

The following four tables provide examples of projects that would be considered for funding and those unlikely to be considered for funding, under each category. The examples are for guidance only and not intended to be fully exclusive.

Category	Encouraging sustainable households
Purpose	To fund community-based projects that target household decision-makers to bring about practical action and behaviour change in water use and conservation, waste minimisation, energy efficiency and conservation, transport, and building and renovating.
Examples	Likely to be considered for funding: practical initiatives that reduce household waste generation or disposal to landfill; particularly organic waste and electronic and electrical waste projects to reduce household water use community-based communal composting, recycling and gardening facilities direct advice to home builders and renovators to take practical action for sustainability practical initiatives to reduce car travel practical initiatives for households focused on energy efficiency and conservation projects that promote or support Māori household sustainability through Iwi, hapū, marae-based or other Māori organisations community capability building projects on household sustainability.	Unlikely to be considered for funding: costs associated with Environment Centres projects that involve the improvement of private land compliance with planning regulations making or challenging a resource or building consent application projects that financially benefit private landowners projects aimed primarily at schools or school children projects that are unable to be sufficiently evaluated.
	*Note:* You may find the Ministry for the Environment’s national household sustainability research on New Zealand public sustainability attitudes and behaviours helpful in developing your projects. It is available at http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/sus-dev/household-sustainability-benchmark-survey-feb08/index.html

Category	Sustainable land and water management
Purpose	To fund projects that contribute to improved land and water management practices, and directly contribute to practical rehabilitation or enhancement initiatives.
Examples	Likely to be considered for funding: communities developing and implementing practical initiatives for sustainable land or water management implementing tools that assist iwi to fulfil their kaitiaki responsibilities and play a proactive role in land or water management coordination of community freshwater management activities with councils and national sector organisations projects initiated by community groups to 'adopt a local area' for improved land or water management outcomes within their region or catchment supporting organisations developing networks that encourage community involvement in water management communities developing and implementing localised monitoring programmes to assess the state of their land, fresh water or coastal marine areas.	Unlikely to be considered for funding: farm environment planning (more appropriately funded through the Sustainable Farming Fund) purely awareness-raising activities that do not support practical implementation proposals that target a limited number of rural or urban property owners proposals that financially benefit private landowners.

Category	Supporting sustainable business practices
Purpose	To fund projects which build the capability of New Zealand businesses enabling them to deliver sustainable business practices at a strategic and practical level. This includes addressing issues such as sustainable business strategies, design and development processes, energy use, water use, transport, and waste management.
Examples	Likely to be considered for funding projects to build capacity of business to deliver sustainable business practices through professional development activities innovative projects to promote and develop the adoption of sustainable business initiatives within hard-to-reach groups such as: small and medium sized enterprises, rural business, and businesses of different ethnicity capacity building projects with existing industry groups, sectors or associations to deliver support to business on the implementation of sustainable business practices businesses educating consumers about sustainability issues including water, waste, transport, renewable energy, energy efficiency and climate change practical in-house capability programmes for businesses to improve sustainable business practices projects that investigate and implement effective ways of reducing and diverting priority wastes from landfill, such as construction and demolition waste, organic waste, e-waste and product specific initiatives practical projects which involve the design and development of new and innovative products or technologies which use a whole of life-cycle approach.	Unlikely to be considered for funding: compliance with the NZ Packaging Accord projects that are wholly or predominantly for the development of a website or toolkit commercial development projects that include funding to meet an organisation's ‘normal’ responsibility for the sustainable management of resources under their control.

Category	Meeting the challenges of climate change
Purpose	To fund practical initiatives which increase the capacity of communities to adapt to the effects of climate change and to help understand their vulnerability to climate change impacts. Preference will be given to climate change adaptation proposals.
Examples	Likely to be considered for funding projects that help communities to understand their vulnerability to the physical impacts of climate change adaptation projects that increase the capacity of communities to adapt to the physical impacts of climate change projects which enhance cooperation between communities to deal with the physical impacts of climate change practical solutions to the challenges that the physical impacts of climate change pose for urban living, including urban form, urban design and urban infrastructure community-level initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport that focus on providing information to people on ways they can change their behaviours.	Unlikely to be considered for funding: purely awareness-raising activities that do not support practical implementation projects which result in structural approaches to climate-related hazard risk management (eg, flood walls) proposals that financially benefit private landowners small-scale renewable energy projects carbon offsetting projects that might benefit commercially from carbon markets.

[ Previous|Next