Living Springs is a not-for-profit outdoor education and environmental centre on Banks Peninsula, near Christchurch.
Its vision is to be a camp within an eco sanctuary, where people connect with nature and see restoration in action. Each year it welcomes around 12,000 visitors, including schools, community groups, corporate teams, health camps, and volunteers.
Across its 420-hectare site, running from summit to sea, volunteers carry out planting, trail cutting, and pest control work as part of an ongoing effort to build habitats and restore biodiversity.
Just over $80,900 from the Community Decarbonisation Fund is helping Living Springs replace three petrol and diesel vehicles with a four-wheel drive electric ute and EV charger. For a site this size, it's a genuine workhorse: reducing emissions and running costs, safer to drive, and able to charge tools on-site, including high-use equipment like chainsaws and weed eaters. It also removes the need to store or handle fossil fuels on the property, and for a centre whose mission is environmental education, gives visitors a visible example of decarbonisation in practice.
