Who we are
The South Canterbury Eco Centre is a major milestone in the community’s sustainability journey. The centre has been created from a donated former sports club building, cleverly repurposed into a 21st Century building showcasing technologies like passive solar design, use of wool insulation and Marmoleum floor coverings. Along with the PV generation and heat pumps for hot water, and waste treatment.
The South Canterbury Eco Centre is well on its way to achieving the vision of creating a community space for everyone to come together and learn more about developing a sustainable future.
Our next step is to develop the landscape plan which is derived from permaculture elements to provide demonstrable edible gardens, local NZ native species, an outdoor kitchen and nature play.
Our history
Creating an outstanding resource like the South Canterbury Eco Centre has been a major milestone. A cleverly repurposed sports club building showcases the latest in sustainable design and technology.
Key milestones for the Sustainable South Canterbury Trust
2002 Aoraki Wastebusters was established
2004 Crows Nest opened, trading 4 days a week
2005 Changed name to Sustainable South Canterbury Trust (SSCT)
2013 SSCT leases the land for the Eco Centre from the TDC
2014 SSCT leases the land on the other side of the road from the TDC
2015 A planning day held formatting a brochure titled the “pathway forward”
2016 Publication the “Pathway” submitted to TDC for their long term planning
2015 Highfield Tennis and Bowling clubrooms donated for $1 by developer Kevin Pateman
2016 Building relocated to its site in 2 pieces
2018 First stage of build started (Dec)
2019 Crows Nest starts trading 7 days a week
2019 South Canterbury Sustainability Festival
2021 Building stage two undertaken by Colin Shore building
Nov 2022 Official Opening
The South Canterbury Eco Centre functions as a community hub
Since opening in 2022 the South Canterbury Eco Centre is well on its way to achieving the vision of creating a community space to come together and learn. Showcasing state-of-the-art technology alongside on-site demonstrations of low-carbon and resource, re-use, repurpose, recycle practices. A great space that utilises passive solar design, sustainable building materials like wool insulation and Marmoleum floor coverings.
With the latest technology – Photovoltaic generation and heat pumps for hot water, and waste treatment, the South Canterbury Eco Centre is being used by local businesses and educators alike to open everyone’s eyes to a more sustainable future.
In June 2024 the Trust celebrates 20 years of The Crows Nest reuse shop, as a focal point for diversion of household items from the waste stream to new users. Significant volumes have been kept out of the landfill and diverted recycles into new use before eventual recycling.
The South Canterbury Eco Centre was part of our ‘grand plan’ for most of these 20 years, but only possible when a lease on the larger area of closed landfill was secured from Timaru District Council and a potentially convertible building was gifted by developer Kevin Pateman, instead of being demolished. Two halves of this timber building sat on pallets for several years whilst the Trustees raised funds and John Rushton architects designed the new foundations, glazing, insulation, internal linings, and a central foyer area to connect the two halves, retaining as much of the old building as possible.
An educational landscape will eventually surround the centre. Initial work has focused on NZ native shrub planting and a concept design was commissioned from Jason Ross from Habitate https://www.habitate.co.nz/