Green Businesses save money and create jobs.

12.00pm, Friday June 28, 2013

Green Party Mayoral Candidate Aaron Hawkins has called on the Dunedin City Council to offer low interest rates advances to local businesses to invest in energy saving measures & renewable energy sources.

“This is a cost-neutral way for the DCC to improve the bottom line of all Dunedin businesses. The advances would be repaid at low rates of interest, covering the scheme’s administration costs, while more efficient energy use will offset this by lowering operating costs,” Mr Hawkins said.

Adopting this Green Business proposal would not only send a clear message that the DCC were serious about supporting the local business community, it will also create jobs in the local economy.

“PricewaterhouseCoopers estimate the potential value of clean technologies in New Zealand as high as $22 billion a year. A scheme like this would be a huge incentive for light engineering and installation firms to set up shop here and employ Dunedin people”.

“This proposal mirrors the Warm Dunedin scheme, which has so far helped insulate and heat 325 Dunedin homes. The administrative systems for this are already in place, so it makes sense to expand the scope of that work instead of trying to reinvent the wheel.”

Mr Hawkins has welcomed the DCC’s commitment to creating a long term Energy Plan, seizing the economic opportunities and taking our environmental challenges seriously.

“We can’t wait ten years to be putting the Energy Plan into practice. This is a scheme that we could get off the ground from Day One. I am looking forward to working with the Otago Chamber of Commerce not just to help save their members money, but to create new members for them from scratch."

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