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Grad Dip students at Queenstown's biodiesel facility med

New education in the emerging area of Sustainable Practice is to be offered to people living in the Waikato and Auckland regions as a result of a partnership between the education focused Solscape Eco retreat in Raglan and the Otago Polytechnic’s Centre for Sustainable Practice.

People keen to learn about sustainable practice and the opportunities and qualifications available are encouraged to attend a launch event at Solscape on September 23 from 5-7pm.

The Centre for Sustainable Practice is a fast growing business unit of Otago Polytechnic which already has a presence in the Waikato and Auckland regions where it facilitates sustainable business programmes in partnership with local government.

The success of these programmes, and increasing demand for the newly launched (2011) Graduate Diploma in Sustainable Practice, has encouraged the Centre to offer short courses and full time programmes based at Solscape for 2012.

Centre Manager Steve Henry says the full time courses offered through Solscape will be the Level 7 Graduate Diploma in Sustainable Practice and the certificate in Level 5 Certificate in Sustainable Practice, depending on demand for them.

“These are practical, project based courses that focus on implementation of sustainable practice for communities and business. There are huge resources contained within the Centre.  It has become a collaborative hub for enabling and implementing sustainable practice in New Zealand such as biodiesel into the Queenstown community.  Our courses are project based and add real value to communities by bringing skills and expertise to local projects,” said Mr Henry.

Also on offer are valuable short courses in areas such as Social Media, Implementing Sustainable Practice, Sustainable Community Development, and Introduction to Permaculture design along with a range of courses that further community and business skill bases.

Phil McCabe of Solscape says he’s delighted to welcome the Centre and looks forward to facilitating learning in the area of sustainable practice.

“By partnering with Otago Poly’s Centre for Sustainable Practice we can offer recognised, tertiary qualifications in the field of sustainable practice right here in Raglan.

“Raglan is already well known as an environmentally aware and active community, and Solscape has been communicating sustainability messages and operating with sustainable practices for a number of years, so working with the Centre to offer these mainstream qualifications is a natural partnership for us,” said Mr McCabe.

On September 23^rd people will be introduced to the Centre for Sustainable Practice and encouraged to consider how they can identify practical projects and actions that could improve sustainable practice in their community which can become a focus for the courses based in Raglan.

Tags: green design, Permaculture, Sustainability