30 July 2008
What’s big, green, has eight wheels and is powered by three alternative sources? It’s the Green RIG (Regional Information 2 Go), the Horizons Regional Council’s mobile environmental education unit.
The Green RIG is an interactive learning centre that visits schools and communities in the Manawatu-Wanganui region educating the public about living more sustainably.
The RIG’s on-board interactive exhibits and displays centre on the key themes of water, land and habitats. Visitors learn about the environmental challenges facing the Manawatu-Wanganui region and the positives changes they can make in their lives to live more sustainably.
The RIG comes complete with an interactive Environmental Scene Investigators (ESI) Lab, which hosts outdoor classroom activities, such as a Streamulator stream and erosion table. It also features the latest in technology, including LCD and touchscreens, satellite broadband and a video microscope.
The Green RIG aims to get people thinking about their behaviour and to come up with their own ideas about how they can live more sustainably. Helen Brown, an environmental educator with the Green RIG, said: “It’s all the small things that really add up to an overall change in people’s behaviour”.
The RIG itself sets a good example by creating as little environmental impact as possible. It is powered partly by eight roof-mounted solar panels, which store energy in onboard batteries, and has energy efficient onboard electronics.
The RIG also uses as few resources as possible, through careful energy use and product choice. All the carbon it produces is offset through native tree planting. The positive role the RIG plays in raising environmental awareness has been acknowledged through the presentation of a Green Ribbon Award earlier this year.
In a crisis, the Green RIG can also play another role, that of a disaster relief centre. In the event of a major civil defence emergency, the RIG can provide independent power, communications and shelter to help co-ordinate a relief effort. It has the ability to reach isolated regions or areas where an emergency operations centre has been damaged.
For more information about the Green RIG, and to see when it’ll be near you, check out its very own website.
