The Invercargill City Council’s Parks and Reserves Division has been named Southland’s Environmental Innovator at this year’s Environment Awards for changing its boiler to use waste wood instead of coal.

When the City Council’s Parks and Reserves staff cut down a tree in Queens Park or prune the bushes at Anderson Park, the branches and twigs may all become fuel for the new wood-burning boiler at the McIvor Road nursery. And the heat that it generates will warm the seedlings growing in the glasshouses – seedlings that themselves will be planted in those same city parks and reserves one day – it’s a beautifully circular relationship and a piece of innovation that could well be applied to other businesses looking to move away from burning coal in their own boilers. City engineering firm Fogarty Industries designed and built the boiler for the City Parks and Reserves Division, which won the award.

Thank you to Environment Southland for providing this information on the winner of "The Environmental Innovator Award"  sponsored by the Invercargill Licensing Trust as part of the 2011 Southland Environment Awards.