Our Community
Sponsorship
Paper4Trees
The paper4trees project is run by the Environmental Education for Resource Sustainability Trust (EERST). The monetary donation by Bayfair Shopping Centre supports the paper4trees program to more than 60 schools in the Western Bay and Tauranga, by funding EERST's visits to schools to ensure that they have sufficient resources to continue the project.
EERST works with each school to manage the recycling programme and organize the delivery of plants. The school works directly with the local recycling operator or centre, to arrange the removal of the paper. A number of rural schools are transporting their own paper for recycling.
Placing paper and cardboard in a landfill creates methane gas which is 21 times worse than vehicle emissions. The paper4trees programme aims to keep those products out of landfills and incinerators by giving schools support, assistance and incentives to recycle.
Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind
If you’ve visited Bayfair you may well have seen trainee guide dog puppies pounding the aisles and pavements. These outstanding animals are brought into the centre by their handlers to hone the skills they need to assist local blind, deafblind and vision-impaired people get around safely with greater speed, confidence and independence.
Negotiating traffic in the carparks, locating common destinations such as the supermarket, travelling on public transport and dealing with travelators are all part of becoming a world-class guide dog.
Next time you’re at Bayfair watch out for our local guide dog puppies as they progress on the path to graduation. Two stars who currently make regular appearances are Guide Dog puppy Pearson, a Labrador retriever puppy walked by Ted Joyce and Guide Dog puppy Farley, a standard poodle, in training with Wendy Isaacs.
Christmas Gift Wrapping Services
Every year volunteers come to Bayfair to help raise money for their affiliated charity and assist shoppers by wrapping their Christmas gifts.
For a gold coin donation customers have their presents beautifully packaged ready to give to their loved ones and know that they have helped a worthy cause along the way. In the lead up to Christmas in 2008, 22 groups benefited.
Should you wish to find out more about how you can raise money for your charitable organisation in this way, please contact bev.mckay@ampcapital.com
Safe Shopping at Bayfair
Police Information Centre
Ensuring that we provide a secure and comfortable environment for customers to shop is ones of Bayfair’s highest priorities. That is why we are pleased to announce the outstanding work carried out seven days a week in our very own Police Information Centre.
The Police Information Centre, located near to the ground entrance from the under cover carpark, was commissioned by New Zealand Police to provide support to the general public in locations such as Bayfair. Volunteers of the PIC now exceed forty in number and assist shoppers with a wide range of enquiries.
Handy Hints to Being Sustainable
Recycling at Home
General tips for recycling and avoiding rubbish:
Buy a smaller rubbish container for the kitchen. This makes you to remember to recycle.
Make sure bottles and tins are clean before putting in the recycling bin. This prevents flies both at home and the recycling station.
Reorganise the kitchen so it has an efficient recycling area with good sized bins to help with sorting and holding. This will encourage other members of the household to contribute and help share the work instead of it being reliant on one person.
Cutting both the tops and the bottoms off tin cans (and placing them inside) and squashing them makes them smaller to fit into the recycling bin.
Put a 'no junk mail' sticker on your letter box. You'll be amazed at how much this reduces your rubbish.
Spread the word. By telling other people and helping them to get started, we increase the savings that can be made. Also get your children involved – if we can educate them early, they will grow up and appreciate waste reduction and will be able to apply these skills in later life.
Shop Environmentally
Twelve percent of the weight of the average rubbish bag is packaging. Because packaging rubbish is mostly very light plastic, it takes up a lot of space - sometimes up to half of the rubbish bag. To reduce the rubbish in your rubbish bag, take a look at how much of it is packaging - by shopping environmentally you can reduce this amount. Here are some ideas to get you started...
Say no to plastic bags. Sometimes you need a plastic bag, but there are times when you don't. If you don't need a plastic bag, don't take it.You can also take your own bag to the shops - reuse plastic shopping bags from last time or buy some reusable cloth bags.
Buy products with less packaging or recyclable packaging. Buy economy sized products, concentrates and refills - these give you more product for less packaging. Less packaging means less rubbish.Buy products packaged in cardboard, paper, glass, cans or type 1 and 2 plastics - these can usually be recycled. Recyclable packaging means less rubbish.
Buy products which contain recycled material. For recycling to work properly, it has to be made into new products and we have to buy them.
Manage Your Household Hot Water Use
On average, 30% of your annual household energy bill goes on water heating. In some cases, this is literally money down the drain. Making savings on hot water can have a real impact on your household costs. Top tips to use less hot water:
Check your hot water temperature at the tap. It should be at 55° C. An extra 10 degrees could cost you between $25 and $50 extra a year.
Rinse dishes with cold water rather than rinsing them under the hot tap.
Stop the drips. Fix any dripping hot taps by replacing the washer or fitting.
Wrap the heat in. If your electric hot water cylinder and pipes feel warm to the touch, they are losing heat. Insulate them by wrapping – you can get cylinder wraps from hardware stores.You can't wrap gas hot water cylinders.
Ease the pressure. Around 80% of your hot water gets used in showers. Install an energy efficient, low-flow shower head and get a good shower without wasting water. This could save you up to $500 a year if you use a lot of hot water.
Shower rather than bath. Take a shorter shower. If a family of four each spent a minute less in the shower they’d save around $100 a year.
