The Sustainability Neighbourhood|He Kāika Toitū, He Kāika Ora is an option to stay amongst it while living with Uni Flats!
Do you want to:
- Live in a flat where your mates care about the environment and community?
- Take part in regular sustainability learning opportunities (Hui)
- Learn more about how to live sustainably?
- Be part of research into how all students could reduce their impact?
Then the Sustainability Neighbourhood might be just the place for you!
In conjunction with Toitū te Taiao|Sustainability Office, we have carefully picked a group of high quality flats, which are all well suited to a small community focused on living more sustainably.
The flats will be set up for you to:
- Grow food
- Compost
- Recycle
- Be energy efficient
- Lead active healthy lives
Living Lab
The neighbourhood is set up as a “Living Lab”. This means that you will be piloting an exciting new model of student flatting. You, other students, and researchers will all be looking into what can be done. We expect that what we learn in the neighbourhood can be shared and have an impact on the student flatting scene as a whole.
As a living lab there will be a range of research activity happening across the year. All research will be designed to respect your privacy and has gone through an ethics process to check.
We want to share what works and look for answers to what does not, so there will be presentations, publications etc. about the sustainable neighbourhood. You should expect your privacy to be respected in all of these.
This is a relatively new project so you will be involved in how it is set up – you can make a difference.
Stay amongst it
If you got amongst it with “Green Your Scene”, the Sustainability Neighbourhood is an option to stay amongst it while flatting!
Do you want to:
- Live in a flat where your mates care about the environment and community?
- Learn more about how to live sustainably?
- Be part of research into how all students could reduce their impact?
Then the Sustainability Neighbourhood might be just the place.
What you should expect
The Sustainability Neighbourhood is the Otago flatting experience that you're here for, with the added layer of making an impact.
The Sustainability Neighbourhood is owned, managed and maintained by University of Otago Flats. Therefore, you can expect a high level of accommodation, quick and reliable service and well maintained flats – meaning cosy winters!
There is work involved in making a sustainable community a success. You will be able to share your values with others while doing your share of the work. This might be in the garden, part of an organising group, or a wide range of other contributions. You will also receive support from UniFlats and the Sustainability Office throughout the year.
How do I get a place?
We want to get the right people, so only applications from students who can demonstrate that they can support sustainability, be part of a community and are willing to do the mahi will be considered.
You will need to fill out the same accommodation application as other Uni Flats students, but we expect your commitment to sustainability to be exceptional, so please put as much detail as possible in your Uni Flats application.
Applying for accommodation – UniFlats
The fine print
Residents living in one of our sustainability flats have the same contracts and services as those in our standard flats. Just make sure to express your desire to live in our sustainability neighbourhood and tell us about your sustainable commitments in your application.
The weekly cost for 2024 is NZ$258. Included in the total fee is a fully furnished flat (including your bedroom), electricity, internet, bed linen, community events and the services of the Uni Flats Team.
Not included is the cost of food and other personal expenses.