Environment centre co-ordinator

Katherine Hay encourages people to save resources and be more energy efficient. Picture / Amos Chapple

Name: Katherine Hay
Age: 54
Job title: Environment centre co-ordinator
Working hours: 10am - 4pm, some evening and weekend work
Employer: Environment Centre Hamilton Trust, other social, health, charitable or environmental trusts
Pay: $30,000 to $40,000 for 30hours/week
Qualifications needed: Environmental knowledge, experience or qualification, teaching experience
Career prospects: Corporate or government department community relations roles

What do you do?

My responsibilities involve administering the Hamilton Environment Centre and networking with both environmental groups and the public. On a typical day I would be in the centre dealing with people who visit or email inquiries or communicating with people working on different environmental projects.

But I also go out to talk to groups and do things like co-ordinating community weeding. I provide resources for the public and write funding applications for the centre and other groups. I work on contracts for the [Hamilton City] council, co-ordinate the walking bus for schools; take environmental education classes for tertiary students at a language school and teachers' college. I'm a member of the NZ Association for Environmental Education (NZAEE). I co-ordinate events like the recent Sea Week and the Bike to Work Breakfast. I raise awareness of local body political processes and encourage people to take part. I help people make submissions to local bodies. I co-ordinate an environmental programme on community radio.

Why did you choose the job?

I started my green days in the Junats [the Hamilton Junior Naturalist Society] so my interest in the environment was stimulated at a young age. I always had an interest in sustainable gardens and composting. As an adult I did a geography degree and I did one paper on environmental resources and just loved it. As an adult I found a lot had changed in the world since I went to school and the changes were important and getting more important.

Why is the job important?

There is a basic lack of awareness of environmental issues. A lot of issues are huge and people can't get their heads around them and don't know what to do about them. Community education is important because people need to do something. I have a strong conviction that people need to change their habits.

What's the best thing about the job?

Working with lots of really nice people who have the same interests and ethics that I do. I like that the work is challenging because we have a long way to go. I enjoy living in Hamilton with its gullies and walkways. The worst thing is the lack of government control on things such as packaging, solar power and automobile emissions. I'm trying to put out a message on a local scale but there are so many big issues that are not being addressed that I can't affect.

There's also the lack of awareness on how we should be treating the environment, and the fact that the centre is not sustainable, that councils are not putting enough funding in and I have to make a lot of funding applications.

What are your strengths?

Being able to have skills in quite a few different areas, including people and communication skills. You have to multi-task and be happy to take a lot of very diverse roles. I could be better at public speaking and I'd like to be better at approaching businesses and getting them involved.

What makes a good co-ordinator?

You have to be organised because you have a lot of things on the go at once. You have to have an interest in the environment. We've had some good projects lately. More than 200 people came to the Bike to Work breakfast and I hope that will grow. NZAEE took a trip down the Waihou River from the Blue Spring to Thames. It was by bus and included a river trip. There were people from many different organisations including the councils of the four districts that the Waihou flows through.

Where would you like to be in five years?

I've got no plans to do anything different because there are still challenges here. Hopefully the centre will be sustainable by then and I'll be working to make households sustainable and encouraging people to save resources and be more energy efficient.

What's your job hunting advice?

You do need to have done resource education, perhaps a degree in resource management. A lot of co-ordinators tend to be older because you need many skills and because you are working on your own a lot, which younger people often don't enjoy. A younger person could go into community relations in an organisation like the Department of Conservation or other big organisation where you don't have to apply for funding to keep your job going.