Funders | 20 Degrees

Funding Partners

20 Degrees has one of the largest collaborative funding efforts in the Bay of Plenty's History

We are proud to have supported more than 1800 Whānau across the Bay over the last three years. While we still have a long way to go, this impact wouldn’t have been possible without the collaboration and support of our funders.

We hope that with increasing collaboration and funding partners, 20 Degrees will be able to help all whānau living in unhealthy housing conditions across the Bay of Plenty.

Hear From Our Funders

Rotorua Trust

Tony Gill - Trust Manager

"With a history founded on energy solutions, the Rotorua Trust has supported the warming of Rotorua households for many years. While funding used to focus on insulating as many needy households as possible, the Sustainability Options model has taken this to another, more impactful, level.

Ensuring households achieve a minimum 20-degree temperature in winter, often through multiple engagements, means that every dollar invested with Sustainability Options helps deliver ongoing health and wellness benefits for our Rotorua whanau.

We respect and support the Sustainability Options kaupapa and acknowledge the hands-on role they play in helping deliver a better Rotorua for all."

Trust Horizon

Derek Caudwell - Trust Manager

"Trust Horizon saw the project’s success in Rotorua and Tauranga, and approached Sustainability Options with the idea to extend it with energy monitoring and apply for Government funding. The approach takes some of the company’s other fantastic work in community energy education, and delivers it here in the Eastern Bay.

Warm and dry homes are fundamental to better health and wellbeing outcomes for whanau. But while major insulation in the district is funded by the government and Trust Horizon, there’s unfortunately a lack of funding for minor issues – like broken windows – which can have a big impact on a home’s energy efficiency. The 20 Degrees project fills the gap in funding for those small repairs, with the goal of getting a home to the position where it can sustain 20 Degrees on a cold winter’s night."

Western Bay of Plenty District Council

Jodie Rickard - Senior Policy Analyst

"We’re committed to a vision where every resident in the Western Bay is well housed – and that includes living in a warm, dry and healthy home. We know that a healthy home is the foundation for better overall wellbeing for our communities, and it’s what we have been working toward since 2014.

The value of working with our Twenty Degrees partners it that our communities get the most value from every dollar spent, and we can achieve even better outcomes when we work together."

TECT

Laura Thomson-Bache - Marketing and Communications Manager

"Here at TECT, we work to support a thriving, caring, connected community through our funding. But a thriving community is not possible while so many people are living in homes that are cold and damp due to reasons out of their control. Older housing, minimum building standards, poor practices and materials along with deferred maintenance, should not be reasons people cannot live healthy, happy lives. For this reason we were keen to be part of a collaborative funding partnership that could have a significant impact on the health outcomes of our community.

We hope that over the next three years of the 20 Degrees programme’s rollout, we can see real change in our community and the groundwork being done by our partners Sustainability Options will attract other funding to further enhance programme outcomes. We are already hearing the stories of families and individuals health improving and lives changed, because these people now live in a healthy home. We look forward to hearing more of these stories as the incredible team at 20 Degrees work to make a real difference to our housing stock, but more importantly, people’s lives."

Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora

Sarah Stevenson - Portfolio Manager (Population and Women's Health)

"The link between housing and health is well researched. Increasingly we are growing in our understanding of how healthy homes can positively impact personal health. Over the past 7 years, the BOPDHB has supported the Healthy Homes Initiative and its commitment to improving housing conditions for those whānau living in cold and damp homes.

The Healthy Homes initiative has quickly highlighted that in order to improve the housing conditions and health impacts of our homes, we need to consider how to best maintain the home, improve the home and how best to live in the home. This is a major challenge that requires collaboration with many partners and a close partnership with each family.

The 20 Degree programme is a significant initiative that will help us support better housing conditions for our whānau who are struggling with ongoing health concerns. As a funder of this initiative BOPDHB are aiming to reduce the number of avoidable hospital admissions and see improvements in general health, especially for those most vulnerable such as children and older people."

Bay Trust

Sam Cummins - Community Funding and Policy Manager

"20 Degrees is a collaborative healthy housing programme, working to ensure homes in the Bay of Plenty can be heated to and sustain an internal temperature of 20°C. We know that when whanau with children get to live in warm and dry homes, it results in fewer medicines dispensed, fewer GP visits and fewer admissions to hospital for children referred. We also know that when we work together, we can make a larger collective impact that we could if we tried to do it alone. This is why we support the programme.

The benefits of a warm, dry home can not only be seen in health, but also in employment, educational achievement and overall well-being. We’re delighted that sustainability options are the provider, as they not only work on the homes, they also work with the people in them."