The taste of sustainability

Fusion Homes built one of the first 6 Homestar certified developments in the country and not only provided healthy warm homes but raised vegetable garden beds for our customers to use.

The garden beds are dotted around the central Christchurch development.

Fusion Homes not only built the beds but filled them with soil and even planted a range of vegetables that were due for harvest about the time our customers were due to move into their new homes.

Fusion Director Chris Haughey said the company does this for all its new homes.

It was part of its contribution to sustainability and giving residents something when they moved in.

“For us, it’s also about the relationship with the organisations we work with.’’

Kāinga Ora tenant Dale loves his new raised vegetable garden bed at his new home in central Christchurch.

One of our customers, Dale, was overwhelmed by the gesture.

“It means the world to me,’’ he said.

His garden has cauliflowers, cabbages, lettuces, broccoli and silverbeet.

“I’ve already had some of the broccoli,” he said. “It was very nice.’’

Dale says the gardens were beneficial to his mental health as he enjoyed looking at them and keeping his garden tidy.

“It gives me a lot of comfort, looking at the garden. It’s nice to look at and gives me a purpose to go out and plant something.’’

Dale previously had a larger garden at a former state house but it was too big to maintain, whereas his new garden bed was small enough to look after.

Kāinga Ora has agreed all of its new builds across the country will now meet the criteria set down by the New Zealand Green Building Council which manages the 6 Homestar programme.

This means we will continue to work with partners such as Fusion Homes to deliver homes that far exceed Building Code standards for warmth, dryness and health.

You can also see a great video from Fusion Homes that shows off this new central city development.