How One Student’s Curiosity Sparked a Clean Air Movement in New Zealand

Almost exactly one year ago, an email landed in my inbox from Josh, a student living in New Zealand’s South Island city of Dunedin. He’d recently acquired one of our Open Air monitors for his personal use and had quickly observed the detrimental impact of residential fireplaces on his local air quality. Driven by what he saw, Josh approached Aroha Kaikorai Valley (AKV), a charity he volunteers for, expressing his interest in monitoring air quality on a broader, community scale.

For a few years, AKV has been dedicated to improving the environment in Kaikorai Valley, a significant green space in west Dunedin centred around its stream. Their efforts were structured around five key pillars: People, Plants, Predators (focusing on pest removal), Water, and Birds. While this mission remains steadfast, Josh’s initiative sparked the idea of adding a new sixth pillar: air.

When Josh reached out to ask if we at AirGradient would consider donating monitors to AKV, my interest was immediately piqued. Despite its green image, New Zealand has limited air quality monitoring networks, and there’s a general lack of awareness about air pollution’s dangers, especially during winter. As a Kiwi myself, the opportunity to support an air quality initiative closer to home was something I’d always hoped for.

A call was soon arranged with Josh and AKV’s founder, Paul. It was only then that I learned that Josh, in his enthusiasm, had invited Paul without much prior internal discussion at the charity! Yet, what shone through instantly was the commitment both had to improving their local environment. Their passion was obvious, and they quickly convinced me that AirGradient should support AKV by donating the necessary monitors.

Today, I wanted to share the story of AKV and its air quality monitoring network. One year ago, Dunedin lacked any publicly accessible air quality monitoring. Today, thanks to AKV’s - and particularly, Josh’s - efforts, eight monitors are operational, with more planned. Curious to learn more about their journey, I recently reconnected with Josh and Paul to delve into AKV’s story, future aspirations, and experiences pioneering a community air quality network.

It All Started with a “Property Full of Rats”

During our discussion, Paul shared that Aroha Kaikorai Valley officially started in July 2023. The impetus was the purchase of a commercial property in Kaikorai Valley that was, frankly, “covered in rubbish and full of rats.” This stark reality sparked the vision for a charitable trust. “We started to cook up the idea for a charitable trust that could create a community group to clean up the valley and look after the environment,” Paul explained.

Their focus was clear: “We figured in the first instance it would be plants, predators and water.” As Paul noted, this foundational mission has since blossomed: “That has morphed into educational projects, rubbish cleanups and of course, air quality.” The valley itself is quite unique, a catchment area blending residential, commercial, heavy industrial, and recreational spaces, making AKV’s work multifaceted.

Without People, You Have Nothing

The charity’s scope expanded organically. In New Zealand, introduced predators pose a significant threat, killing native wildlife and destroying habitats. To combat this, AKV’s first project, funded by the Otago Regional Council Eco-Fund, was trapping. As Paul recounted, “We figured there was no point in planting if the plants would be eaten. And predator control meant we would have a chance of bringing back the birdlife to the valley.” Water quality initiatives soon followed.

A significant realisation emerged as these projects developed: the crucial role of education and community engagement. “The backyard trapping meant we connected with more people who were interested in what we were doing and wanted to learn more,” Paul said. This led to an important insight: “Turns out the actual focus of the group was people; without people, you have nothing.”

AKV has since cultivated an (in his own words) awesome group of all ages and backgrounds who come together to learn and participate, fostering a sense of belonging and pride. This community-centric approach is now extending to the business sector through AKV Business +, a program where businesses nominate individuals for educational workshops, empowering them to implement environmental improvements in their workplaces.

A Natural Progression to Air Quality

According to Paul, the move into air quality monitoring felt like a natural progression, significantly driven by the curiosity of AKV’s Air Quality Project Lead, Joshua Smith. Josh had noticed a critical gap: the lack of accessible, local air quality data. The only active monitor (run by the regional council) was approximately 3 km from Kaikorai Valley, and not truly representative of the hyper-local conditions he had noticed with his own monitor. This paired up nicely with Aroha Kaikorai Valley’s vision to improve the valley’s environment.

Josh himself elaborated on his journey to AirGradient. “I’ve become interested in exploring home automation and things like Home Assistant,” he shared. “While exploring YouTube, I came across Geerling Engineering’s video on AirGradient’s monitors, and their positive reaction to the monitors caught my interest.” The open-source nature of AirGradient was a key factor. “The openness of AirGradient as a business attracted me and helped lead to my decision to go with them.”

After purchasing his own Open Air unit, Josh was impressed. “Once I got the monitor, the data was very interesting, especially when everyone started their fires on the cold days during winter.” This firsthand experience fueled his outreach. “To my amazement, they [AirGradient] agreed! I’m so pleased to be where we are with the project and what the future has to hold.”

It Takes a Town to Build a Network

Deploying New Zealand’s first publicly accessible community-led air quality network has been a learning experience, though Paul and Josh report it has gone very smoothly. They acknowledged a learning curve, especially around mounting the monitors and the logistics for setting them up at other businesses and residential properties.

Proactively, they created an agreement quite early on, which quickly paid off. Practicalities like ensuring reliable Wi-Fi and power access were crucial. “With some locations, it may have been a great spot, but it was missing WIFI or power; it was just something we had to keep in mind.” Despite these minor hurdles, they’ve been fortunate with minimal issues and lauded the keen residents and businesses who have backed them up so far, citing their willingness to host monitors as pivotal to the project’s success.

Early Findings and Community Response

The data gathered largely confirmed their expectations and yielded some intriguing insights. “As expected, when people have been burning fires, we have had higher levels of PM2.5, especially in the evenings during the colder months,” Josh noted. What he found particularly affirming was how “the trends are spread throughout the network, and they all show shared trends. This consistency adds confidence in the data we are gathering and how widespread certain pollution can be.” Occasionally, an anomaly will appear on a single monitor, which, while treated with caution, provides fascinating points of observation.

The public’s reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. “The response has been amazing,” Paul shared. “People are very much interested in finding out what is happening in the valley with the air they are breathing.” The network has garnered attention from a diverse audience, including “residents, regional councillors and scientists, all curious to see what we are up to and what the monitoring shows.”

From Kaikorai Valley to a National Template

Looking ahead, AKV has ambitious plans. “We hope to be able to raise awareness of air quality in Kaikorai Valley, but also in broader Dunedin and Otago,” Paul stated. A key goal is to integrate the collected data directly onto AKV’s website, making it easily accessible. They also plan to engage with local media to amplify their findings and encourage wider public awareness and participation. “It would be awesome if someone would come up with an awesome project for the data; we’d love more people to help raise awareness,” Josh added, expressing a hope that individuals might be inspired to set up their own monitors. A potential partnership with the regional council is also on their wish list.

Beyond air quality, AKV’s vision is to become “a nationally recognised flagship project and eventually become a template that can be replicated anywhere by a community group.” Their goal is to provide a ready-made framework so others “will not have to reinvent the wheel; they can just pick up the template and go do the good work.”

It’s amazing to think this all started with one student who just wanted to see the air in his own backyard. The story of Aroha Kaikorai Valley is a powerful reminder that, sometimes, the most important changes just require the passion of one person and a community willing to build something better, together.