Last year, she led a cohort of One Tree Hill College students through a deep retrofit project of an old Kainga Ora home, with support from local businesses (product + material suppliers, tradies etc). They successfully completed the home, showed considerable cost savings in comparison to demolishing and building new, reached Homestar 7 standard, and sold the project at auction.

The project was a major success on many different levels, whether it was bringing the community together, giving students real world experience, or providing a great demonstration of what's possible to other colleges.

Charlotte is once again embarking on a retrofit journey this year with a new derelict home, a group of excited students, and a number of willing businesses supporting the scheme.

But this time she's looking to go one step further and deliver a 'zero bills' home complete with solar, batteries and all the latest electric tech.

Teachers are always heroes in our eyes. And tradies will be the heroes of our electrification push. This is a match made in heaven

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