A West Coast Mayor is about to travel to the other side of the world to see if a sustainable energy project could work in his district.

Buller Mayor Garry Howard is heading to the British town of Swindon, where he will be looking at a facility which burns rubbish and sustainably turns it into electricity.

Regional Economic Development Manager Kevin Stratful said the council is looking at bringing a similar $250 million facility to Buller, to turn back the tide of hundreds of recent job losses in mining.

However he said any potential project is still in it's very early stages

"At the end of the day, if it all kind of stacks up then there's still a lot more work to be done before we can progress to anything like a project."

Green MP Kevin Hague, who lives on the West Coast, said it's really encouraging that the Mayor is looking to take the area in a new and greener economic direction.

"The fact that Buller District Council is looking seriously at completely different industries that would be sustainable and may actually have a positive environmental impact, it's great news. It's exactly what they should be doing."