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Our place: Annual clean-up week; Charities to benefit
“With more volunteers taking part in their local events, we can collectively make a huge difference.” Annual clean-up week set to make a difference
Keep New Zealand Beautiful is once again asking Kiwis to ‘Do the Right Thing’ and come together to make a collective difference by getting involved in this year’s Clean Up Week, September 13-19.
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The community pride initiative, run annually by Keep New Zealand Beautiful, aims to get businesses, schools, community groups and individuals involved in cleaning up their little part of Aotearoa. It has become New Zealand’s largest clean up event with 57,936 volunteers involved last year. An area equivalent to 4,935 rugby fields was cleared and a total of 561,979kg of litter was collected.
Keep New Zealand Beautiful is a not-for-profit charitable organisation that has been working to reduce litter since 1967. It facilitates initiatives and encourages Kiwis to do their bit for the restoration, care and protection of their local and national environment.
CEO Heather Saunderson says, as New Zealand’s largest community-led event, Clean Up Week presents a great opportunity for education and litter awareness to reach every corner of the country.
“With more volunteers taking part in their local events, we can collectively make a huge difference.”
Keep New Zealand Beautiful used to offer free clean up kits to all Clean Up Week participants but is taking a climate conscious approach this year, asking participants to organise their own reusable and sustainable kits using everyday items such as buckets and gardening gloves.
“We’re aware of the carbon footprint involved in the creation and couriering of single-use kits across the country,” says Heather.
“As much as we want to clean up litter in New Zealand we also want to reduce what goes to landfill after our clean up events. This year we’d like everyone involved to be climate conscious and arrangetheir own clean up kits.”
Keep New Zealand Beautiful has partnered with Waste Management, EnviroWaste and selected councils to allow volunteers to dispose of the litter they collect for free at transfer stations around the country.
To register a clean up event for your local area, or to join in a public event, visit www.knzb.org.nz.
Thousands of charity recipients are set to benefit from the rapid recovery of suburban hospitality and retail as growing numbers of consumers opt to purchase locally.
The trend has seen one of Auckland region’s largest food and beverage retailers bounce back strongly after Covid – bringing flow-on benefits for local charities and community groups.
A $1 million charitable fund, made up of profits from the hospitality industry, will provide dozens of community groups with up to $50,000 each towards projects which support those living in West Auckland.
Allan Pollard, CEO of The Trusts, which established the Your West Support Fund says its hospitality and retail business is performing significantly better than expected in the year, having been initially impacted by the pandemic lock downs.
He says they have doubled the size of their charitable fund compared to the previous year after receiving a significant boost in revenue from Kiwis dining and shopping locally.
“What we are seeing is strong support for suburban hospitality venues as well as increased retail activity. “This is driven by a range of factors including more people working from home and dining out locally and a reduction in overseas travel which also decreases the amount of duty free alcohol entering the country. “We are also seeing a consumer Allan Pollard: seeing strong support for trend towards the purchase of suburban hospitality venues. higher value beverages which is having a positive impact on revenue,” he says. Pollard says the 2020 funding round was dedicated to providing essential community support groups with sufficient revenue to cover their overheads. “Despite our own revenues being disrupted as a result of the pandemic last year we were able to provide $500,000 towards ensuring the continuity of local groups. “This year we will be donating $1m to broaden our support and help more members of the community as we start to look beyond the immediate impacts of Covid,” he says.
