Driver Behaviour Change, Waste Management

Repair Café was actually nominated twice in this category. As a national organisation, Repair Café Aotearoa New Zealand supports and maintains existing repair cafés and helps setting up new groups across the country. Repairing things has become a dying art in our throwaway society yet is still an integral part of our older generation’s lifestyle. By engaging local communities in shared repair and mending activities, these valuable skills and knowledge do have a chance to be transmitted to the younger generations.

Working with B&C industry to improve recovery and reduce waste, Waste Management NZ

Other nominees for the Behaviour Change Sector Group:

This project is great example of a true team effort in an emergency.  Awatoto, one of Napier’s main industrial areas, was inundated with floodwater and sediment during Cyclone Gabrielle. With dozens of stakeholders, many with complex sites, Napier City Council (NCC) took the lead on an area-wide response to removing the sediment. The Council engaged GHD and HAIL Environmental to investigate and characterise the sediment across the area and design, execute and supervise a work programme to remove and appropriately dispose of the material. The team not only included technical experts, but also logistics staff who manned the cordons and organised signage and equipment, and the comms team who managed key messaging to stakeholders, the public and media. Great work!

Finalists: 

Operating vehicles from the left-hand side is an everyday occurrence at Waste Management. Even with many safety features fitted for left-hand side operations, there was still a risk of drivers exiting the cab while the truck was still moving. When the Fleet Engineer team realised there was no safety barrier that would meet industry standard for New Zealand, they designed their own! The result was an industry leading design which eliminates the risk, is easy to use and makes drivers feel safer. 

Pioneer Energy Limited and EcoStock Supplies Limited have joined forces to create the Ecogas Limited Partnership. It’s a NZ first that enables a circular solution for both household and commercial food waste. Ecogas partners with likeminded businesses to redirect food waste away from landfills and instead uses it to create sustainable energy, biogas and biofertiliser. Recently, as a result of Cyclone Gabrielle, Andrew and his team, with their 'boots on the ground" approach, have been instrumental in diverting thousands of tonnes of spoiled food waste from Hawke's Bay manufacturing facilities. The journey Andrew has taken has demonstrated clear leadership coupled with unending enthusiasm, which has served to open doors for many companies to think about their processes and the materials wasted.

Finalists: 

• AFRA Data Impact Project, Aotearoa Food Rescue Alliance
  
• Kaipara Regenerative Farming Group, Kahurere Ridge Farm

Associate Professor Trisia Farrelly is a trustee of the New Zealand Product Stewardship Council (NZPSC). She contributes her expertise and focus on establishing binding and effective regimes to regulate plastics across their lifespan in order to end plastic pollution. Through her research and teaching on the topic of plastics at Massey University; her advocacy; her extensive international network of academics and campaigners; and her generous sharing of time and expertise with local groups and government officials, Trisia has significantly contributed to the collective literacy on the topics of plastic pollution, product stewardship and regulation of plastics in Aotearoa New Zealand. Trisia has been a foremost voice on the international stage for a binding global plastics treaty for years and is now continuing to contribute to the development of this treaty at international negotiations, but also locally, supporting Tāngata Whenua, government officials and local NGOs by sharing her technical expertise. Her knowledge is shaping the way that we in New Zealand understand the concept of product stewardship and wider product policy in relation to plastics.

Finalist: