Four months on from the Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle, we spoke to WasteMINZ members about their involvement in the immediate response and the clean up, ask them to share memories that stood out for them and learnings from the disasters. First up, we talk to the team at Countdown.
Tell us about your organisation in its BAU capacity
Countdown is one of Aotearoa's largest employers with more than 22,000 team members across 195 stores, distribution centres, processing plants and support offices. Countdown serves around three million customers every week, and works with hundreds of local food producers and suppliers throughout the country. Across its business, Countdown is committed to helping make Aotearoa a great place to live, where our people and environment thrive.
The company's sustainability plan Kia pai ake te apōpō - A Better Tomorrow outlines more than 40 commitments Countdown has set out to achieve by 2025. These sit across three focus areas - people, product and planet - and include Countdown's commitment to zero food waste to landfill by 2025, and reducing emissions by 63% versus 2015.
What was your organisation’s involvement during Cyclone Gabrielle?
Countdown is one of the country’s biggest businesses and being part of 195 communities across Aotearoa is not a privilege we take lightly. We know that we have an important role to play in helping our communities get through, and recover from disasters.
During Cyclone Gabrielle, we worked with our partners on the ground, as well as Government organisations, to provide support to affected communities.
We've donated over $450,000 in food and funds, to help those most affected. With our customers, we also fundraised over $252,000. This was donated to Mayoral Relief Funds, New Zealand Red Cross, and local community partners.
We also delivered over 80 tonnes of water, meat, fruit, vegetables and other essentials, to evacuation centres in Auckland, Tairāwhiti, and Hawke’s Bay.
We are also proud to have long-standing, direct partnerships with our growers. To give them practical support as they work through what they need for recovery, we made six commitments to our grower community, including ring-fencing $700,000 in cash grants.
Can you tell us about an interaction or moment that stood out for you?
A moment that stood out was our supply chain, stores and support office teams all coming together to work out solutions to get essentials to Civil Defence Evacuation Centres despite communications and roading infrastructure being incredibly challenging. The team really moved heaven and earth to do this, alongside all the work to get food and groceries into our stores.
What learnings can you share with us? What surprised you, and what didn’t?
It really brought home all the lessons we learned through Covid-19, and as always the importance of our team across our entire business. Everyone has such a critical role to play in getting the essentials to New Zealanders.
The cyclone recovery is ongoing. What’s next for you/your organisation?
We’re continuing to support all of our partners on the ground, as well as our growers as they continue to build back.