On Friday 8 December, FINNZ staff joined our team at the Lyall Bay boat ramp for an afternoon beach clean-up. The windy balmy weather made for a beautiful and classic Wellington day.

Oliver Vetter gave a brief presentation about the issues facing our waters from single-use plastics and the simple solutions we can all contribute to help. After a health and safety brief the team set out onto the beach. Over the course of the next 2 hours the team removed over  400 litres (~50 kilos) of rubbish from the coastline between Lyall Bay and the Taputeranga Marine Reserve at Princess Bay.

The car parks between the beaches had the most ‘interesting’ finds, including fishing gear and single use plastics

As usual the FINNZ team got stuck into it – sometimes on all fours through bushes and over rocks. It’s amazing the difference a motivated group of people can achieve, and how much rubbish you can find when you take the time to look.

We all came together for a phoenix ginger beer and a discussion of interesting finds!

A fantastic effort by everyone involved and we look forward to working with such a good-spirited team again

After the New Zealand Festival’s Kupe Landing family day, held on Saturday 24 February on Petone Foreshore, we are getting together to give some love back to this beautiful beach. Join Sustainable Coastlines, the Petone Beach Clean-up Crew and the Festival team to clean up the Petone Foreshore on Sunday 25 February, 10am–midday.

Register your interest below and be in with the chance to win a Double Pass to a Festival show of your choice*.

• Meet at the Sustainable Coastlines ‘Education Station’ container at the Hikoikoi Reserve, Petone Beach.
• 9.30am sign-in and collect equipment
• 10.00am start!  From there we will split into teams and head out along the coastline.

Saturday was another awesome day at Makara!
The weather was beautiful and everyone had a great event – This was the final public event in our Love Your Coast Wellington Education and Clean-up project.

More than 80 dedicated volunteers of all ages met at our Education Station at Makara beach on Saturday morning. There were many familiar faces from previous years, but it was really good to see plenty of new faces too.

After a Health and Safety briefing from Programmes Manager Oliver Vetter, the capable Meridian staff led the convoy of 4WD vehicles over the hill to Opau Beach on the West Wind Meridian Wind Farm to show some love to an almost untouched bay.

Those feeling more like a walk in the wind, grabbed their gloves and bags and headed out around the points of Makara Beach to see what treasure they could find.

After only a couple of hours everyone returned for a tasty BBQ with more than 3,000 litres of rubbish in their utes. They picked up hundreds of kilos of fishing gear, buoys, crates and line but also the old culprits; thousands of pieces of single-use plastic, straws, cigarette butts, water bottles and microplastics.

Huge thanks to Meridian Energy for sponsoring this event every year, and allowing us to bring our education programme to the schools for free!
Thanks also to Phoenix Drinks for hydrating us with their amazing juices and The Makara Cafe handing out coffees for the volunteers.

Special thanks to Carly Anderson of Meridian Energy for always bringing such amazing energy and supporting our work, Sara Stuart, Joe Warmington and Katie Timzen and Tony (on the Sausages..) for their fantastic work on the day.

Please join us from 9.30am to 2.00pm on Saturday 2 December 2017 for a fantastic day of adventure and exploration, all the while cleaning up the beautiful Makara Beach and the coastline on Meridian Energy’s West Wind farm. This wild piece of spectacular coastline, although well looked after by the locals, is affected by a regular flow of waste, so we are going to give it a good pre-summer clean-up. Meridian has been working with Sustainable Coastlines in communities to raise awareness and support coastal clean-ups around Wellington since 2012.

Important note: All participants need to register through the form below!

Meet at the Sustainable Coastlines ‘Education Station’ container on Makara Beach at 9.30am, Saturday 2nd December to sign-in and collect equipment, for a 10.00am start. From there we will split into teams and head out along the coastline on foot and by 4WD vehicle to clean-up the area from Makara Beach and Meridian’s Ohau Bay.

Bring your own 4WD or jump in one that is provided to join the convoy. This will be a unique opportunity to explore the incredibly beautiful bays that are usually closed to vehicle access where unfortunately, tonnes of plastic rubbish washes up.

Please note that this is a beautiful but remote and energetic stretch of landscape which, like all outdoor activities, comes with inherent risks.  The Sustainable Coastlines and Meridian Energy teams will endeavour to reduce risks whenever possible and will assist in the unlikely event of an accident, however by participating in this activity you are assuming full responsibility for you and your children’s safety.

Any questions, please contact Programmes Manager – Oliver Vetter at [email protected]

With the return to New Zealand of long-time Sustainable Coastlines supporter and world-renowned musician, Jack Johnson, we wanted to throw down a West Coast clean-up to kick-off summer, and Jack’s NZ concert, with some local goodness.

Jack is taking his green touring to the next level by expanding plastic free initiatives in Australia and New Zealand and we’re teaming up with Jack’s All At Once community and local legends Project Wai to host a beach clean-up leading up to the Auckland concert! Join us at the little reserve at the south end of the South Piha carpark (the one next to the Piha Surf Life Saving Club) from 9am on December 9th and we’ll send out teams from Karekare to Anawhata and everywhere in between to give the coast a start-of-summer-spruce!

Take part and take action. All clean-up participants are welcomed to join us for a BBQ back at the reserve from 12:30pm. Please register via the form below.

Jack and his crew are working with venues to reduce single-use plastic on tour. At the shows, fans can help eliminate plastic waste by using reusable water bottles and pint cups. Swing by to connect with Sustainable Coastlines at the Jack Johnson Concert Village Green at the Auckland show December 10!

Need Tickets to the Gig?

We have five (5!) double passes to give away to Jack’s gig on December 10. What’s even better is that each double pass will be accompanied by an awesome beach kit from our mates at Huffer to set you on your way for summer. There are a couple of ways that you can get your hands on these (with all proceeds going towards our beach clean-up efforts):

• Love the beach: Everyone participating in the clean-up will go into the draw to win a double pass.
• Chance your luck: We’ll be holding a raffle at the beach so you can get in the draw there.
• Show how much you love the coast: Open your wallet and bid your heart out on a live auction on clean-up day.
• We’ll be keeping a few up our sleeves to hand out to the most deserving clean-up participants.

As the culmination of the Puketāpapa Healthy Harbours and Sustainable Living programme, run conjointly between Urban EcoLiving Charitable Trust (Tread Lightly Caravan), Sustainable Coastlines, NZAEE Seaweek, Manukau Harbour Restoration Society and Puketāpapa Local Board, we invite you to a public clean-up day on the shores of the Manukau Harbour.

Join us from 10:00am to midday on Sunday 26th November at the bottom of Waikowhai Park for some Love Your Coast action and make yourself proud to be a part of the local community. Bring your family, bring your friends, bring the goodness.

Simply turn up, sign-in and we’ll send you out to take ownership of a stretch of coast. Return to base with your haul of treasure and tuck into the BBQ! Members of the other trusts involved in the program will also be there to inform you about all the good work they’ve been doing as well.

Since 2010 our charity Sustainable Coastlines has delivered our Love your Coast litter awareness and beach clean-up programme at schools around the Wellington region, with incredible results. Last year over 3,500 people from the region joined us for clean-up events and over 5,000 attended our educational talks. This summer, we are running this popular project again and would love your school, community or corporate group to be involved!

Our Programme has three aspects – Public Cleanups, Workshops and our School’s Event Programme!

PUBLIC CLEANUPS!  

We’re collaborating a number of public cleanups coming up –

December 2nd – Makara Beach Cleanup with Meridian – Our collaboration with Meridian Energy to help cleanup Makara and the private Meridian Ohau Bay.

January 14th – Wellington Harbour Spring-Clean – This is a SCUBA focussed cleanup but always a great time on Wellington’s Iconic Waterfront, with kayakers and walkers still required to help out.  Island Bay Marine Centre will be there ‘decrittering’ the rubbish as it comes up from the deep.  Always a fun day of music, education and diving!

February 25th – Petone Beach – Part of the New Zealand Festival and the Waka Odyssey!

WORKSHOPS!

We provide free workshops in public speaking and event management.  These workshops are designed to inspire and enable those looking to take the next step in looking after your local waterway or beach.  Each two-hour workshop is free to attend and involves a multimedia presentation and interactive training session, during which we provide an insight into our experience motivating over 48,000 volunteers during clean-ups, tree-planting events, fundraisers and public speaking. Drawing from our combined knowledge, this workshop focuses on the key skills needed for running successful events and presentations.

SCHOOLS EVENTS!

Anytime during Term 4 — Monday 16 October to Friday 15 December 2017 — we offer any year group at your school the opportunity to be a part of Love your Coast Wellington 2017 by receiving an educational presentation and an organised clean-up of your local coastline or waterway at no cost to your school.

Register your interest by contacting Oliver Vetter directly on [email protected]

Our experienced presenters will visit your school at a time that suits you during the term. Through our multimedia presentation we will build an understanding about litter challenges, and motivate students to look after their local stretch of coast.

We can also offer to coordinate a clean-up event for your school and provide rubbish sacks, gloves and Health and Safety equipment for cleaning up the coast, all at no cost. Transport for your event must be organised and paid for by the school.

Presentations and clean-up activities are open to every school in the Kapiti, Hutt Valley, Wellington and Wairarapa regions. Places are limited, so please let Oliver know if you’d like to be involved!

SPONSORSHIP & CORPORATE CLEANUPS!

We’re also looking for caring corporates to get behind the project. Check out our event sponsorship opportunities below to see how your organisation can help out.

Throughout the project, the Sustainable Coastlines team will be visiting schools, businesses and community groups to build an understanding about the challenges of litter and motivate Wellingtonians to look after their coastline. During this time we will deliver educational presentations and coordinate tailored coastal clean-up activities with local schools and organisations that support the idea of looking after our coast.

We need to raise funds to cover essential logistical, Health and Safety, transport and training costs, and sponsorship is crucial to ensure this project’s success.

We offer sponsors:

• A tailored team building beach clean-up with your staff, planned and led by Sustainable Coastlines. This includes our multimedia educational presentation to motivate your staff to get involved. We bring all equipment including a barbecue, however additional hard costs may apply for food and transport (depending on numbers and location).
• License to Sustainable Coastlines logos for use on web, marketing and other promotional materials during the course of the event.
• Logo on project report with a breakdown of all rubbish collected (great for CSR / sustainability reporting / marketing).
• Access and permission to use all event images, footage and results.
• Exposure through logo positioning on:
  • This page: the official event page.
  • 4m x 1m sponsor banner used for photo opportunities throughout the programme.
  • Announcement and exposure of your organisation’s support to Sustainable Coastlines’ social media networks (combined audience of 16,000).
  • Promotional posters and flyers.
  • Further leveraging opportunities to be discussed.

Sponsorship is available at two levels:

$1,000: Supporter
Includes all of the above.

$5,000: Sponsor
Includes all of the above and in addition:

• A two-hour workshop at your office (or other location of your choosing) in either Presentation Delivery or Event Management, delivered by our experienced staff.
• Prominent logo positioning on all event collateral.
• Acknowledgement of your support to our mailing list (5,000 subscribers).
• Mention of your support on event media releases (we have a very large profile in the media – see examples here)
• Mention of your support during media interviews, wherever possible.

What next?

Please call Oliver Vetter on 021 025 98301 or email [email protected] if you are interested in this opportunity or would like any further information.