On Friday, December 7th, 2018 we joined forces with the team from Jacobsen Holdings for their end of year Christmas event. Like so many caring companies these days, Jacobsen’s had decided that on the day of celebration of the year that’s been, they would give something back to the community. They would do this in the form of a coastal clean-up.

We met the Jacobsen team at our Flagship Education Centre at midday for some lunch and education. For us at Sustainable Coastlines, it’s really important to get across to others the reasons why we do coastal clean-ups. There’s a lot of plastic out there in the ocean and we know that clean-ups just scratching the tip of the iceberg. What’s actually more important to us is that we inspire people to connect with nature again and have a good time at the beach. Through this connection, positive actions can be developed and we start to think about what we can do to help on a day-to-day basis – we think about our actions leading to rubbish being in the environment in the first place. This positive, solutions-based ethos has the ability to permeate through society, and this is what we’re aiming for on our beach clean-ups.

With this in mind, the team was pumped to get out there and see the problem first hand, so we jumped on a coach and headed for Harbour View Beach Reserve in Te Atatu Peninsula. We had a team of 40 and we split in two to head north and south along a section of the peninsula’s coastline that is not often frequented. We found everything from the usual suspects (such as plastic bags, plastic bottles, straws and a tyre) to an old couch that someone had pushed over the bank…

The team were wrapped (and a little bit muddy) when we boarded the coach to head back to the city for a well deserved celebratory drink. The Jacobsen’s team followed up in their evening wears and partied the night away at The Flagship.

Many thanks to our champions inside Jacobsen Holdings for engaging with Sustainable Coastlines and making this event happen. We hope it’s just the start of something great and we hope to see you out on the coast again. For now, have a great summer and don’t forget to be the change you wish to see in the world.

We chose a perfect day to be out in the sunshine to do some mahi on the beach with the fine folk at Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

The 20 HPE staff, and two Sustainable Coastlines staff all met at Okahu Bay, enjoyed the morning sun with a hot drink and listened to Sustainable Coastlines Programmes Coordinator Shelley Butt deliver a Love Your Coast presentation.  She talked about the impacts of plastics on the creatures that live in and around the oceans and things we can do to minimise those impacts: refusing, reducing, reusing and recycling.  We talked through the all important health and safety for the day and then got out there.

The site lent itself well to those who wanted to get out onto the beach, scramble over the rock wall or cross the road to the park and the inevitable rubbish in the bushes.  Just an hour scouring the Okahu Bay area and we soon had a pile of rubbish laid out in front of us, garnering surprised comments from passers-by.  Everything from straws, building materials, jandals, loads of plastic bags and food and drink packaging were found, despite Sustainable Coastlines having been at the same spot only two months before.  Many plastic bottles found were either photo-degraded or contaminated – making them unable to put into recycling. We suspect that with the busy road just a stone’s throw away, litter from this ends up in the oceans and then some of it lands back on our shores.

We wrapped up with lunch on the beach in the shade of the pre-blossom pohutukawa, and a team photo with the spoils of our clean-up laid out infront of us.

Thank you to Jay and Tyler for organising their team and the staff of HPE who chose to come down and use their morning making New Zealand a cleaner place.

If you would like to run a clean-up/ team building session with us AND at the same time do a great service for our oceans, contact us at Sustainable Coastlines and we would be happy to chat through your options.

Phoenix Organics have been a long time sponsor of Sustainable Coastlines, providing us with financial support and delicious plastic-free drinks to refresh our volunteers after events. At least once a year, we also hit the coasts with the crew of Phoenix to remind us why we’re in this together.

On Friday, 23 November 2018, we headed to Rangitoto for the morning with 25 Phoenix staff and another 25 volunteers who snapped up some free tickets provided by Phoenix. As with all Sustainable Coastlines events, the first action was to educate everyone on why we were doing what we were doing. This took the form of a short Love Your Coast presentation, delivered by Sustainable Coastlines programmes manager, Fletcher Sunde. Following a safety briefing from programmes coordinator, Shelley Butt, the team hit the coast to the west of the Rangitoto Wharf, toward Flax Point.

Rangitoto, as beautiful as it is, is one of those places that cops the full force of Auckland’s litter issue, sitting right in the middle of the outgoing tide from the Waitemata Harbour. Because of this, whenever you go to Rangi, you always find new rubbish, no matter when you were there last. Our crew focused on this Auckland-facing shore and found countless pieces of small plastics, from cigarette butts and bottle tops to asthma inhalers and plastic bottles – all sorts of common, everyday items that had found their way into our ocean. Ubiquitous amongst all this were plastic nurdles – resin pellets that are the raw materials in almost all plastic manufacture. Unfortunately, there are places on Rangitoto where these are more common than shells. The team did what they could, and their eyes were opened.

We spent approximately one and a half hours on the clean-up before making our way back for a well-deserved lunch and of course a Phoenix Organics refreshment. We had time to get a visual off the rubbish we collected, layed out on a tarpaulin, before the obligatory celebratory photo and back on the 12:45pm ferry, bound for Auckland.

All up it was a successful day of clean-up action and awareness raising, all thanks to our good friends at Phoenix Organics. We’re looking forward to continuing this relationship and seeing the crew out on the coastline again soon.

Update as of 2:20pm, 22 Nov: Due to an awesome response by you guys, we’ve now had all available tickets snapped up. We’re sorry if you didn’t make it this time. Please keep an eye on our events page for future opportunities with us.

Cheers, Sustainable Coastlines

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It’s time to roll up our sleeves again: it’s off to the Islands!  Rangitoto Island is an iconic landmark that we see every day in the Hauraki Gulf, and the good folk at Phoenix have enlisted our help to clean it up!  Join us: Sustainable Coastlines, the staff at Phoenix Organic and their wider whanau, on this half-day adventure THIS FRIDAY, 23rd of November.

There are only 20 seats left so be in quick!  If you can slip away from the office for the morning without your boss noticing… heck, bring the team!  We’ll meet at the ferry building downtown at 9am sharp. Lunch and a refreshing drink to end it is on us.

What a way to end the week, thanks Phoenix!

You are invited to a special exhibition by Friends of the Sea collective.  Join us to view stunning photography and artwork from Craig ‘PCL’ Levers, Reuben James, Greg Straight, Al Wrath, and Ant Green.  20% of profits will go to Sustainable Coastlines in support of our valuable work improving the water quality on NZ’s much-loved shores.  As well as getting to enjoy refreshing drinks from Yealands, Corona, and Phoenix Organics we will also be enjoying a slice or 3 of delicious Sals Pizza.

Feel free to jump on a Lime Scooter, ride your bike, walk or catch a bus to The Flagship Education Centre, 55 Madden Street for this fun night where you might even be lucky enough to get all your Christmas presents in one go!

Email [email protected] or call 021 579 983 for more information.

Let’s get a head start on summer! On Saturday the 3rd of November, please join us and our good friends Ecostore at Takapuna Beach to make spick and span one of our favourite places. We know that the locals take good care of Taka, so let’s show them some support and make the beach and surrounding area spotless and stop litter reaching the marine environment.

Simply meet us at 10:00am on the grass near the playground at the bottom of The Strand – look out for our blue flags and registration tents. From there we’ll welcome you, educate you, then send you off to collect all that trash that would otherwise end up in the ocean. We’ll finish up around midday with a team photo and delicious refreshments.

If you need any more motivation to join us, award-winning guitarist and singer-songwriter, Jamie McDell will be joining the clean-up and performing a free gig at the end. The Hits will also be joining us playing tunes and hosting a ‘chill station’.

A massive thanks to the many community groups in Takapuna that have pledged their support for this event and to Ecostore for their continued support of Sustainable Coastlines through their new limited edition black range. Bring your empty black limited edition bottle on the day to refill for a small donation to Sustainable Coastlines.*

* 1 bottle per person. Must be a black limited edition bottle. While stocks last.

It’s been at least a year since we’ve taken a large team out to Rangitoto and what a way to break a drought! Air New Zealand have been longtime supporters of Sustainable Coastlines, sponsoring numerous events over the years and sending teams out the get their hands dirty on plenty of occasions as well. As such, it was awesome to get out to one of New Zealand’s most iconic spots with one of New Zealand’s most iconic companies, and what a day we had.

Almost 200 staff, family and friends of Air New Zealand’s Green Team boarded a ferry in downtown Auckland early on a slightly blustery spring Saturday morning (typical Auckland) eager to get out to the picturesque Rangitoto. They were joined by a huge crew from the Sustainable Coastlines side consisting of staff, volunteers, photographers, videographers, caterers and support staff who all the day possible. In saying that, it was a massive team effort all around and the Air New Zealand crew got stuck in helping to load and unload the ferry and being general all-around awesome people.

On board the ferry, Sustainable Coastlines’ General Manager, Ryley Webster welcomed the team and delivered the all important safety briefing (we like to keep people safe out there) so that when we arrived on the other side, we could pretty much get straight into the clean-up.

Four groups were established and assigned to Sustainable Coastlines staff members to head out to areas all over the island. Some of the more active attendees headed out to some of the farther parts of Rangitoto such as Islington Bay and McKenzie Bay while those with young families and others focused on the nearby southern shores.

A couple of hours of clean-up flew by before the teams had to head back for the delicious seasonal (and plastic free) lunch cooked up by our awesome caterers on site. The team were well rewarded for their efforts.

After lunch, we had some free time and took the opportunity to bask in the success of the day.

In total, we hauled 1,200 litres of litter off of the shore of this motu taonga in a monumental effort by all those involved. The ferry was certainly a bit quieter on the journey home!

A massive thanks to the Air New Zealand Green Team for getting out there with us and to the company’s management for allowing this to happen. Special mention needs to be made of Shelley Crawford for spearheading the effort on the Air New Zealand side – we couldn’t have done it without you!

As a last note, we would like to once again acknowledge Air New Zealand’s support for our cause. Our records show that over the past 10 years, as a direct result of Air New Zealand’s support, we have enabled over 7,700 people to remove over 317,000 litres of litter from the marine environment.

What an effort. What’s next?

What a fantastic Day!

On November 24th volunteers from the Kathmandu Summit Club and friends met at the incredible Pukerua Bay, to give this place a little love and get the opportunity to enjoy this beautiful coastline.

Given the adventurous nature of the group our intrepid volunteers had their boots on and water bottles filled, ready for the hike.  This area is looked after well by the local residence, so to find the rubbish you’ve got to walk.  Ben Knight led the group around the point where rubbish accumulates and the group returned with more than 700 litres.

After the hike, everyone enjoyed a well deserved lunch, all courtesy of Kathmandu

Huge thanks to Kathmandu, the Pukerua Bay residence association, and all the volunteers that gave up a few hours of their weekend to give some love to a wild and beautiful stretch of coastline.

As part of our amazing collaboration with Kathmandu Summit Club, we invite you to join us on Saturday November 24th for a Beach Cleanup at Pukerua Bay, Kāpiti Coast, Wellington.

Porirua City Council and community groups are lovingly overlooking restoration projects all around this area, so we want to help them give some love to this special area and pick up some of the marine debris that washes up on this coast.  You can either just clean up around Brendan’s Beach, or, if you feel like a bit of an adventure, walk further afield and go right around the point to Plimmerton.

We’ll meet from 9.45am at the car park at Pukerua Bay; look out for the Sustainable Coastlines and Kathmandu flags. We’ll be starting from 10.00am and finishing up around 2.00pm. You can stay for as little or as long as you like, but around noon we’ll all come together for a some tasty food and some Phoenix Organics Drinks.

The beach is near the trainline and Pukerua Bay train station is a short walk from the beach and there are plenty of trains from Wellington on Saturday morning.  If you walk all the way around the point, you can get the train home from Plimmerton!

To participate, please take a few seconds to sign up via registration at Kathmandu’s Summit Club. 

This is a beautiful but exposed area so please dress and prepare accordingly for windy weather and a day outdoors. The beach cleanup basecamp is within easy walking distance from the car park – just look for the flags and you’ll find us!