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2024 Love your place AWARDS

Celebrating Waitākere’s environmental heroes

Nominations will be open from 1 to 17 November for the biennial Love Your Place Awards, which celebrates volunteers, businesses and schools making a difference for the environment in the Waitākere Ranges Local Board area.

People can nominate themselves or others working in the environmental space anywhere across the Waitākere Ranges Local Board area, which stretches from Whatipu, Glen Eden and Titirangi in the south to Waitākere, Swanson and Te Henga in the north.

Check the local board boundaries on this map.

The nomination form will be available here from 1 to 17 November, and our 2024 winners will be announced at a special local event in early 2025.

So if you know an environmental trailblazer or previously unsung hero working in predator and weed control, food growing or waste minimisation initiatives in the Waitākere Ranges, please nominate them for this year’s awards.

The five award categories are:

  • Denise Yates Award: for youth (under 18) showing emerging leadership around local environmental issues. In 2022, this was won by Jay Leighton who is a keen conservationist. He designed his own pest traps to protect New Zealand’s native species.  He was part of the Oratia Primary School leadership programme Ngā Rākau Kaha and devoted his 20 hours of community service required for this to trapping pests at his local wetland. 
  • Karaka Award: for a school or school group taking action on a local environmental issue. Woodlands Park School is a Green-Gold Enviroschool and won the award in 2022. The school community is involved in litterless lunches, worm farming and composting, bee-keeping, food growing, sustainable fundraising and native bush regeneration. 
  • Nīkau Award: for a business or social enterprise making a contribution to improve the environment. In 2022 it was won by Sustinnoworx, a social enterprise which promotes a circular model while diverting textile waste from landfill. They trade in second hand clothing, with profits going to support other non-profit organisations. 
  • Rātā Award: for an outstanding volunteer group or organisation taking action on a local environmental issue. This award went to Pest Free Piha who is targeting both invasive weeds and predators across Piha. They have organised a group of volunteer “Pest Warriors” that work enthusiastically to improve Piha’s ecological environment. 
  • Kahikatea Award: for an outstanding individual volunteer taking action on a local environmental issue. John Staniland won this prestigious award in 2022. John is a former Kelston Boys classics teacher (Latin and Greek) of 40 years, who inspired his students not just on his topic but also on ecology, biology, botany, conservation and everything involved with New Zealand flora and fauna. Outside of teaching, he was the founding Chairperson of Waitākere Branch Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society and has served as the Chair or Deputy Chair for 33 years. 

The Love Your Place Awards 2024 are funded by the Waitākere Ranges Local Board and organised and hosted by EcoMatters Environment Trust.

If you or someone you know would like to sponsor or support the awards please email [email protected] or call her on 0231 394 447.

Past award winners

See photos from the 2022 awards.

See photos from the 2020 awards.

stay in touch

If you want to join our database and the form above isn’t working, click the link here.

If you want to know more about the awards, please contact [email protected] or call (09) 826 4276.