~930 native seedlings planted thanks to 17 people of action

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The second Auckland Planting Action Day of the season had a bumpy beginning. It was rescheduled due to some wild weather from the original date by a week to Thursday 15th May. While CarbonInvoice aims to run Planting Action Days in most weather conditions, the combination of high winds and big rain gave us pause on this one.

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Even with this small bump, 17 attended the new date and had a blast. The weather conditions were incredible this time round. As the planters arrived to a stunning, still Autumnal morning everyone was feeling good about the decision.  

Impact: 930 native seedlings planted in Kipton's Farm

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17 powered people planted native trees in Kipton's Farm at the Papakura Stream Project covering roughly 235m².

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Some of the trees species planted: Manuka, Kanuka, Karamu, Mahoi, Toi Toi, kaprosma, lacebark, Sedges, Kahikatea and Totora trees.

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These trees will stabilise stream banks, preventing erosion and reducing the amount of sediment clogging up our waterways and making it’s way to the Manukau Harbour. Your mahi will help restore the Papakura Stream and bring back the precious birds, fish, eels, bugs and lizards to the catchment.

Building connections among the community

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‍‍Businesses attending the day were unified by a central idea of embracing carbon action and leading the way for other businesses. All of them are actively measuring their carbon footprint using CarbonInvoice’s product and putting their precious energy into planting native trees themselves. CarbonInvoice’s 2024 research found less than 5% of privately held NZ SME businesses are measuring their carbon footprint. These businesses are leading the way for others to follow.

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Carboninvoice’s operational partner Conservation Volunteers took care of site prep, health and safety and made things easy for the planters.

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ClockworX

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‍The ClockworX team showed up in their own branded high vis vests. Angela explained that this is the first time they’re using these for planting action, but it won’t be the last! ClockworkX have been a customer of CarbonInvoice

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The Eco Maintenance Crew

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The Eco Maintenance crew put in a solid show, led by CEO Jo Tarlton. Jo started at the business 28 years ago and has been the leader for the last decade. Jo was joined by colleagues including Pat Simon who leads their green spaces work and who’s been with the business for 26 years. David Yandell the Chief Operating Officer who’s been with the business for a dozen years. It seems like Eco Maintenance knows how to build culture and retain team members.

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Dr. Alexandrina (Alia) Bojilova from Propel Performance Group and David the Head of Operations at Eco Maintenance serendipitously reconnected, after David recalled Alia doing a leadership coaching session for the Eco Maintenance leadership team. How fantastic to reconnect at a CarbonInvoice Planting Action Day. That’s where business leaders curious about being better hang out planting native trees together.

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H2R Team

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The H2R team were back for a second year of planting at the Papakura Stream Restoration Project, about 3km from 2024’s Planting Action Day. Sharyn was discharged from jury duty meaning she was thrilled to be getting her hands dirty planting native trees.

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Imogen Stythe, Recruitment Consultant, impressed the group of planters by whispering blessings to every single tree she planted. Naturally she was awarded most enthusiastic planter. This was normal for Imogen - she shared a fascinating experiment she’d been running talking ‘good’ and ‘bad’ to two different avocado trees at home - the who getting positive vibes is flourishing, while the other won’t grow. From this we can only conclude that the trees are definitely listening and care about what we say!

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David’s thoughts were with his four children and how the planting the group was doing would grow over their life times making life in the area better for them!

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More Powered People

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Pat shared some reflective stories of how planting these trees reminded him of his teenage years planting trees in the Bay of Plenty with his siblings and whanau. He was absolutely stoked to be taking planting action.

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Alex Dracos lamented not quite finding time to get off the camera tools to plant some trees himself. That’s his plan for next Planting Action Day. All of the amazing photos and videos are from him!

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The landowner Keith Kimpton who’s 76 years old turned up with his own spade in hand, explaining that it wasn’t in his nature to sit by while others were planting. He proceeded to get stuck in. What a legend Keith! A truly generous host, he even invited Carlos to stay at his place on site for the next Planting Action Day at Kimpton’s Farm.

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