Community Partnerships Reimagine Our Collective Energy Future
For 100 years, Counties Energy has had community at its heart.
We are fully community owned through the Counties Energy Trust, which reflects our ambition to bring together our people and our communities to reimagine our energy future.
Counties Energy is responsible for building, maintaining, and operating the electricity network that connects thousands of people in the southern Auckland and northern Waikato regions. We are privileged to be in an industry where the work we do has a direct impact on over 49,000 homes, farms, and businesses in our local area, and to be a lead player in the country’s transition to a cleaner and more resilient future.
While our most obvious commitments to our community are through our electricity network and employment opportunities, we also run a comprehensive, community partnerships programme that supports local schools, sports teams and other important organisations and initiatives.
For us, these partnerships are inextricably linked to the way we do business. We know that an innovative and resilient energy future can only be achieved in collaboration with our community. This is why we continue to build on our history together, knowing that this will play an important part in facilitating the overall growth, wellbeing, and success of our region.
To help focus our efforts, our community partnerships programme is based on the core themes of emergency and safety services, energy hardship, community events, sports, education, and sustainability.
Emergency and Safety Services
We have longstanding and trusted relationships with local emergency and safety services. We regularly survey our customers to seek feedback on our partnership programme, and these services are of utmost importance to the community. Safety is also a priority for Counties Energy, so these partnerships are a natural fit.
With a large part of our network being rural based (including isolated communities) or including large bodies of water, it was important for us to partner with emergency service organisations that are well suited to, and which and support our community. Our key relationships in this category currently include Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust, Waiuku Search & Rescue/Waiuku Coastguard, Sunset Beach Surf Lifesaving, and Kariaotahi Surf Lifesaving Club.
Energy Hardship
Energy hardship is when individuals, households or whānau are not able to obtain adequate energy services to support their wellbeing in their home or kāinga.1 A report released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE) in 2023 reported that over 110,000 New Zealand households could not afford to keep their homes warm.2 It is well known that energy hardship is linked to many negative health and social outcomes, and as such, is a key focus for us.
As a 100% community trust owned organisation, alleviating energy hardship resonates strongly with the values of Counties Energy. To this end, we fund, co-fund and partner with several experienced agencies on initiatives aimed at reducing energy hardship, supplying education and energy saving devices that will have a long-term impact. Some of these include the Franklin Family Support Services’ Winter Warmer Packs, EECA’s Warmer Kiwi Homes programme, and an energy education programme.
Since 2020, we’ve proudly been part of the Warmer Kiwi Homes programme, providing free insulation to low-income, owner-occupied homes. To date, we have insulated around 150 homes in Pukekohe, Waiuku, Tuakau, Port Waikato, Drury and southern Papakura, making a real difference in the lives of many families. In 2024 we extended the programme, in partnership with EECA, to provide free energy-efficient heat pumps to 56 homes across our network region. This initiative is a crucial step in supporting households experiencing energy hardship by enhancing access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable heating solutions.
Eligible households will receive heat pumps, providing a cost-effective and efficient heating option to help families stay warm and comfortable all year round.
Our partnership with Franklin Family Support Services provides Winter Warmer Packs to local whānau experiencing energy hardship, to help these families stay warm, healthy and manage their energy consumption effectively during the colder months.
In its third year on offer, the packs include eco bulbs, an energy-efficient slow cooker, essential items from The Warehouse Pukekohe and Mitre 10 Mega Pukekohe, with fresh produce from local grower Wilcox. Local schools contributed home-baked goods, meals, and recipe cards. In collaboration with Franklin Family Support Services, Counties Energy ensures these packs reach households facing energy hardship challenges.
Community Sport
As a nation that loves rugby and netball, our community partnerships also extend to supporting these sports at the grassroots and representative level. Community rugby has experienced a resurgence in popularity, with Counties Manukau rugby reporting a 25%3 increase in total participation from 2022 to 2023. Female rugby has seen a 58% growth in player numbers in the region during that time while the male increase sits at 17%.
Given the importance of these two national sports, Counties Energy is proud to support Counties Manukau Community Rugby, the Counties Energy Heat and Counties Manukau Steelers in provincial rugby and the Stars in the ANZ Premiership provincial netball league and Pukekohe Netball.
Home games involving either the Counties Energy Heat, Steelers or the Stars also provides Counties Energy with the opportunity to give back to the wider community in the form of free match tickets, merchandise, or other promotional and safety activations.
Community Events
With Counties Energy at the heart of the community, it is imperative the events we support are centrally located and free or accessible to all.
Current community event partnerships include the award-winning Counties Energy Christmas Lights Trains at Night two-week extravaganza, based at the iconic Glenbrook Vintage Railway. Heralded annually as a leading regional family Christmas event, it includes a gala-style atmosphere, complete with music, stalls, a festive light spectacular, the Christmas Express, and of course a visit with Santa. Christmas on the Green – supported by Counties Energy, is a free fun-filled event for the entire family with entertainment, stalls, promotions, food options and a Christmas themed concert. Other family type events supported include the historic Pukekohe Show and ‘School Holidays in the Square’ every April and October.
These events are leveraged by Counties Energy to raise awareness of their role in the community, to share electrical public safety and energy hardship messaging and to support sustainability efforts through giveaways such as eco light bulbs and other merchandise.
Counties Energy also supports various other events, such as the annual Hospice Garden Ramble in support of this essential community service, and an opportunity for the company to promote tree regulations and planting-related messaging to a key audience.
Education – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education fosters critical thinking and problem-solving skills, essential for our increasingly digital lives. At Counties Energy, a large proportion of our workforce have careers grounded in STEM – engineers, line mechanics, network controllers and many more.
According to the 2018 New Zealand census, women make up 48% of the STEM workforce, but are underrepresented in CEO roles across these fields (about 30%).
With the importance of STEM to our organisation and with a female CEO at our helm, we are playing our part to encourage more pathways and diversity through targeted community partnerships. Some organisations and initiatives we are currently supporting include Robogals, Girls in High Vis, Counties Energy School Kits, EPro8, and an innovation fund and major event sponsorship to local schools.
Robogals is an international student-run organisation that inspires and empowers young people to consider engineering and related fields. Its primary activity is interactive, engineering-based workshops for students aged between 8-18. The programme delivers workshops into Franklin schools and libraries and at Counties Energy for their employees’ children during school holidays, while the Robogals enjoy the opportunity to talk to our engineers and have a tour of our operations.
Counties Energy has worked with School Kit since 2017 to develop and provide STEM kits into 60 local schools More than 18,000 kits have been delivered to date into 250 classrooms. Three kits are currently offered to schools covering circuitry, energy transformation, the basic principles of physics, renewable energy and more. The kits contain a full set of resources to allow teachers to engage students and develop a love for STEM, backed by online resources for both teachers and students. In 2024 the kits were extended to students up to Year 10. The kits also allow Counties Energy the opportunity to teach important electrical safety messaging into classrooms and resources to take home and share with whanau.
Counties Energy also partners with the EPro8 Challenge to enable science and engineering challenges to be held in our local primary, intermediate and high schools. Each year, around 25,000 students participate in EPro8 from around the country.
Sustainability
As an energy solutions provider, Counties Energy is at the forefront of climate change and we are committed to helping achieve New Zealand’s emissions reduction targets through reducing waste, emissions and improving habitats.
For the past three years, we have supported our community through the annual Counties Energy Environmental and Sustainability Grant, which was established to support non-profit community organisations and educational institutions with projects designed to protect or improve the local environment.
There are three grant categories, designed to promote education, environmental stewardship and cultural awareness. Last year’s recipients included Āwhitu Peninsula Landcare, Trees for Survival Charitable Trust and Pukekohe Christian School. Previous recipients included Mauku School’s Trees for Survival programme, Camp Adair riparian planting, Tamaoho School enviro schools infrastructure, Te Paina School Trees for Survival and Franklin Active Trails Whakaupoko Landcare.
Stronger, together
Our community partnership approach supports Counties Energy’s transition to a smarter energy future that will have customers at the centre.
As we grow alongside our community, a strong, reciprocal relationship help us to deliver on our mission to unlock our full energy potential through the power of our people and our communities to shape our energy future.
As a business that is owned by its community, we have an important role to play in the success of our region’s future, and we are proud to be leading the way. Our strong commitment to our communities through these various partnerships is one way we can play our part.
1 Defining energy hardship | Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment