Making a positive difference in our communities
Living our values
Contact partners a broad range of initiatives at both a national and regional level. Our partnerships reflect our connection and commitment to the communities in which we live, work and operate.
National
Triathlon NZ
Contact is Principal Partner of Triathlon New Zealand. There is a strong alignment between our values and objectives and already, we are both seeing some fantastic results.
Triathlon is New Zealand’s fastest growing sport. Combining swimming, running and cycling, it is accessible to most New Zealanders.
Our award-winning partnership has contributed to a 38 per cent increase in participation during the 2008/09 national Contact Tri Series. The 2009/10 Contact Tri Series saw a further 15% increase in participation on the previous year. In 2009/10 Contact Energy extended its relationship with Triathlon New Zealand to include a Contact TriWoman's Series and a Contact 1:2:1 Series for children.
Through the Contact Tri Series, people of all ages and fitness levels can experience the satisfaction of completing a triathlon. Go on – give it a go, because you’ll never know until you Tri.
For more information go to www.triathlon.org.nz
Community
CureKids
Contact helped raise over $89,000 for CureKids by sponsoring a dollar for every kilometre covered by Tri Series participants. CureKids has helped save the lives of thousands of New Zealand children by funding critical research into life-threatening childhood diseases and conditions affecting New Zealand children and their families.
What does Taupō need?
Contact wants to provide further support to the Taupō community through an all new community partnership. Where you come in is helping identify that opportunity.
You've seen or heard our ads, now we need you or your organisation to tell us "What does Taupō need?". If your idea or suggestion is selected by our panel of local Taupō residents as one of the final three, we'll let the public vote on it.
All the info you'll need to see if your idea could be a goer is on the application form page found here.
So get cracking and tell us what opportunity we can help bring to life in Taupō.
Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge
Contact has a significant presence in the Taupo region, so it was only fitting that we become a partner of one of the region’s most high profile events - the annual Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge, which attracts more than 11,000 competitors.
Contact also sponsors the 80 kilometre mountain bike section, the Contact Huka Challenge. The course takes competitors around, and at times over, our Wairakei steam field site.
Contact’s special focus in this event is our partnership with the more than 1,000 volunteers who are so essential to the event’s safety and smooth running.
The Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge is also heavily supported by Contact staff, particularly those working at the nearby Wairakei, Ohaaki, and Poihipi Road geothermal power stations.
For more information go to www.cyclechallenge.com
Contact Epic - NZ's Ultimate Mountain Bike
In 2008, Contact sponsored the first mountain bike race around Lake Hawea in Central Otago.
Now in its third year, the 125 kilometre Contact Epic is a rare opportunity to ride right around the lake, over Department of Conservation and private land, in one of the most beautiful parts of New Zealand.
Lake Hawea is controlled by Contact as a storage lake for hydro electricity in partnership with the Lake Hawea Guardians.
For more information, go to www.contactepic.co.nz
Contact Scorching Tri Series
Contact is currently in the fifth year of its partnership with this Wellington-based series.
Many of our Wellington staff, including a high proportion of first timers, are among the crowds who take part in the series, held in the picturesque Scorching Bay. The events are known for their relaxed atmosphere, innovations and originality.
For more information go to www.scorching.co.nz
Contact Alexandra Blossom Festival
Contact has been the major supporter of the Alexandra Blossom Festival since 2004 and in 2008 became “Principal Partner” of the Festival and Grand Procession: a street parade of locally built floats, traditionally covered with thousands of painstakingly applied individual blossoms.
In 2009, we also became Principal Partner of the long running Round the Clock race, a traditional “gut buster” hill run up and around the famous clock.
For more information go to www.blossom.co.nz
Waves Youth Health, Development and Support Service
In May of this year, we invited the Taranaki public to identify projects or organisations that they believed were worthy of support in the region. A panel of independent judges selected a shortlist and more than 1,200 locals cast their votes.
The result is a new partnership between Contact Energy and the Waves Youth Health, Development and Support Service. Our partnership has enabled the Waves team to employ a new full-time youth worker and develop and extend a wide range of health and educational programmes for the region’s young people and their families.
Wellington Loop
Six inner city secondary schools in Wellington are linked by very high sped broadband in an educational experiment called the Wellington Loop. The Wellington Loop encourages collaboration and sharing amongst schools, businesses and the community to create outstanding learning opportunities for school students in particular, but in the long term, for all the people of Wellington.
Since 2008, Wellington Girls’ College, Wellington College, Wellington High School, St Mary’s College and Wellington East Girls’ College and The Correspondence School have been connected to each other and the Internet via a high speed optical fibre network.
Contact was joined by the Wellington City Council, CityLink, Chapman Tripp and central Government through the Community Partnership Fund in supporting the establishment of the Wellington Loop.
United World College
Contact is investing in the country’s future leadership and global connections by supporting the establishment of a United World College in New Zealand.
The Global network of 12 United World Colleges was established by Kurt Hahn, the founder of the Outward Bound movement, and its honorary president is Nelson Mandela.
The colleges take 16 – 19 year-olds who have shown a passionate commitment to making a difference, mix them with their peers from around the world, and produce an astonishing proportion of the world’s future leaders.
The New Zealand UWC will take 240 students drawn from 85 countries and students will take part in Outward Bound courses as a part of their experience.
The College aims to produce outstanding leaders who will help build powerful global networks into the future, and who will carry a deep and life-long affection for New Zealand.
A site on the shores of Lake Wakatipu has been chosen for the New Zealand campus and Contact is proud to give support to make it happen.
