Bayfair’s award for being accessible to disabled
Science partnerships, like this, will help us stay ahead.
For the fourth year in a row, Bayfair Shopping Centre has been awarded for having the most inclusive business practices in 2019/2020. The shopping centre also took out thenewbuild-commercial category 2019/2020 for its development at the Tauranga City Accessibility Awards.
Bayfair Shopping Centre has promoted social responsibility through a strategy tobecomemore accessible by incorporating core values in all its social events and initiatives.
The goal is to raise awareness of accessibility issues within the wider community.
As part of its $115 million development project, the centre took the opportunity to install a fire evacuation visual alert system throughout the centre, mountbraille wayfinding signage across all amenities and update the store directory to include Braille for people with hearing and visual impairments.
Additionally, a second parents’roomand another set of mobility scooter charging stations have been added as part of the development to ensure shortto-no wait times for parents whoneed to tend to their children and those needing to re-boot their mobility scooters.
With an increase in the numberof car parks, Bayfair has allocated additional car parks for those with mobility permits in close proximity to centre entries and added a dedicated accessibility pick upand drop off zone.
Bayfair also opened a quietroom last year for visitors with sensory processing and autism spectrum disorders.
Bayfair Shopping Centre manager and leading accessibility advocate Steve Ellingford said the centre’s accessibility initiatives allow customers to continue their shopping.
“It is difficult for families affected by sensory processing and autism spectrum disorders to go to busy public places – infear that they won’t be able to find somewhere suitable for their family and their needs.
“Our team prides itself in thinking about the big picturewhenit comes to providing the best for the community.”
Redwoodstreewalk lightingupthe holidays
Rotorua’sredwoodstreewalk and world-acclaimed design and conservation icon David Trubridge have launched their latest collaboration for Treewalk’s Nightlights.
Threenewaluminium lanterns were inaugurated, in the shape of Trubridge’s iconic Floral and Coral design and are 1.6 metres in diameter.
David Trubridge Design Studio general manager Josh Lynch said the selectionwasmade because of the iconic design and what David Trubridgewasrecognised for.
“These are really large versions of our existing products.”
Treewalk co-founder and managing director Brucethomasen said the addition of thenewlightswas another feature for the walk.
Thomasensaid thenewlights will contribute to position the Nightlights as Rotorua’s most popular evening product but also as Aotearoa’s only real-life enchanted forest.
Through this collaboration, Trubridge has seen an increase in the sales of kitset lights as well as has received inquiries for future collaborations.
“Weanticipate a busy season with Kiwis hitting the road and enjoying the freedom to explore their backyard and go further afield into the country – something that is impossible inmanyother countries.
“Last yearwelaunched our biggest expansion with the launch of Altitude, a two-hour guided treetop experience and with this most recent additionweaim tomakethe Redwoodsthe ultimate playground for visitors, day or night.”
Tmbcbiosecurity Excellencesymposium 2020
This year’s Taurangamoana Biosecurity Capital symposiumwas its largest ever with just over 100 attendees.
The symposiumcovered the theme ofcovid-19, including its impact, learnings andnewthinking for biosecurity.
Adiverse line-up of speakers related themany and varied parallels between a humanhealth pandemic and a biosecurity incursion, with a focus onhowwe can strengthen our team of 5million biosecurity champions.
Tmbcthanks everyonewho contributed to this year’s event.
Historic agreement betweenretirement village industryandresidents association
Theretirement Villages Association (RVA) and the Retirement Villages Residents Association ofnew
Zealand (RVRANZ) have committed to closer collaboration and cooperation with the signing of a Memorandumof Understanding (MOU).
“The interests of our village residents are at the heart of everythingwedo so it’s greatnews that thervaandrvranzwill be working together to support the provision of a quality living environment for oldernew Zealanders,” saidgraham Wilkinson, president of therva.
As part of themou, the associations have agreed to develop a structure and process for aresidentadvisory Group (RAG) includingmembersfrom both associations, which will meet regularly.
Peter Carr, president of the RVRANZ, welcomed the signing of themou.
“The overwhelming majority of residents in villages are satisfied and glad theymovedto their village, but like any area where there are manypersonalities involved, sometimes an issue can arise.
The Residents Association looks forward to working with the Rvaindeveloping best practice in a range of areas as well as encouraging debate about the industry model and potential options.”
THERVRANZWILL also work with the Commission for Financial Capability to finalise a short Resident Handbookfor forming and conducting a resident committee and will continue their work in monitoring the effectiveness of the current legislation.
Sothebys recognised internationally
THENZ Sothebys International realty awards are calculated December 1 to November30 each year based on sales performance of their sales associates.
Fromthe entirenzteam of elite Sotheby’s sales associates, Jeremy Pryor took out thenumberone position this year. It is only his second year with the company.
Over the last year, Pryor has set manyrecords, in part due to the extended reach the international coverage NZSIR provides.
NZSIR were recognised last year as the best agency in the world by Forbes and Pryor is the best sales associate within that group.
Chloe Bailey, the office administrator also wasrecognised as the best in the business innew Zealand for the year.
Scholarship allows career in beekeeping totake flight
Abay of Plenty teen has been given a boost into his dream career in beekeeping after receiving the 2020 Apiculturenewzealandronmossop Youth Scholarship.
Ohope-based Angus Brenton-rule wasthrilled to win the scholarship which provides $2000to support training and set upcosts fornew beekeepers, a one-year membership to industry bodyapiculturenz (APINZ) and attendance at Apinz’s national industry conference.
“Iwas really, happy to get it. Ididn’t expect it, but I thought Imight have had a small chance since I’ve been studying apiculture and fascinated by bees most ofmy life,” he said.
While still at high school, Angus completed the level 3Newzealand certificate of Apiculture run by Pacific Coast Technical Institute at Edgecumbe College. Hewasinspired
Veronica Herrera, MPI
by his tutor Daniel Martin and applied for beekeeping workwhenhe finished Year 12 this year.
Hereceived a numberof job offers and tookup a beekeeping assistant position with localcompanygolden Grove Apiaries for the current season. His employer Lorraine Stanley says Angus hasmadea great start in the industry.
“It’s a crazy time of year to join a beekeeping team but Angus has persevered, showing a strong commitment to learning and absorbing asmuchinformation as he can glean from senior staff. Heis destined to be part of the beekeeping world for quite sometime to come,” she said.
The APINZ Ronmossop Youth Scholarship isnamedfor industry pioneerronmossopwhostarted his family beekeeping business Mossop’s Honeyin the 1940s.
Son, Neil Mossop, says it is a privilege for the family to support enthusiastic andmotivated young people like Angus into the industry.
Newappto identify plants at risk from myrtle rust
People keen to support the fight against the fungal disease myrtle rust, which threatensmanyof AotearoaNewzealand’s native trees, shrubs and climbers, nowhave anewtool to help identify vulnerable plants in the myrtle family.
Manaakiwhenua– Landcare Research and Biosecuritynew Zealand have partnered in the development of thenzmyrtaceae Key– a free app that makes it easy for citizen biosecurity volunteers to identify susceptible plants and keep an eye out for myrtle rust.
Myrtle rust has already spread across the top half of thenorth Island and cases have been recorded as far south as Greymouth.
“Weknowhowmuchdamage plant pests and diseases are causing overseas, and science partnerships, like this, will help us stay ahead,” said Veronica Herrera, MPI’S diagnostics and surveillance services director.
Thenzmyrtaceae Keyis a Lucid identification tool envisaged and funded by Biosecuritynewzealand and developed by botanists from Manaaki Whenua, the National Forestry Herbarium, Unitec, and other experts.
The app is easy-to-use, interactive and comprehensively illustrated with morethan 1600 fully captioned images built in and it is downloadable for both iphone and Android smartphones.
“The key includes morethan 100 of the mostcommonlyfound Myrtaceae species, subspecies, hybrids and cultivars innewzealand. Of these, 27 species, such as the iconic po¯hutukawa, ma¯nuka and ka¯nuka, are indigenous tonewzealand: others, such as feijoa and eucalyptus, are exotics of economic importance,” says Dr Herrera.
Touse the app, the characteristics of the plant being identified are entered, the app then sorts plants possessing these features, and it rejects those that don’t match. By progressively choosing additional features, the key will eventually narrow the results to just one or a few matching species.
Once you’ve correctly identified a plant in the myrtle family and if you think you see signs of the disease on it, don’t touch it. If you have a camera or mobile phoneyou can take a photo and submit it to the inaturalist website. Experts can check to confirm whether it is myrtle rust.
Capturing this information makes it available to agencies and scientists to analyse the rate of spread and observed impacts.
Thenzmyrtaceae Keyis available from the Google Play (Android) store and the iphone app store as amobile (smartphone) app suitable for undertaking identifications in the field, or through aweb-based browser hosted by Manaaki Whenua.
Jobs for Nature funding accelerates freshwater improvementinbay
Freshwater improvement efforts in four key catchments areas of the Bay of Plenty will be scaledupand accelerated thanks to an injection of $3 million funding from the Jobs for Nature programme.
The Ministry for the Environment and Bay of Plenty Regional Council announced thisweek that over the next two years the Accelerating Bay of Plenty Freshwater Improvement project will employ around 135 people to fence 174kmof private land and plantup to 450,000 native plants to protect the region’s waterways and enhance native biodiversity.
“It’s great to see this example of central and local government working together with landowners and iwi to put the health of freshwater first,” said Environmentminister David Parker.
The catchments are all experiencing high levels of contaminants from sedimentation and livestock nutrients, which is impacting ecosystem health and activities such as swimmingand kai gathering.
The catchments covered in the project are the Pongakawa River and tributaries of thewaihı¯ Estuary, the Paraiti and Kaituna, Nukuhouand Rotorua Tearawa Lakes.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council integrated catchments general manager Chris Ingle said itwas a major win for the region.
“Fencing our waterwayson a large scale is an important part of the process to managenutrient levels and improve downstream water quality.
“These projects were selected because they demonstrate immediate job creation, significant environmental outcomes, iwi and community engagement and/or partnership.”
Most of thework will focus on excluding livestock from waterways, wetlands and lakes, creating native planting buffers, and retiring and planting of erosion-prone land and gullies.
The Government funding will support Bay of Plenty Regional Council and around 45 landowners to implement thesenew requirements.
Private land andproperty owners, Bay of Plenty Regional Council and theonebillion Trees fund will contribute a combined $3 million
towards the project, with theministry for Environment’s Jobs for Nature programmefunding matching the investment.
The $1.245 billion Jobs fornature programmeis agovernment initiative, creating nature-based jobs to benefit the environment and support the economic recovery following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Charity golf event raises moneyfor scholarships
Bay of Plentywomenare being helped into tertiary training thanks to scholarships fromnewhorizons for Womentrust with funds donated by Toiohomai Institute of Technology.
Toiohomairaised $20,000 for the Trust at its annual Charity Golf Day.
This is the third event of its kind and this yearwas held at Arikikapakapa Rotorua Golf Club, with all proceeds going tonew Horizons forwomentrust.
The tournament sawmorethan 120 golfers from local businesses across the rohe take to the course.
Toiohomai chief executive Dr Leon Fourie said the eventwasa great success and itwas an absolute privilege to hand over a cheque for $20,000 tonewhorizons forwomen Trust.
This year the Institute welcomed Datacom on board as naming rights sponsor, as well as having Holland Becketton board as the lunch sponsor andsynergy Technologies on board as the dinner sponsor.
Westpac, Bay of Plentyrugby Union, University of Waikato, Priority One, Bopplumbing andgas, Cooney Lees Morgan, Abodo Wood, Red Stag Timber, ITAB, andocs alsocameon board as hole and golf cart sponsors.
Rotorua’s Ngapera Tiopirawasone of the 2019Newhorizons forwomen Trust scholarship recipients.
The 23-year-oldwas studying a Level 4 tertiary skills coursewhenshe applied for the scholarship and said shewasshockedwhenshe found out her applicationwas successful. Ngapera said the scholarship took somepressure off the financial strain of the impending course.
December Economic Monitor report
Priority One’s Economic Monitor Report fordecember showedthe region’sgdphad been growing by an average of 4.9 per cent over the last six years to reach $9.1 billion, setting the Western Bay in good stead to buffer any economic shocks. The estimatedgdploss for 2020was1.7 per cent so far.
The unemployment rate varied for thewestern Bay over time, reaching a lowof 3.4 per cent in 2019, and rising slightly to 3.7 per cent in 2020 so far, showing employment levels remain high this year.
Visitor spend in the Western Bay of Plenty was$917 million for the year endingoctober 2020, adecrease of 6 per cent on October 2019, yet performing better than other areas morereliant on international visitors.
Advertised jobs in thewestern Bay have been steadily increasing since June across both Trademe andseek, showing ahealthy appetite for hiring newstaff in all industries, particularly trades.