Positively part of our communities

We live, work and operate in communities throughout the country, and we know that our every action has an impact on the people and the environment around us.

We are a New Zealand business.

Our philosophy is to ‘be the neighbour you’d want to have’. To us, this means respecting the rights of others, ensuring the safe and best practice operation of our sites, and making a positive contribution to the communities we call home.

Community partnerships

At Contact we like to keep things local. We have diverse communities we connect with. We like to understand the nitty gritty of what they are all about to help us deliver their needs and aspirations. We are all about creating meaningful partnerships for the future. It’s not only rewarding, it’s vital to the ongoing success of our business.

Contact Epic

First raced in 2008, the 125 kilometre Contact Epic is a rare opportunity to ride around the Lake Hawea. The event starts on top of our Hawea Dam and takes riders over Department of Conservation and private land in one of the most beautiful parts of New Zealand.

We have been principle partner since the Epic's inception and we are proud to support a major highlight on the local calendar and the locals who help make it happen. A Community Fund has been to “pay forward” a percentage of funds raised by rider entry fees to help support the Hawea District community.

Swimwell Taupō

We've been a proud member of the Taupō community for decades. So in 2010, we decided to ask the people of Taupō what organisation in the community they thought needed our support. Swim Well Taupō was the winner and we've continued to support it ever since.

The programme provides free swimming and water safety lessons to around 3,000 primary students in the Taupō area each year. To date we’ve supported nearly 280,000 swimming lessons for 38,000 kids.

Alexandra Blossom Festival

Contact has been a major sponsor of the colourful Alexandra Blossom Festival since 2004. In 2008 we became “Principle Partner” of the Festival and Grand Procession, a street parade of locally built floats, traditionally covered with thousands of carefully applied individual blossoms. This family-friendly event is now over 60 years old and takes place close to the Clyde Dam.

Kids Greening Taupō

Kids Greening Taupō is an education and environmental programme which aims to increase the native flora and fauna of the district.It provides the link between local schools and Greening Taupō, getting students actively involved with projects to increase biodiversity and solve environmental problems.

Contact sponsors the “Take Action Fund” where local senior school students are on a leadership team to allocate the funds to local schools and ECE centres.

Wingspan National Bird of Prey Centre

Contact is the proud sponsor of an exciting initiative to release Karearea (NZ Falcon) onto Tuwharetoa Iwi land, in Taupō. The birds will become predators to pests like rats and mice which will help other wildlife to thrive. We anticipate a release of up to 15 karearea over a three-year period.

The sponsorship from Contact covers equipment, travel and food costs, feed requirements, identification branding and volunteer monitoring. We are excited to see these beautiful native birds of prey soaring over Tauhara Maunga once again.

Lake Dunstan

To help the recreational users of Lake Dunstan gauge weather conditions before heading off on their trips to the Lake, we installed a webcam at the top of Clyde Dam. It came after a suggestion from local users of the lake wanting up-to-date information before they started their journey.

The webcam provides a panoramic view over the lake from the top of Clyde Dam. And it's updated every 15 minutes, ensuring an accurate take on current conditions. Click here to view the webcam of Lake Dunstan.

Webcam supplied by Snowgrass Solutions.

Kiwi Contact

Contact is celebrating the birth of a new company initiative that gives staff the opportunity to help save New Zealand’s endangered national bird – the humble kiwi.

‘Kiwi Contact’ provides support for Kiwi Forever, an educational programme focused on kiwi conservation run by the Department of Conservation (DOC) and independent charity Kiwis for Kiwi. This initiative is new pilot programme involving local Taupō schools and staff.

Taranaki Kiwi Trust

In 2022, Contact entered into a three-year sponsorship with Taranaki Kiwi Trust, to support kiwi training, education and advocacy in Taranaki. Contact has worked with the Taranaki Kiwi Trust since 2020, sponsoring Koko a resident kiwi on Taranaki Maunga. Contact is now supporting a strategic kiwi education and advocacy programme, which is targeted at primary schools, public events, with landowners, in the business community and with service clubs and organisations. The Trust is engaged with pest control on public and private land, egg lifts, releasing kiwi, kiwi monitoring and surveying. It provides protection for kiwi on private properties in Taranaki through predator trapping.

Being a good neighbour

We have around 45 sites across New Zealand, including 11 power stations. We work hard to make sure our operations are safe, and to reduce and mitigate any issues that may impact on our neighbours.

Backing our people to do good

In addition to our regional partnerships we have an employee volunteer programme which enables our people across Contact to contribute part of their time to good causes. We call this Community Contact and each year we have 8,000 hours available to help causes all over the country.

Got a project you’d like some help with? Get in touch here on 0800 000 458.

We love supporting the good work happening in our communities. While we can’t always support we’d love to hear about the good work you’re doing, and if we can help we will.

For sponsorship, community investment and other enquires contact: sponsorships@contactenergy.co.nz

If you live around one of our power stations or offices and want to get in touch, give us a shout on 0800 000 458 (North Island) or 0800 66 33 35 (South Island).