Trust Waikato is excited to announce its commitment to equity and climate change statements, to enable urgent change for our communities and our environment. These commitments will help to achieve the Trust’s vision of vibrant and resilient communities, and enable outcomes that can deliver transformational change.

“These statements are a testimony to the action we are taking,” says Dennis Turton, Trust Waikato Chief Executive. “We are now rolling out a number of initiatives in the areas of equity and climate to deliver on these commitments.”

The equity statement ensures the Trust will take meaningful action to improve impact by enabling fairer distribution of resources. This will involve Trust Waikato striving to remove structural and institutional barriers to ensure people have access to the same opportunities.

An essential element of the Trust’s delivery involves practicing relational philanthropy by building high-trust relationships with community groups. As the country went into Level 4 lockdown in 2020, community groups on the frontline trusted Trust Waikato to enable them to take the action they knew needed to happen.

“A high trust relationship with our community groups is something we want to encourage and build upon,” says Dennis. “We are here to listen to the innovators and change makers and enable them to do the work they know will make the difference”.

Through the climate change statement, Trust Waikato acknowledges that human-induced climate change poses a serious and immediate risk to our communities, and that urgent action is required to avoid catastrophic effects for our people and environment.

“We believe we have an important role to play in mitigating the impacts of climate change, as the effects of climate change will not be felt equally amongst our community,” says Dennis.

Trust Waikato is committed to enabling a low-emissions future and will be taking action across operations, grant making and its investment portfolio. To lower greenhouse gas emissions the Trust has evaluated its own emissions and will be implementing ways to reduce these further. Trust Waikato is also surveying its fund managers to ascertain how investments contribute to or negate emissions.

In the area of grant making, Trust Waikato is engaging with community groups to better understand the Trust's contributions to emissions. As part of this pilot project the Trust will provide a tool, “Carbon Assess” developed by Toitū Envirocare, to 25 groups to enable them to measure and track their own carbon emissions.

Trust Waikato will continue to work together with our communities to develop a resilient community response to these challenges and ensure true kaitiakitanga of our resources for future generations.

You can read the full climate change statement and equity statement online here or below.

Equity Statement

Anga Whakamuri
Anga Whakamua

Equity recognises that people have differing levels of advantage and therefore require different approaches and resources to reach their full potential.

We strive for a thriving Waikato hapori, a community which ensures everyone has access to the same opportunities, one that acknowledges different starting places, and seeks to remove structural and institutional barriers to correct imbalances. A place where all peoples feel they have a voice, can actively participate, and belong.

To achieve our vision for vibrant and resilient communities, we are committed to building a more just and equitable Waikato. A Waikato where Te Tiriti o Waitangi is embraced, and all people have an opportunity to grow, contribute, and thrive.

Join us in embracing diversity and inclusion to help ensure equity for every person in our community.

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Climate Change Commitment

Anga Whakamuri
Anga Whakamua

Trust Waikato acknowledges that human-induced climate change poses a serious and immediate risk to our communities, and that urgent action is required to avoid catastrophic effects for our people and environment.

We believe we have a role to play in mitigating the most severe impacts of climate change, and that we need to work together to develop a resilient community response in order to ensure true kaitiakitanga (guardianship) of our resources for future generations. The effects of climate change will not be felt equally amongst our community and we need to mitigate the inequality of these impacts.

Trust Waikato is committed to becoming a climate leader, to enable a low-emissions future. This will be done by actioning our climate change framework:

• Grant making - we aim to understand the impact that grants make to reduce climate change and to provide support to the community to understand and reduce their own climate emissions.
• Operations – we will develop transparent and measurable, actions and reporting to reduce climate change emissions that result from the operational activity of Trust Waikato.
• Investment portfolios – by evaluating the impacts of Trust Waikato’s investments we will reduce the climate change emissions of the Trust’s investment portfolios.

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