We are driven by our purpose of creating places for bees and people to thrive in harmony. Our Harmony Plan sets out our commitment to make lasting and positive contributions to protect nature and support those in need around the world.
Our Commitments
We are committed to investing 1% of our net income every year to worthy, social and environmental causes through our Harmony Partnerships. We aim to not just make monetary donations but engage in meaningful projects and activations together to increase our impact towards a shared mission that supports the objectives of the Harmony Plan.
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$249,525 donated to our community partnerships in FY24
How are we tracking?
- Proudly working with three key Harmony Partners from within New Zealand and Africa.
- Launched our Global Time to Heal Programme. Comvita teams come together with community groups to take a day out to support local initiatives. In 2024, our global team collectively volunteered 1,101 hours for communities and nature in need.
Image: Our Production Team helped to make meals for homeless communities in Paengaroa in 2024.
Closer to home in Aotearoa, New Zealand
- Comvita donated 27 retired laptops to Tū Mai Digital, a Bay of Plenty non-profit on a mission to connect communities in need with laptops, mobile phones, internet connections, and technology training; providing much needed assistance to those who cannot otherwise access these important resources.
- In 2023, Comvita staff built and donated 14 Pātaka Kai (community food pantries) to schools, community centers, and townships across the central North Island and we continue to stock them with Comvita honey.
Image: Three keen tamariki checking out the Pātaka Kai (community food pantry) Comvita donated to Giggles PlayCentre in Te Puke
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Image: Our Korea Team helped to clean up along the Cheonggyecheon stream as their Time to Heal day in 2023.
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Image: Our People and Purpose team helped to build a permaculture style community garden at Giggles Playcentre in Te Puke as part of their Time to Heal Day in 2024
Time to Heal
Every year each of our Comvita global teams gets a paid day of leave to volunteer their time in the local community in which they live and work, in alignment with the objectives of our Harmony Plan. Their mahi (work) has included street clean-ups, beach clean-ups, native tree planting, stream restoration, community garden development, and preparing meals for the homeless. These efforts make a real and positive impact on the ground and help our teams to build meaningful relationships in their local communities.
In 2023 and 2024 we collectively volunteered over 2,000 hours, we look forward to doubling this number and making an even larger contribution this year!
Learn more about out Key Harmony Partners:
PROUD PARTNERSHIP
Save the Kiwi
Aotearoa New Zealand is home to the beloved Kiwi, a symbol of our nation and a unique species found nowhere else in the world. However, these iconic birds are facing significant threats from predators that challenge their very survival. Less than 70,000 Kiwi exist in the wild and it is up to us to ensure the next generation can know and love this taonga species before it's too late.
Since 2021 we have partnered with Save the Kiwi to support their exceptional efforts of kiwi conservation.
Through our partnership, we support various initiatives that help safeguard this iconic species, including predator management, advocacy, research, kiwi relocation, and egg incubation. Through our partnership with Save the Kiwi, we aim to not just donate money to a worthy cause but actively participate in conservation in our own forests.
Since 2017 we have planted over 6.8 million native Mānuka trees across the North Island, converting degraded farmland back into thriving native forests. One of these sites is Blue Sky, located deep in the heart of the Central Plateau where we have planted 416 hectares of new forest (500,000 manuka trees).
We want to ensure native species are safe to return to and thrive in these forests by trapping introduced predators like stoats, ferrets, rats, possums, and feral cats that threaten the lives of young Kiwi and other native species. By implementing effective predator control measures, we are creating a safer environment for Kiwis to nest and flourish. Save the Kiwi actively supports our efforts to create a unique and extensive trap network as well as supporting an annual Kiwi call survey with our staff at Blue Sky station by providing expertise and hands on training so that we are set up for success and track our progress. Through our joint conservation initiatives, we’re not only protecting Kiwis but also increasing biodiversity in these precious ecosystems.
Image: The winner of our Name a Kiwi competition, 10-year-old Andrew Irvine, traveled from Palmerston North to Rotoroa Island to help release the kiwi chick he named, Korakora, out into the wild.
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Image: Helen McCormick, Save the Kiwi husbandry manager, proudly holds up a kiwi chick that recently hatched at Crombie Lockwood Kiwi Burrow.
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Image: Students at Hurupaki School prepare to plant their Comvita Pollinator Seed Balls.
PROUD PARTNERSHIP
Garden To Table
In July 2024, we announced our sponsorship of New Zealand charity, Garden to Table. Garden to Table helps empower New Zealand school children to grow, harvest, prepare and share their own fresh, nutritional and affordable kai (food). The schools teach thousands of Kiwi kids the knowledge and skills that have a transformative and lifelong impact on their wellbeing and on the world around them.
Supporting communities to thrive, and working in harmony with nature, is at the heart of our connection with Garden to Table.
As part of this partnership, Comvita donated 125kg of Manuka honey and 3,000 Pollinator Seed Balls to Garden to Table schools. The honey will be used in food preparation and recipes, as a gut healthy alternative to sugar, while the Seed Balls have have been planted by students to increase quantity and quality of pollinator forage on the school grounds.
Partnering together, Comvita is now helping to support thousands of tamariki to grow, harvest, prepare, and share their own fresh, nutritional kai. And we know the Garden to Table schools will love delicious, tummy-friendly honey!
To learn more about our partnership with Garden to Table CLICK HERE