Opus supports its local communities as a responsible corporate citizen and we actively pursue through our staff a good level of involvement in community activities.

Examples of this commitment for supporting our communities include:

• Our Christchurch Environmental team has committed to three years of funding, provision of design and planting activities at Horseshoe Lake (an important wetland area) in Christchurch.

• As part of Work Choice Day, staff from our Wellington office hosted pupils from three local secondary schools at an ‘openday’ to show them what is involved in an engineering career.

• We are part of a scheme to assist and sponsor secondary school students through a five-year cadetship in civil engineering in the small town of Wairoa, with the aim of training the students within their own community and setting an incentive for them to remain in the community.

• Staff from the Birmingham office in the UK took part in the ‘Race for Life’ to help raise funds for Cancer Research, while staff from Cardiff joined forces to complete a 66 mile charity bike ride to raise funds for the Action for Children cause.

• A number of staff from our Christchurch, New Zealand office registered with Volunteering Canterbury, and assisted a number of voluntary organisations in the community including the local branch of the Salvation Army and the New Zealand Red Cross.

• In Tauranga, staff were involved in an extensive tree planting and revitalisation programme of the Kopurererua Valley Reserve.

• Staff from the Wellington region assisted the Greater Wellington Regional Council in a day long tree planting session at the Battle Hill Forest Park, and participated in a restoration programme to revegetate and restore sand dunes near the Waikanae River mouth north of Wellington.

• Many staff from our Nelson office in New Zealand are involved with the Brook Waimarama Wildlife Sanctuary and give their time voluntarily in building projects. Many also participate in the local Cancer Society Walk for Life and supported the fundraising activities of the Tonga Tsumami Relief Fund.

• In the UK, we support the Royal National Lifeboat Institute, a charity sea rescue organisation, who patrols most of the  coastline around the UK and the Republic of Ireland, and promote water safety with school children across the country.

• In Wales, UK, we assisted in the ‘Bridge to Schools” series of workshops to introduce school children to civil and structural engineering.

• We participated in an ecological restoration and enhancement project at Gleeson Park, Napier and used the opportunity to teach young school children about environmental issues and encouraging them to take ownership for the care of the park.

• Our Wellington Civil team got involved with ‘Volunteer Wellington’. As part of this, the team of 17 successfully undertook the design and build of a monkey enclosure at the Huha Animal Sanctuary.

• Mark Hunter, from our Rotorua Office, was awarded a certificate by the Ministry of Health in recognition of his work in relation to their Drinking Water Technical Assistance Programme.

• Auckland based Water and Sanitation Engineer, Victoria Fray travelled to the Solomon Islands as part of a Red Cross team to assist the local people devastated by a severe earthquake that together with a tsunami wrecked havoc of the villages.  She was able to ascertain the extent of the damage to the vital infrastructure, assess the health risks brought about by the failure of the sanitation system and assist the local people with a rebuilding programme. Opus was recognised for supporting Victoria by the New Zealand Red Cross and was presented with their Humanitarian Award for 2008. 

• The voluntary advisory work associated with the 2005 Boxing Day Tsunami at Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and a subsequent Opus funded return to the sites of the devastation in 2007 to assist with the commissioning of water and sanitation, saw Utilities Engineer, Dave Neru from our Palmerston North office, awarded a New Zealand Special Service Medal.