For Businesses

Support for Businesses and Industry.

Our catchment is home to the businesses, industries and people who keep the region moving. We connect local businesses with opportunities to contribute to a healthier, more resilient Te Karamū.

What we do with business & industry

We bring businesses and industry together to pool resources, share capability and deliver projects that are bigger than any one organisation can achieve alone.

We connect businesses with each other, as well as with landowners, schools, community groups and mana whenua, to turn shared interests into collective action. We help coordinate larger projects where businesses can contribute different skills, resources and investment, creating outcomes that would be difficult to deliver independently. And we connect industry with environmental solutions, helping businesses find ways to improve water health, reduce waste, support biodiversity and make better use of resources.

Our role is to see where the connections are, bring the right people together and help turn a good idea into something that can happen on the ground.

Business and industry in Te Karamū

The Greater Karamū is a productive landscape supporting agriculture, horticulture, food production, manufacturing, infrastructure, retail and a wide range of local businesses and services.

Businesses and industry are part of the fabric of the catchment. By working together, they can bring knowledge, resources, innovation and investment to projects that benefit the places where we live and work.

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Support available to you

Join Our Free membership

  • Help finding and applying for funding

    We know which funds are open, what they'll cover and what a strong application looks like. We'll help you write it, and we'll tell you honestly if your project isn't a fit for a particular fund.

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  • Co-investment in the work

    On many projects we co-invest alongside funders and landowners, which lowers the share you carry. The Waipuna wetland, for example, was funded 50% by Hawke's Bay Regional Council and 50% by the Collective

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  • Technical and ecological advice

    Access to council ecologists and technical experts on planting lists, wetland design, fencing setbacks and what will actually survive on your site.

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  • Field days and farmer-led workshops

    On real properties, with the people who did the work. What it cost, what went wrong, what they'd do differently.

    Local businesses

  • Monitoring and data for your place

    Water quality results, eDNA, bird and trap records, so you can see whether what you're doing is working rather than hoping it is.

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  • Connection to your local group

    Every sub-catchment has its own group and priorities. Your neighbours may already be working on the same stream.

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Have a chat.

Tell us what you're thinking about, or what's been bugging you about a paddock for years. No commitment, no cost.

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How it works

We help you plan it.

We bring in the technical advice, work out a realistic scope and identify the funding that fits.

We help you do it.

Applications, contractors, planting days, volunteers and monitoring once it's in. You're not left holding it alone.

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Recent Projects

Recent work with landowners

Freshwater & Wetlands

Waipuna Wetland Restoration, Havelock North

Learn more
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Predator Free Te Karamū

Karamū Trapping Collective

Learn more
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Local Businesses

Irongate Collective

Learn more
View all recent projects
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Questions landowners ask us

  • Nothing. Membership is free, and it gives you access to resources, funding opportunities, workshops and field-based learning.

  • No. Plenty of members join to keep an eye on what's happening and come to the odd field day. You take part in what's useful to you.

  • It depends on the work. Our own funding comes through MPI, grants, sponsorship and project co-funding, and we also help members access regional and national funds for fencing, planting, wetlands and biodiversity. The best first step is a conversation about what you want to do.

  • That varies by project and fund. On some projects we co-invest directly. At Waipuna, for example, the work was funded 50% by Hawke's Bay Regional Council and 50% by the Collective, with in-kind labour from the community on top.

  • Yes. A catchment is the sum of a lot of small actions, and small sites are often where the quickest gains are. Lifestyle blocks, one wet corner and a single stream margin all count.

Get in Touch
Join Free membership

Working together with

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Logo of New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries with a coat of arms, featuring a crown, a lady holding a spear, and various symbols, with black text and a green underline.
Hawkes Bay Regional Council logo with green and blue text and a leaf design
Department of Conservation logo with a shield containing a stylized green plant and the text 'Department of Conservation Te Papa Atawhai'.
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Join the Collective

Membership connects you to funding, workshops, field days and people doing the same work.

Become a member
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