Rawiri Richmond and Being Green at Te Wānanga o Raukawa 

Of Ngāti Raukawa, Tūwharetoa ki Kawerau, Ngai Tai, Whakatōhea, Rangitihi, Ngāti Manawa and Ngāti Awa, Rawiri Richmond has always had an interest in environmental issues. He grew up in Kawerau with easy access to the bush, sea, river, and hot water pools where he could drink water from the awa, go hunting, fishing and diving. He recalls, “How fortunate was I to have grown up with these close by”. He came to Te Wānanga o Raukawa with a love for the outdoors and the environment. He was also one of the early students and worked on the Ōtaki and Porirua Trust Board farm adjacent to campus. Prior to returning, he was the Pou Hononga (customary relationship manager) for the Te Tai Hauauru region (North Taranaki to Wellington) for the Ministry of Fisheries, which later merged with the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI). While there, he enjoyed working with iwi learning about their tikanga and fishery aspirations. When the merger happened, he felt the focus had changed and he was no longer comfortable with how MPI was working with Māori and left. 

Rawiri has led Te Whare Manaaki Whenua (Maintenance and Buildings) for about six years. In that time his team has brought greater awareness of environmental issues to the staff. His team introduced a recycling system accompanied by workshops where staff were walked through the what, how and why we reduce, reuse and recycle our waste. The workshops brought about a greater willingness by staff to participate in recycling at work and at home. A worm farm consisting of 4 large commercial sized worm farms was set up in 2017. It is fed with organic waste collected daily from the various campus kauta. The great benefit being that we are reducing what we send to land fill, and the castings and juice are available to staff for their home gardens. 

… brought the project completion in on time and on budget. 

The building of Te Ara a Tāwhaki, our beautiful multi-purpose education facility, was project managed by Rawiri, who brought the project completion in on time and on budget. The build was completed in August 2018 with green building principles incorporated into the construction. The ongoing benefits being the reduced power consumption from the national grid through having solar panels, the collection of rainwater from the roof into a 30,000 litre tank, which is then filtered and used for the ablutions and irrigation of the gardens, and a warm, light and airy space for students and staff use. 

This time the green building principles will be taken further by following the principles of the Living Building Challenge. 

Work has started on a new development at the Ōtaki campus. A carpark, an administration building, and three buildings with classrooms and offices are expected to be completed around March 2023. Again, Rawiri is the project manager. This time the green building principles will be taken further by following the principles of the Living Building Challenge. The Living Building Challenge came to Te Wānanga o Raukawa’ attention through the architects of Ngā Purapura, Te Ara a Tāwhaki and the new development, Tennent and Brown. More about the Living Building Challenge can be found at https://living-future.org/lbc/ 

Ka mahi te hukuroa i ana mahi 

 The band of toilers keeps on working