Our communities

With operations across the New Zealand and over 1600 Green Team employees, we have close links with the communities we live and work in.

Mana Whenua

We are committed to working collaboratively with Mana Whenua. We celebrate this partnership both within our teams and our wider partnerships. We work with the oversight of our parent company Fletcher Building’s Te Kākano Māori Strategy. This helps us to deliver a platform for enduring iwi engagement and cultural support by aligning cultural and company values.   We view our projects through a cultural lens with the support of our people and partnership with Mana Whenua.  We offer opportunities for Māori leadership and development through the Whakatupu programme, which means ’to plant the seed’.   For information on our partnerships at Higgins and across our wider Fletcher Construction business, please view this page 

Auraki Stream Co-design collaboration

A collaborative approach in the co-design of the H4 Auraki Stream Road Retreat Project has yielded positive results for all stakeholders. 

The co-design team included Higgins, Waka Kotahi, Beca, Mills Albert, JC Environmental, Horizons Regional Council and three Iwi groups, Ngāti Rangi, Uenuku Charitable Trust and Te Korowai o Te Awaiti. 

The aim of the collaboration was to improve the road retreat design developed in 2020 providing better care for the environment and reflect the values of Te Waiū-o-Te Ika.  It involved embracing simple values such as truly listening and considering the views of others and doing so in a timely way. To achieve this, multiple design/planning workshops, site visits, and weekly Hui were held with the co-design team as the designs progressed.  

Wider outcomes in our communities

Every year, Higgins supports people and community organisations to bring about wider outcomes in the communities we live and work in. Some of these include:

Gateway Programme

Higgins is proud to offer the Gateway Programme to young people wanting to try a career in construction.

Gateway is a work experience programme for students between years 11-13. Higgins supports Gateway by offering students practical work experience for one day a week over 10 weeks.

During the programme, students complete industry-related unit standards through on-the-job learning, which contribute towards their NCEA results. They also get the chance to experience what a career with Higgins has to offer.

Dakota Linton Jennings, a student from Karamu High School, is one of these students. She recently completed the programme with Higgins Hawke’s Bay. Dakota attended a Girls with Hi-Vis event and enjoyed the digger experience so much she decided to find out more about the construction industry. “I looked into the industry and decided that’s what I want to do as a career,” Dakota says.

Hawke’s Bay Sports Park

Higgins has sponsored the Hawke’s Bay Sports Park since it opened in 2010 in support of the Sports Park Trust’s vision and determination to provide a comprehensive and high-quality sporting facility for the community and to give back to the community that has supported Higgins since 1971.

In 2016 Higgins confirmed a sponsorship with a five year investment of $250,000 and continues today to be a proud sponsor.

Higgins initial involvement in the Hawke's Bay was the purchase of Belspray Asphalts and a Bitumen Marine terminal at the Port of Napier in the 1970’s. Today Higgins has in excess of 130 Hawke’s Bay staff. Over this time Higgins has made significant investments in the region with the expansion of its contracting operation and its bitumen handling facility at the Port of Napier which now distributes bitumen to the Hawke’s Bay region and the lower North Island. 

Sports Park Chairman Rex Graham said Higgins had been a long term supporter of the Park. “Higgins has backed us from day one including during the global financial crisis when funding was hard to come by. The Park wouldn’t exist, in the form that it does, without their support,” he said.

Cancer Society - Relay for Life

Cancer affects everyone. The Cancer Society - Relay for Life is a great annual community initiative that brings people together to raise funds for cancer research and the society's support activities. In the Manawatu, Higgins have participated in the relay every year since 2001 with a team and raised $232,000 during this time for the Cancer Society.
www.cancernz.org.nz   

Higgins are proud to support the important work of the Salvation Army.