New Board Members bring extensive professional experience to iconic Kiwi charity

Keep New Zealand Beautiful, an iconic not-for-profit organisation that this year celebrates its 55 year milestone, has recently brought on two new Board Members to add to its experienced executive team.

The new Board Members – Emma Jeffery and Glen Hughes – come from diverse business backgrounds and share a strong common interest in helping protect Aotearoa’s environment and ecosystem. They join the environmental charity as it goes through a period of transformative change and growth.

Keep New Zealand Beautiful CEO Heather Saunderson said, “As Aotearoa’s oldest environmental charity, we’ve got a strong brand and a driven team making a big difference through education, research and data collection, and community pride programmes.

“Over this past year we’ve launched five new education programmes, including Climate Ready Classrooms, Eco-Schools, two citizen science programmes and our Kai Garden Competition, all of which have had great uptake from schools and community groups around the country. We’ve also conducted, with the support of Stats NZ and DoC, the 2022 National Litter Audit – a follow up to our 2019 audit and a major piece of data collection and analysis which will help guide government policy around litter. Whilst Keep New Zealand Beautiful was initially set up in 1967 to address litter, our focus in recent years has widened to include the impact of waste on climate change, biodiversity and pollution.”

The not-for-profit is also the recipient of multi-year funding from the Ministry for the Environment’s Waste Minimisation Fund to build upon existing litter research, implement further educational campaigns, and to launch a new, additional initiative to address illegal dumping.

“While we’ve always had a diverse group of capable and experienced Board Members, comprising of successful business representatives and elected council officials, the global climate emergency has made us more driven than ever to educate, inspire and empower New Zealanders to participate and do their bit for the restoration, care and protection of their local and national environments,” Ms Saunderson said.

“The talented individuals who are joining the Keep New Zealand Beautiful Board will add to the wealth of strategy and governance experience, to steer a growing organisation that continues to go from strength to strength. We welcome Emma and Glen to the Board.”

---

Emma Jeffery is the founder and co-owner of Emendas, a provider of people, process, and safety advisory services to Kiwi companies. She sits on a number of industry councils and panels across consulting, compliance, and qualification development, helping to shape and support how organisations operate.

Having grown up with “Be a Tidy Kiwi” messaging, she believes that Keep New Zealand Beautiful’s mission is more relevant and important now than ever. “In my line of work I often come across organisations and teams with an interest in a sustainable future, who aren’t sure how to channel their enthusiasm. I’d love to see more engagement from the private sector when it comes to sustainability and preservation of our unique and beautiful country.”

A planner with over 20 years experience in professional consultancy roles, Glen Hughes is based in Ōtautahi Christchurch, and has significant commercial experience across both public and private sectors. He is currently Chair of Innovative Waste Kaikōura and has held previous Trustee and Emerging Director positions with engineering consultancy Harrison Grierson Ltd and the University of Waikato.

“I was drawn to the Board of Keep New Zealand Beautiful as I am motivated to give something of my experience back to a great environmental or community cause. What better opportunity to do that than with New Zealand’s oldest environmental charity?”

Emma and Glen join current Board Members, Victoria Kaye-Simmons (Chair), Mandy Mayhem-Bullock (Deputy Chair), John Riddell, Cr. Andrew Iles and Alexandra Davids. View all Board Member profiles here.