The team at Stormwater360 is proud to once again be the main sponsor for the WaterNZ annual Stormwater Conference. This is relevant as it speaks to a long-term partnership, a lasting relationship, an element that is becoming more and more important in our sector.

2020 was a wake-up call for many of us! We’ve all faced challenges – uncertainty and visibility on both the demand and supply side, maintaining competitive pricing and lead times, empowering, and motivating remote staff, to name a few. But if COVID has shown us one thing, it is the importance of resilience: the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, to withstand and “bounce back” from unpredictable threats and rapid change and to emerge even stronger.

We are increasingly recognizing that resilience is a core competency that cannot be underestimated or tended to only in challenging times. In a world where the future remains uncertain and change will continue to come fast, we are increasingly moving beyond reviewing our short-term performance, basic organisational well-being and defensive risk management to a forward-looking stance based on strategic resilience.

As we continue to grow our business in Aotearoa and internationally, a key component of our approach is to regularly review our business model to ensure we adapt quickly to the changing environment and stakeholder needs, underpinned with flexibility and openness in listening and communicating with stakeholders, and aligning our values with our actions.

Key values such as responsible practice and accountability, integrity, cultural responsibility, innovation, and collaboration, partnership and lasting relationships are embedded into our own long-term sustainability strategies.

We take these values seriously as we strive to maintain our position as an industry leader in stormwater management in Aotearoa; leveraging our 25+ year experience in design, supply, and maintenance for an extensive product portfolio – learning from our past to inform the future; “Ka mura, Ka muri” (walking backwards into the future).

The importance of these values at an industry level should not be underestimated when we plan for future challenges. Failure of ageing infrastructure, rapid urbanisation, the mounting effects of extreme weather events, and capacity constraints all place further pressure on an already strained sector; let alone further unpredictable occurrences. We need to further come together “with the right people around the table at the right time” to discuss a pathway.

The importance of platforms such as WaterNZ and the Stormwater Conference cannot be stressed enough. This Conference brings us opportunity to share wisdom and technology, to reconnect, to hold one another accountable and form new, long-lasting relationships.

Stormwater360 is grateful for the opportunity to be part of this journey, and welcome all to join us in building resilience in protecting our shared waterways.

“Ka ora te wai, ka ora te whenua, ka ora nga tangata”

‘If the water is healthy, the land is healthy, the people are healthy’.

We look forward to talking at the Conference!