ZESPRI AIMS GAMES ​​​​​​​GIVES BACK 
Kaitiakitanga events and opportunities

COASTAL CLEAN-UPS, TREE PLANTING AND MORE

Zespri AIMS Games Gives Back returns in 2024 with more ways for you to give back to your host city with coastal clean-ups, tree planting to get involved in, plus a food rescue scheme and Boomerang Mugs to help keep food and disposable cups out of landfill.

Your fellow students in the Green Team will be on recycling duty at the venues. Make sure you keep an eye on the Games app for the daily sustainability quiz too, and grab a free bus for sustainable travel!

COASTAL CLEAN-UPS

Help keep rubbish and waste from entering our precious moana

The Coastal Clean-up is back! We love how passionate our visitor athletes are about helping to look after our beautiful beaches. This year there are two clean-ups along the coast, organised again by Tauranga City Council. Everything you’ll need on the day will be provided, just make sure you bring covered shoes and an appetite for the free BBQ.

Registration details coming later this year.

Tuesday 10 September - Hopukiore (Mount Drury)

Thursday 12 September - Gordon Spratt Reserve, Pāpāmoa

TREE PLANTING

Contribute to the largest urban wetland restoration in the Southern Hemisphere

Dig in with Tauranga City Council and Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology to help plant trees for this important biodiversity project. Kōpurererua Valley is a 300 hectare block of wetland in the city that for many years was inhabited by the people of Ngai Tamarawaho.

It’s a special area that’s being lovingly restored. The planting day is a chance for you to get your hands in the earth and be part of its legacy.

Registration details coming later this year.

Wednesday 11 September - Kōpurererua Valley, Faulkner Street entrance

ZESPRI AIMS GAMES GREEN TEAM

Local heroes doing the mahi

Give them a finish-line cheer when you see the Green Team in action. The Green Team is the volunteer squad of local students who’ll be managing the recycling programme at the event, trained and mentored by local waste minimisation experts, Waste Watchers.

FREE BUSES

Park the car and ride sustainably

With over 20,000 visitors to the city, the roads are going to be busy, so Tauranga City Council and Bay of Plenty Regional Council are once again putting on dedicated free buses to make it easy for you to get to your games. The Zespri AIMS Games buses will run on a loop around the major venues.

Plus, all Tauranga Bayhopper buses will be free for athletes, referees, and coaches for the week of the Games (but not for family and friends).