Spark New Zealand

Spark is thrilled to be supporting the GirlBoss New Zealand Awards again this year. Applications are now open, with prizes to recognise and champion young women (aged 11 - 18) across Aotearoa who are defying stereotypes and making a difference.   Winners will be recognised at an awards ceremony on Tuesday, September 24th, at The Northern Club in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. If you would like to nominate a young leader, click on the link below to learn more. https://lnkd.in/e7dAY9mY

Matariki celebrations at our Spark offices around the motu took place this week as we remembered those that have passed and celebrated the beginning of the Māori new year. Kai was at the heart of it all alongside kapa haka performances from local rōpu including the amazing Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Hoani Waititi and Te Ahurere o te Manawa Tapu. Our people had the opportunity to learn about the nine stars of Matariki through Metia Interactive's game Guardian Maia, make poi with Poi by Jazz, explore Māori arts and crafts marketplaces with local Pākihi Māori, treat themselves to a mirimiri, and even listen to Taonga Pūoro by our very own Liam Dacombe. Ngā mihi nui to all those that made our celebrations so special.

Today we announced the ultimate gaming festival called Spark Game Arena Live coming to Tāmaki Makaurau’s Spark Arena on Saturday, 7 September. Spark Game Arena Live will bring the best of gaming to Aotearoa with interactive experiences, finals of an esports tournament played live with a prize pool worth over $140,000, and guest appearances from globally recognised gaming personalities. The festival will have capacity for approximately 8,000 attendees across the day, and will be split into two parts  – a morning session that caters to the whole whānau and an afternoon session for those 16 years and over. There’ll be gaming experiences from 10 New Zealand game studios and activations from some of the most well-known game brands, with more to be announced in the coming weeks. For more information about the festival or to purchase a Spark pre-sale ticket, go to spark.co.nz/sgalive. General on-sale goes live at 11am on Wednesday, 3 July. 

Today we announced that we have received resource consent to build a new, large-scale data centre on Auckland’s North Shore as part of a 43-hectare masterplan development with global surf park creators Aventuur.   In a world-first, the development will use an innovative heat exchange system enabling excess heat produced by the data centre to warm the water of the nearby surfing lagoon, while an onsite seven-hectare solar farm will supply renewable energy back into the data centre.   Receiving resource consent for our North Shore development is an exciting milestone. The site will become our third strategic Auckland data centre location, adding to our existing Auckland sites at Takanini, and the CBD. Read more: https://lnkd.in/g4KmfYeg

We’re so proud to celebrate our Māori Development Lead Riki Hollings who has been awarded the Corporate Change Tōtara award at Te Matihiko awards tonight. The contribution you have made over almost three decades has been immense. Your guidance as we navigate te ao Māori at Spark and continue to grow our understanding and capability in this space is so valued by us all. Ngā mihi nui e te rangatira mō tō mahi. Kei te ngākau pono koe ki te Kora Aotearoa. A massive thank you for your efforts, leadership, and the loyalty you’ve shown to Spark. He poho kererū e hoa

We are thrilled to announce that Spark New Zealand, in partnership with CCL, has been honoured as the HPE Global Service Provider of the Year 2024 by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. This prestigious award is a testament to the outstanding efforts and commitment of our teams at CCL and Spark. We are deeply grateful for the unwavering support from our partners and clients who made this possible. A huge thank you to everyone involved! Together, we look forward to continuing to push boundaries and achieve great things. Read announcement here: https://lnkd.in/g5BHmyer #HPEDiscover #TechInnovation #WeAreCCL #Spark #ExcellenceInService Richard Adams Robert Monteith Donna Sanders Daniel Cooper Stephen Job Yvette Liddington Mark Trotter Kerry McKellar-Bailey Thanh Day Nicki Shirley Indranil Chowdhury

Our People and Culture Director, Heather Polglase is taking part in the Auckland City Mission Cook Off next week, joining business leaders and top chefs to cook for 150 Mission guests, many of whom are experiencing homelessness or face a daily struggle to put food on the table. As part of the challenge, Heather is raising $10,000 for Auckland City Mission - Te Tāpui Atawhai to support them in their incredible mahi which touches so many lives through providing services like nutritious meals, food parcels and housing solutions, to people in the community. The team at Spark City in Auckland got behind the cause this week, coming together to share a delicious lunch, prepared by Heather and the People and Culture team, as part of a fundraiser to support Heather’s efforts. If you would like to donate to this important cause, you can do so here: https://lnkd.in/gpP7-9fh

Congratulations to our CEO Jolie Hodson (she/her) who was recognised in today’s King’s Birthday Honours as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business, governance, and women.

We are celebrating Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa (Samoa language week) this week at Spark.   This year’s theme is 'Tautua i le alofa, manuia le lumana’i (Serve in love for a blessed future)’, and we want to showcase a siva Samoa performance from the tama’ita’i of our Spark Vaka Pasifika group. Siva Samoa is a storytelling dance that is a key part of Samoan culture and is traditionally performed by women. At Spark, we have an ambition to lift participation for Pasifika within our own workforce, and we are privileged to have the support of our Vaka Pasifika group who are supporting our ambition by amplifying Pasifika voices at Spark.   Manuia le Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa! 

We're thrilled to announce a new partnership with Genesis Energy that will support the development of new renewable energy capacity in Aotearoa and the delivery of Spark’s Toitū Sustainability commitments.   Under a 10-year agreement, Spark will purchase all electricity generated by Genesis’ first solar farm in Lauriston Canterbury – making a significant contribution towards our Science Based Target of a 56% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030 (from a FY20 baseline). Electricity accounts for 80% of Spark’s scope 1 and 2 emissions, and with our investment in data centres and 5G infrastructure accelerating we expect our electricity use to increase, offsetting savings from our network simplification and energy efficiency initiatives. As a result, we have been exploring how we can decouple our growth from emissions growth, and in Genesis we found a partner who was ready and willing to help us achieve this.    It is important to us that we deliver on our science-based target by supporting the generation of new renewable energy. In doing so we believe we are demonstrating how NZ businesses can work together to support Aotearoa’s climate goals – with Spark's procurement supporting Genesis’s renewable energy investments, and those investments in turn enabling Spark to meet its emissions reduction targets. Read more: https://lnkd.in/geWa3b8W