Sustainable Coastlines is run by three (hard-working) full time staff and a network of passionate volunteers. We are a young, dynamic, multi award-winning New Zealand charity that has successfully coordinated ongoing projects in both New Zealand and the Pacific that have resulted in positive, real and long-term changes to local coastlines and communities.

Since early 2008 we've successfully motivated nearly 18,000 volunteers to remove more than 100 tonnes of trash from coastlines. During this time we've raised large-scale awareness about the challenges of coastline protection and solutions to address it. We’ve done this through direct participation, wide-reaching media exposure and public advertising campaigns, as well as through educational presentations to over 20,000 school students.

In December 2010 we spearheaded an ongoing project called Love your Coast that launched with massive clean-up events around the country involving over 5,500 people. This resulted not only in the removal of tonnes of rubbish from our coastlines, but in the establishment of our free event planning tool and network (www.loveyourcoast.org) that helps anyone running their own coastal clean-up to plan and promote their event.

Since the launch of Love your Coast numerous coastal clean-up events have been independently created and schools have begun to adopt what they learned from the experience into their existing ongoing curriculum. This will continue to grow as we share our experience and knowledge more widely in New Zealand through educational presentations and events.

We focus on simple, positive, grass roots actions that combine hands-on learning with fun in a setting that everyone loves. By doing so we attract a vast cross-section of volunteers to our events and have quickly become a popular and respected organisation with a large and very engaged following. As we rapidly grow we will increase the effectiveness of our operations in all areas. We will achieve this by:

1. •Coordinating wider-reaching, more holistic projects
   

2. •Employing additional staff and training more volunteers
   

3. •Getting into more schools (through educational presentations and development of resources for the New Zealand school curriculum)
   

4. •Securing further regional, national and international media exposure
   

5. •Creating more effective public awareness campaigns.
   

Our purpose

Coastal clean-up operations

Our activities reduce the human impact on the environment primarily through the removal of non-biodegradable waste. Our coastal clean-up projects make much more than a visual difference to the coast: they create awareness of important environmental problems, involve local communities, and provide an inspiring and educational event.

Advancement of education

We provide education and ensure learning is passed on to others through organising events that develop participant’s understanding of our impact on the environment and ways in which we can reduce this impact so as to sustain this resource for future generations.

The educational component of our events is aimed to encompass all parts of the community however we particularly focus on schools with ideas, support and coordination of local initiatives.

Primarily our education component has been facilitated through recycling demonstrations, and providing constructive incentives as a reward for participation such as sporting equipment, trips to experience a marine reserve or other special ecosystem.

Education is also provided through interaction with the environment to increase understanding of the importance of conservation and sustainability.

Promoting sustainable revenue practices

We promote sustainable revenue practices, taking a holistic view of the environment. These are projects aimed at increasing the sustainability of community resources. We achieve this by providing such projects with volunteers, funding, consultation, events and comparative analysis.

An example of one such sustainable revenue practice is the activity of planting waterways to reduce farm nutrient run off, while enhancing the water quality that flows through streams and into the coastal environment.