Corporate citizen looks after community

One of the district's biggest employers has gifted cash and goods worth more than $100,000 in the past year to worthy local groups.
Ballance Agri-Nutrients has made the donations to benefit a wide range of activities ranging from dune preservation to Riding for the Disabled.
Graeme Smith, the co-operative's general manager, sales and marketing, says it's all part of being a good corporate citizen, and Ballance sites elsewhere do likewise in their own communities.
"Individually, the many sponsorships and donations we provide in the Western Bay might not seem significant, but altogether it's a major contribution to the well being of our region," says Graeme.
For example, the farmer-owned fertiliser co-operative has donated slow-release urea to Coast Care for dune replenishment use for several years.
Pim de Monchy, the Coast Care Co-ordinator at Bay of Plenty Regional Council, says the difference on spinifex plants is striking, resulting in up to triple the bio-mass production in a year.
"Sand dunes are a nutrient poor environment, and while you wouldn't want to go altering this in any normal situation, people and introduced plant species and pests mean that our dune plants need a bit of a helping hand to overcome these threats and establish," says Pim.
Mauao had the best-dressed pastures in the Bay recently following a donation of seven tonnes of bulk superphosphate. Ballance provided enough for a spreader to cover about 75 per cent of the 30 ha of pastures, with the rest being spread by hand from bagged product.
"Mauao doesn't get a new coat of fertiliser that often, so Tauranga City Council park ranger Mark Ray is looking forward to a healthy green sward this spring for the sheep that graze there.
"We have also been busy with a local Lions group from Greerton in Tauranga, providing 250 2kg bags of YaraMila Complex for them to sell as part of a major fundraising effort to re-establish the Lions Lodge in Hamilton that is used by cancer sufferers undergoing chemotherapy treatment at Waikato Hospital," says Graeme.
Ballance supports Riding for the Disabled by donating fertiliser for its paddocks, the relationship springing from Ballance's involvement in the CIB charity auction. Riding for Disabled was the auction recipient in 2009 and Ballance continues to support both groups.
"I rustled up about $30,000 in goods through our various contacts in the rural services sector for the CIB auction last year and we remain a keen supporter. Similarly, we have continued to support Avalon Workshop in Te Puna, an earlier CIB auction recipient, in their work to create employment and opportunities for people with disabilities."
Ballance is also looking at ways it might recognise the work the TrustPower TECT Rescue helicopter does for its shareholders, above the $12,000 it donated last year. It also supports BOP Rugby and junior surf lifesaving clubs.
"There's a long list of groups we support as a contributing member of this community. We helped restore the beach profile at Waharoa marae in Tauranga harbour, donated $5000 to the Bethlehem Trust, donated our old laptops to Omanu Primary, and regularly hold 'Jeans Day Fridays' at our Hewletts Road head office in support of charities.'
On top of that, Ballance generates electricity as a by-product of its manufacturing processes at the Mount and this is exported into the local grid.