Suzy and Bruce Rea are business owners with a difference.
The couple owns Emmetts Truck Services on Heads Rd - but they are also committed environmentalists who own an organic farm.
So, when the Reas built a brand new service centre they put their environmental principals into action and incorporated a rainwater
harvesting system into the building's design.
The new service centre repairs and maintains trucks and employs 16 people. It was formally opened last week.
The system collects rainwater off the building's substantial roof from where it is fed through huge downpipes into a 1.6km-long system of underground pipes and into two storage tanks which can hold 50,000 litres of water..
Mrs Rea said the decision to invest in rainwater harvesting made sense both environmentally and economically.
"The water is there and it's free - so why not use it?"
Mrs Rea said all their machinery that uses the city water supply - from the coffee maker through to the pressure washers - lasts only about 18 months, whereas at other locations it lasts seven to 10 years.
"So moving off the town water definitely has economic value for us."
The harvested water also diverts rain away from the stormwater system, decreasing the likelihood of flooding in an area prone to it.
With Earth's climate changing, water would be a valuable commodity in the future, Mrs Rea said.
"We treat it like a right, and one day it might not be. It's really a privilege to have clean water, and we just don't realise that in New Zealand."
Mrs Rea said she and her husband were "environmentally minded".
"We live on a 300ha organic farm, we have solar hot water, we grow all our own veggies and we grow wheat to grind into flour - so for us, rainwater harvesting is nothing unusual.
Mrs Rea said she hopes the system will supply the business' entire water needs.
