Our Projects

Below are some examples of work undertaken by Groundwork over the past few years. More project examples and/or references are available on request.

Climate Change Technology Transfer Sub-Group (Nov 2009 to Mar 2010)

MAF’s Climate Change Technology Transfer Sub-Group needed input from key agricultural, horticultural and forestry representatives to build a five year climate change extension implementation plan. Annie Perkins designed and facilitated six sector workshops to achieve this goal. Groundwork also organised all the workshops, liaised with participants, collected, analysed and integrated the ideas across workshops. See (add link to that page on our site) for the workshop reports.

Grow Organic Dairy Project (January to Jun 2009)

ODPG required a research leader to uncover the tacit knowledge of some of the top organic dairy farmers in NZ to support other farmers learning from these leaders.  The brief required an experiential learning process and included 18 farmers in the research team.  Annie Perkins designed and facilitated the data collection phase of the research project.  A parallel objective, met by the method used, was for the whole research team to learn first hand about each others farming operations and to identify some of the key factors in their success.  Annie also supervised others in the Groundwork team to coordinated three intensive workshops and five days of farm visits for a research team of over 20 people.  Groundwork collected an extensive set of both qualitative and quantitative data, providing a rich profile of these farming operations and the farmers who run them.  Transcribing and organising information collected from audio and video recording was a key part of the service provided.

DairyNZ (Mar to Aug 2008)

Dairy NZ wanted to collect information from top New Zealand scientists and professionals specialising in the minimisation of methane and nitrous oxide gas emissions from farms. Groundwork develop the survey, conducted it and produced a report which discussed and prioritised the potential effectiveness of models, systems and technologies that are either in use or could be used to reduce emissions.

New Zealand Association of Resource Management (Jan 2009 to present)

NZARM wanted to shift its secretarial management from a voluntary position to a more formal arrangement supported by stronger administrative systems. Groundwork convinced NZARM that, as a team, we could deliver the required services as or more effectively than an individual appointee. Our skilled staff invoices members, maintains and updates NZARM’s membership database and provides accounting and financial reporting services.

Meat and Wool NZ (2007)

Groundwork facilitated merger discussions between the Meat and Wool New Zealand Beef and Sheep Councils to form a single national group representing all sheep and beef farmers. This involved bringing together two groups with some common interests but also some disparate views.

New Zealand Farm Environment Award Trust (Feb 2002 to Jun 2006)

Groundwork helped trustees define the Trust’s guiding values and principles. We managed a consultative information gathering and review process to develop six publications on whole farm sustainability. We designed, organised and facilitated a series of practical, farmer-led workshops to take the tools and knowledge gained from these publications and the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA) to a wider audience of farmers and rural professionals nationwide. Groundwork Associates also managed the Trust’s “Learning from Leaders” project. This provided opportunities to learn about practical and applied sustainable farm business management options, primarily from farmers who are developing and using them. See the MAF Sustainable Farming Fund website for copies of the publications and other materials generated by these NZFEA Trust projects.

Human Rights Commission, National Plan of Action Project (May to Jul 2003)

An investigation into the state of human rights in New Zealand, which involved consultation with 5000 people. Groundwork trained 15 Human Rights Commission facilitators in participatory appraisal tools and techniques, to enable them to conduct the consultation process. We helped the facilitators develop a method for the project. We provided peer review and professional support services to the project manager and consultation leader planning the training and consultation programs. We conducted Waikato consultation workshops and contributed to the development of a national human rights strategy document.