| 3 T T Karen Phelps Waste transformed into opportunities TROW Group has been proudly Māori and Pasifika owned and operated throughout its entire 10-year history. TROW Group REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT TROW Group has achieved outstanding success at the 2025 Pacific Business Trust Awards, taking home both a category win and the inaugural Frances Hartnell Supreme Business Excellence Award as well as launching an innovative online marketplace. The Māori and Pasifika-owned Auckland-based construction company claimed victory in the Business Excellence in Construction, Infrastructure and Trades category. TROW Group was also named finalists in the Pacific Community Impact Award and Business Excellence in Technology and Innovation. “There were so many amazing Pacific entrepreneurs, so it was a real honour to achieve these accolades,” says Jayda Iole-Pauga, communications coordinator at TROW Group. “The recognition reflects our commitment to embedding Pacific values into modern sustainability practices and serves as vital proof that Pacific people belong in every sector, offering hope and inspiration for the next generation of entrepreneurs.” The wins came as particularly sweet validation for a business model that initially faced scepticism. “Deconstruction was dismissed at first; the idea of creating opportunity from construction and demolition waste sounded bizarre to anyone stuck in a linear mindset,” explains Jayda. “We evolved the approach in Aotearoa, demonstrating to major businesses and corporations that repurposing construction materials is both viable and valuable.” Central to recent success is the launch of TROW ReStore, an online marketplace that gives salvaged materials a second life. “Creating and launching it is something we’ve dreamed about for the last 10 years, and it finally became available in November,” says Jayda. “The platform allows customers to browse available items or visit The Vault to reserve pre-sale materials.” The marketplace embodies founder Saia Latu’s original vision of breathing new life into materials that would otherwise end up in landfill. TROW Group’s methodology focuses on carefully dismantling buildings rather than demolishing them, salvaging a minimum of 80 per cent from all deconstruction projects. Materials are redirected into schools, churches, housing and disaster recovery projects throughout Tonga and the wider Pacific region. The company’s accreditations include ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, IMPAC, SiteWise Gold and Totika. Since its inception, the company has diverted over 120,000 tonnes of waste, creating affordable resources and supporting community infrastructure projects. TROW Group extends across the Pacific with a division in Tonga where recovered materials from New Zealand are upcycled into furniture, picnic tables, desks and other items. Jayda says this circular economy model generates income that funds future shipments and provides local employment opportunities. TROW Group has been proudly Māori and Pasifika owned and operated throughout its entire 10-year history. “TROW Group’s sustainability commitments speak not only to the waste-recovery side of our mahi but also to the sustainability of Māori and Pasifika people, empowering them with practical skills, training and employment that can sustain them and their families into the future. “The reason we stand tall within the sustainability space filled with many other heavy hitters is because we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors who pioneered the idea of reusing all resources they could to survive. “We took that blueprint and nurtured it into a modernised resource recovery methodology, which, in turn, improves social and environmental outcomes for our people and for Papatūānuku.” 021 892 535 kieran@fencehire.co.nz www.fencehire.co.nz • Temporary Fence • Permanent Site Fence (Deer Fence)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=