Waikato Regional Council stamps new strategic direction

Waikato Regional Council today adopted a new strategic direction that will see it take more of a leadership role in regional development.

To reinforce the new direction, the council will phase out use of the brand name Environment Waikato and revert to using its legal name, Waikato Regional Council.

Chairman Peter Buckley said the council believed consistent use of the name Waikato Regional Council would enable the council to more easily communicate its mandate to contribute to the environmental, economic, social and cultural wellbeing of the Waikato region.

“Environment Waikato has always focused on improving environmental outcomes to protect the region’s economic base and our quality of life, and that won’t change,” he said.

“Our new strategy spells out our intent to step up and play a more active role in providing strategic leadership that balances economic and environmental outcomes to help improve Waikato people’s standard of living.”

The strategy focuses on sustaining land and water values, achieving co-governance requirements with iwi and facilitating regional development.

Mr Buckley said that by concentrating on these three areas, the council would be better placed to meet the big environmental and economic issues affecting the Waikato region.

“We believe changing our name back to Waikato Regional Council helps signal our direction and build more awareness about our regional role in transport, navigation safety and economic development, for example.”

The Environment Waikato brand name adopted by the council in 1992 to promote the organisation’s unique responsibilities relating to the sustainable management of the region’s natural resources. It is used on a wide range of publications, signage, uniforms, vehicles, email and web addresses and so on.

The legal name, Waikato Regional Council, is used in all legal documents.

The Environment Waikato brand will be phased out over the next two years to minimise the cost of change.