Celebrating great New Zealanders driving environmental change.
BLAKE Awards - Supported by Westpac
November 2025
Invitation
Nominations for the 2025 BLAKE Awards have CLOSED
BLAKE Awards – Supported by Westpac
For more than two decades, the BLAKE Awards have recognised New Zealander’s whose leadership has delivered impact across all walks of life. Now, as we step into our 21st year, the BLAKE Awards evolve to honour our history while reflecting the future.
From 2025, the BLAKE Awards will exclusively celebrate environmental leadership – recognising those individuals and groups whose work contributes meaningfully to environmental sustainability, conservation, and a better future for Aotearoa.
Nominations for the 2025 BLAKE Awards are CLOSED.
Meet our 2025 BLAKE Leaders:
Emeritus Professor Sir Alan Mark is one of New Zealand’s most respected environmental science and conservation leaders. The plant ecologist, botanist, environmentalist, and New Zealand’s first recipient of knighthood for services to conservation, has devoted decades to research, advocacy and leadership in the protection of some of Aotearoa’s most unique natural landscapes. Born and raised […]
At twenty-four, Riley Hathaway has already spent half her life committed to connecting young people to the sea. The charismatic young wahine from Snells Beach is the co-founder of Young Ocean Explorers (YOE), an organisation which aims to make ocean education easy, accessible, and engaging for students in Aotearoa. Alongside her dad and fellow YOE […]
A generation of eco-conscious young entrepreneurs is emerging in Otaki, thanks to Claire Roper. Since launching the Otaki Kids Market, the mum-of-three from the Kapiti Coast has helped over 600 children learn business basics through a dedicated market space which encourages youth to be mindful of their products, methods and environmental impact. In a world […]
Stratford Primary School isn’t just teaching sustainability. The urban Taranaki school with a roll of 455 is alive with gardens, orchards, bug hotels, chickens and bees which students engage with as part of daily life. Feeding animals and worms, making compost, planting, handling waste and nature walks is interwoven with curriculum learning, and for 12-year-old […]
Nikora Ngaropo is a storyteller who believes that stories take many forms, and that through them, we remember who we are. With over fifteen years in the visual arts industry, he has built pathways for more than 10,000 rangatahi across Aotearoa through his initiatives Young Animators and Toro Academy, inspiring a new generation of digital […]
Michael Eaglen describes himself as a “boat guy.” It is a modest term for the CEO and founder of design and engineering company EV Maritime who is on a bold mission to reshape on-water public transport systems both in Aotearoa and around the world. The highly regarded naval architect has led his team to create […]
After a lifetime studying coastlines and rocky shores, Sally Carson still finds magic in every beach visit. “It never ceases to amaze me what you find when you slow down, and you really stop to look. Every walk is always different,” she says. The Canadian-born marine biologist and self-professed sea star and seaweed enthusiast loves […]
Most people saw a pod of dolphins. But Emeritus professors Liz Slooten and Steve Dawson saw ‘Mangle’, a Hector’s dolphin with a distinctly chewed looking dorsal fin, ‘Punk’ with a new calf in tow, and Rooster, Biggus Nickus, and Zorro darting about in the water. They can recall catalogue names and numbers too, which after […]
BLAKE Award categories for 2025
BLAKE Medal:
The BLAKE Medal recognises and celebrates one person each year whose leadership has helped create a more sustainable future for New Zealand and/or globally, usually over an extended period of time. One BLAKE Medal is awarded annually.
BLAKE Award Categories below:
- Pūtaiao/Science – sponsored by Earth Sciences New Zealand: Recognising a leader in the research and scientific field, including leaders in Māori methods.
- Pakihi Auaha/Business – Recognising a leader in developing solutions through innovative or entrepreneurial action, likely to be in a business or social enterprise context
- Pouako / Communication & Education – Recognising a leader contributing to environmental progress through effective communication, including education and knowledge sharing.
- Poutoko Hapori / Community – Sponsored by Metlifecare; Recognising a leader contributing to the environment through their work with and in their community, including Māori settings.
- Rangatira mō āpōpō / Young Leader – Sponsored by Westpac: Recognising a young person (24 and under) demonstrating significant environment leadership.
- Ngā Kura / Schools – The only ‘group award’ – this is for a school/kura making a significant impact with their delivery of environmental education. Schools of any age group are welcome to be nominated.
For more information email Hana Hielkema at [email protected] or phone (09) 307 8875.
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