Many challenges we face today are longstanding and complex. However, when passionate young leaders from various organisations come together in a collaborative environment supported with mentorship and industry guidance, fresh ideas emerge.

Our Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland Smart Seeds programme began in June with our key clients and partner organisations. Senior leaders and change-makers from across the region attended our Challenge Development workshop to discuss, debate and identify three critical issues we face today.

The challenges:

Reversing the Brain Drain: How might we attract and retain the right talent in Aotearoa New Zealand to achieve a more resilient nation during a slow economy?

Supporting Sustainable Energy Transitions: How might we responsibly increase our energy supply, while managing demand and minimising our environmental footprint?

Fostering a System to Support a Circular Economy: How might we create a better system that enables the exchange and re-use of more materials in urban development?

49 participants from 15 organisations embarked on a six-week journey guided by mentors and led by our facilitator, Maurice Hoban. They stepped out of their comfort zones, tackled big problems, and learned valuable lessons like starting small and failing fast. Our six teams used design thinking to conduct empathy driven interviews, delving into the problem before jumping to solutions.

The ideation phase was an important step, as teams developed, tested and validated their ideas. Teams quickly realised the importance of validating their concepts with industry experts and while staying open to feedback, even if it meant revisiting or altering their original concept. As Showcase approached, teams practiced their pitches with experienced panellists and refined compelling narratives to engage the audience.

A participant from team Brain X Change shared that the experience brought a sense of accomplishment and pride, encouraging others to embrace design-led innovation and step outside their comfort zone through the Smart Seeds programme.

The solutions:

Empower Aotearoa [Judges’ Award winner]

• An innovative framework designed to unlock a nationwide energy ecosystem by installing solar storage systems on school roofs, forming the largest virtual power plant in the country. By leveraging falling solar and battery prices and collective bargaining power, schools can achieve energy security and generate revenue by selling excess electricity to the grid during peak times.

Skip the Skip [People’s Choice Award winner]

• An AI-powered app that connects users with information and resources to avoid, reduce and reuse construction materials throughout the urban development lifecycle. The user interface, ‘Skippy,’ features photo recognition, connections to third-party services and suppliers, and provides targeted, localised information to its users.

PowerPal

• PowerPal is your personal energy-saving companion. This app makes energy use visible by providing real-time data on energy consumption and cost by appliance. “You’d want to know about a leaky pipe, so surely, you’d want to know about a leaky appliance.” With PowerPal, you receive personalised prompts encouraging cheaper and greener power use.

KiwiStayer

• The KiwiStayer scheme proposes a top-up contribution to KiwiSaver over the first 15 years of a person’s working life, to reward and incentivise a career based in New Zealand. It’s an accrual of funds like a term deposit that grows the longer you stay in New Zealand, with a lump sum withdrawal available after 15 years.

Brain X Change

• Brain X Change is a professional overseas exchange brokerage offering companies and employees the chance to trade like-for-like skills. Kiwis can work abroad for up to a year, but businesses don’t suffer from lost recruitment, productivity, or skills. Instead, they trade the person leaving for an international employee from a similar company with a similar skillset. You get to experience life abroad, there’s secure work on your return, and companies retain their best staff.

Layer Up

• Layer Up is a data collection solution that champions deconstruction over demolition. With a sustainability feature in GIS, it tracks building materials from construction to deconstruction, making it easier, cheaper and more efficient to reuse and exchange materials across projects. A rating system affiliated with Green Star would incentivise participation.

The passion and dedication of each team was clearly demonstrated throughout the programme and at Showcase. After much deliberation, our judges, Auckland Council CEO, Phil Wilson, Auckland Transport CEO, Dean Kimpton and Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei CEO, Lisa Davis, awarded Empower Aotearoa with the Judge’s Award, while Skip the Skip won the People’s Choice Award. We’d like to acknowledge our partner organisations, and everyone involved – Mentors, Alumni Mentors, Challenge Authors, Empathy Interviewees, Validation Coaches, Pitch Panellists and Smart Seeds advocates. Your support is vital to our ongoing success and progress.

Join us in 2025

We invite organisations that value the collective creativity of their emerging leaders to partner with us. Smart Seeds provides a platform for nurturing innovative thinking and empowers future leaders to tackle important community challenges. If your organisation is interested in collaborating on programme delivery, offering venue spaces, or sponsoring aspects of the programme, please contact smartseedsnz@ghd.com.

Please let us know today if you plan to nominate emerging leaders so we can gauge interest. Formal invitations for the 2025 programme will be sent out soon.