Landscaping in Rotorua

Response:

Subject: Official Information Request - Landscaping in Rotorua

I refer to your Official Information request of 5 September 2026, for information regarding Landscaping in Rotorua.

Question:

How much money has been spent annually on landscaping in Rotorua over the past 5 years?

Note: Clarified as ‘work done to maintain and establish both new and existing gardens, green spaces, sports fields, replanting, maintenance, mowing, maintaining planting on all Parks and Open Spaces reservations.

Answer:

* Please note, this estimated total does not include “Value of new Green Assets created” as Council does not record ‘Green Assets’ such as grass, trees and gardens as Capital (depreciating) items. For Council to manually obtain this information would require extensive collaboration and would incur a charge. Please advise if you would like to be provided with an estimate of time.

**Please note, that for the 2025-26 year there are data gaps due to bringing Infracore in-house and the implementation of our operations work order system.

Question:

How much money has been invested into sustainability over the same time period.

Note: Clarified as ‘the cost of environmental sustainability projects that Council is undertaking – information on:

• Any funding, grants, capital or operational spend allocated towards initiatives explicitly designed to reduce environmental impacts, lower carbon emissions, enhance local biodiversity, improve waste minimisation, or adapt to climate change.
• Funding allocated under the councils sustainability strategy, climate action plan or environmental policies
• Staffing and consultancy costs directly tied to managing or auditing these sustainability initiatives.

Answer:

Rotorua Lakes Council does not have a single sustainability budget or financial cost centre. Environmental considerations are incorporated across Council activities including waste management, three waters, open spaces, transport, infrastructure planning and Council’s corporate operations.

Council therefore does not hold a figure representing the total amount “invested in sustainability” each year. In many instances, sustainability outcomes are achieved through the way Council delivers an existing service rather than through separately funded sustainability initiatives.

Council’s open-space planting and restoration programmes, for example, increasingly seek to enhance indigenous biodiversity and habitat. However, this work forms part of Council’s existing open-space programmes and the costs are not separately recorded as sustainability expenditure. Council therefore does not hold a separate cost for the biodiversity or sustainability component of this work.

Council’s wastewater and stormwater activities also contribute to environmental sustainability outcomes, including upgrading the wastewater treatment plant, reducing inflow and infiltration, improving water quality, managing flood risk and increasing resilience to the effects of climate change. However, these activities are embedded within Council’s normal delivery of wastewater and stormwater services rather than being separately funded as sustainability initiatives. In the case of stormwater, water-quality monitoring, investigations, catchment management and flood modelling are also integral to delivery of Council’s Comprehensive Stormwater

Consent. Council does not separately identify or record the sustainability component of these activities, and these costs have therefore not been included in the figures below.

Importantly, the expenditure below should not be interpreted as representing Council’s total environmental expenditure or the total value of its environmental sustainability activities. Substantial environmental outcomes are incorporated into and delivered through Council’s ordinary services, infrastructure programmes and regulatory responsibilities, and these costs are not separately classified as sustainability expenditure.

* ‘Waste minimisation/recycling’ is the spend for the entire Waste Management and Minimisation Activity as per the Annual reports, as the entire activity contributes to environmental sustainability.

** ‘Climate action’ includes separately identifiable expenditure directly associated with Council’s climate-action programme, including dedicated staffing and any directly attributable emissions monitoring, reporting or consultancy costs.