This article was first published in NZBusiness.
Saia grew up as one of 10 children in his family in Tonga. His mother died when he was eight, prompting a move to New Zealand. He left school at 14 and went to work picking fruit and as a cleaner at Auckland Airport.
The career he eventually carved out combined work in the construction industry with community innovation. Trow Group was established in 2015, initially as a training organisation. The idea was offering a ‘hand up, not a hand out’ for people from Māori, Pasifika and other local communities. The aim was to enable them to engage with and work on construction and infrastructure in their areas.
In 2016 the Trow team had spotted a big opportunity. The construction industry was accounting for the majority of 1.4 million tonnes of commercial waste sent to landfill each year. This was also the source of 15% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. What if they deconstructed buildings instead of demolishing them?
A family tragedy took it to the next level and made another vital connection. Saia’s brother was killed in a shocking car accident in Papatoetoe in 2016. This led Saia to a dark place in his life, but prompted a life changing commitment. He took a recuperative trip back to Tonga. It showed him the good he could do with his company, his skills and the materials he was reclaiming. They could be used in buildings in the islands. More importantly, this also showed him the good doing good could do for him.
“I realised I had to choose to feel good,” he says. “I had to find a way to do that. This is what did it.”
The first deconstruction jobs flowed soon after. A small garage in Whitford. Some Auckland Council houses. Job by job the team worked out their methodology. They impressed, and more work followed. The team deconstructed a leaky 1990s addition to the 1950s Mt Roskill Borough Council Three Kings Building. The materials were distributing for community upcycling.
The group now sits at the heart of a growing network of building companies, local authorities and community groups. And, as planned, that network stretches over the sea to Tonga. This has included the delivery of more than 100 containers of much needed building materials, beginning in the wake of Cyclone Gita. This has facilitated the renovation and furnishing of six classrooms for around 300 students. It's created a shade building for craft workers and material storage buildings in the islands for local use.
The group has now created more than 55 jobs, with a unique focus on leadership from the young.
"My senior management group is all under 25," says Saia.
They're also creating a stir with innovative use of temporarily empty sites as community markets.
In some ways Saia has come a long way from his humble beginnings in Tonga. In others, he is closer than ever, with no reason at all to be humble.
“I felt I had lost my culture,” he says. “Getting back to working in that community was not just about business. It was about seeing the potential in that community.”