Coming Together for Country, Community and Connection

At Sydney Airport, we don’t just connect people to places, we connect with our local community. Over the past months, our teams have stepped away from the terminals and offices, swapped steel-capped boots for gardening gloves and rolled up their sleeves to give back to our environment and our community.

A culture of giving back

At SYD, employees receive volunteering leave each year and our people continue to use it in ways that strengthen our local community organisations, support environmental rehabilitation and build meaningful partnerships.

Whether it’s restoring wetlands, cleaning up waterways, supporting First Nations-led conservation, or lending a hand to local groups, the spirit of community is alive and well across the airport.

Here’s how our people have recently showed up, learned new skills, made memories… and even got supervised by a few kookaburras along the way.

Planning & Delivery team helps revive the Airport Wetlands

Over two big days, 28 members of our Planning & Delivery team stepped into one of Sydney’s last remaining urban green corridors - the Sydney Airport Wetlands.

Working alongside Wildflower, one of our valued First Nations partners, the team rolled up their sleeves to support our ongoing Wetlands Management Program. Wildflower is a not-for-profit social enterprise that creates and nurtures native green spaces while empowering young Indigenous people. Together, they planted 830 native plants, boosting biodiversity and helping restore important habitat on airport land.

The Planning & Delivery Team loved learning from the Wildflower team:

"Seeing so many people get involved really makes a difference. It was a great opportunity to head outdoors and get involved in the planting of native trees in our wetlands." — Luke Reeves, General Manager.

The project not only strengthened an important environmental program, but brought colleagues together in a shared purpose, even if a few ended up competing for the mattock!

Cyber Security team joins local volunteers Mudcrabs in Marrickville

Our Cyber Security team also stepped out into the community, volunteering with Mudcrabs, a local group dedicated to looking after the health of the Cooks River and its precious foreshore.

The team spent the day restoring bushland around the Marrickville Golf Course, learning about native and invasive plants, clearing weeds, and improving the environment along one of Sydney’s most important waterways, all whilst being supervised by curious kookaburras.

Their efforts included:

• Planting 40 new native trees and ferns, once endemic to the area

• Removing buckets of plastic and glass litter

• Adding mulch to support young plants through the hot summer months

It was a day of learning about local ecosystems, teamwork, tangible environmental impact and a great reminder of the power of local action.

Members of the Cyber team said they learnt so much from Mudcrabs volunteers:

“Spending the day with the Mudcrabs reminded us how much you learn by looking closely – understanding what belongs, what’s harmful and what needs care. It’s a different environment to cyber security, but the instinct to dig deeper and see what others might miss is the same. ” — Catherine Mesina, Cyber Security Engineering Team Lead.

Packing hampers for Foodbank NSW

Usually, the Sydney Airport Procurement team is busy bringing goods into the airport - sourcing, negotiating and managing the supplies that keep the airport running. But for a day, several members of the team switched roles, heading out to the Foodbank NSW Glendenning Warehouse to help get essential goods out to the people who need them most.

The task? Packing around 13 pallets of hampers - roughly 780 hampers destined for individuals and families doing it tough.

After this initial success, the team were invited to return to the warehouse for a second volunteering session.

A Foodbank NSW spokesperson said: *“The team helped pack 43 orders, moving a staggering 16,050.3 kg of food. That’s enough to create 28,891 meals.” *

To put that into perspective: that’s feeding a packed SCG stadium… with enough left for seconds.

The Foodbank crew described SYD’s contribution as “a big achievement,” which directly supports families, seniors and children facing food insecurity.

Reflecting on the experience, Sarah Bean, Group Procurement Manager, said:

“Seeing how efficiently Foodbank turns our time into real support for the community was incredibly motivating - every hamper we packed had a story behind it, and it felt good to play even a small part in helping someone get through a tough moment.”

Technology team cleans local beach

Despite the very heavy rain, staff from across the SYD Technology teams joined forces with CI Group, Ingram Micro and Logitech for an unforgettable beach clean-up at Brighton Le Sands, a beach local to Sydney Airport.

It’s energising to see such strong dedication to sustainability and community impact across both SYD and our suppliers.

Shane Pratley, Head of Technology Operations said: "This was such a great team bonding experience for our team. It was made extra special by seeing the Sydney Airport skyline in the background and knowing we were doing something that benefitted our local community. It was extra character development for us doing it in the heavy rain – but it made us feel even more proud of our achievements at the end of the clean.”

Community Investment @ SYD

You can read more about our Community Investment and the pillars where we aim to make a meaningful and lasting impact on our local community. If you have a local organisation that needs Sydney Airport’s support, you can reach out to community@syd.com.au