The Sir Peter Blake Trust was established to showcase Sir Peter’s visionary leadership and to inspire these qualities in all New Zealanders.

One of the ways in which The Trust celebrates great leadership is through the annual Sir Peter Blake Leadership Awards. The Blake Medal and Emerging Leader awards recognise the achievements of outstanding New Zealand leaders whose stories, like Sir Peter’s, set them apart as role models for us all.

The award ceremony opens Leadership Week, during which the relevance and value of leadership in shaping the future of our nation are explored and examples of great leadership are celebrated. Schools, businesses and organisations around the country participate in a range of events designed to celebrate and develop leadership capability and motivate future leaders. The week culminates in a national Red Socks Day, when New Zealanders are encouraged to celebrate the memory of a great Kiwi leader and his legacy of leadership in action by wearing a pair of Sir Peter's lucky red socks.

The Trust also encourages environmental leadership in our young people through programmes which develop their awareness of our marine environment and practical initiatives which encourage them to take action to safeguard its future. Students can then celebrate their environmental leadership in action with a Red Socks Day during Leadership Week or at another point in the year.

Sir Peter’s particular focus for the environment was on water. Having sailed around the world five times and clocked up over half a million nautical miles, he was acutely aware of the deterioration of our oceans and the important role water plays in our quality of life.

We want to restart people caring for the environment as it must be cared for, and we want to do this through adventure, through participation, through education and through enjoyment.”

— Sir Peter Blake