Veolia, a UK leading resource management company, launched this year’s Sustainability Fund on the International Day for Biological Diversity (22nd May 2024) with over £110,000 available to help support people across the country to improve biodiversity in their local environments and communities.
Sustainability Fund applications opened on 22 May with garden parties held at community gardens across the country to celebrate the launch. The parties, hosted by previous beneficiaries of the Sustainability Fund, connected community groups and changemakers on the International Day for Biological Diversity and invited them to discuss how biodiversity can be improved in local areas.
2023 was an incredibly successful year for the Sustainability Fund, supporting 124 grassroots projects with over £90,000 in funding. This year, in partnership with more local authorities across the country, Veolia is particularly interested in funding projects that make a positive, long term difference to biodiversity.
In previous years, successful projects have delivered long-term social and environmental benefits to local communities such as:
- Hammersmith Community Gardens Association created homes and food for pollinators by installing planters in school playgrounds across Hammersmith & Fulham.
- Polegate Jubilee Nature Reserve Volunteers manage a new area of conservation woodland in the South Downs.
- Stirchley Primary School improved biodiversity and contributed to lowering air pollution in Birmingham by planting raised beds and making bug hotels.
Veolia’s Sustainability Fund is open to not-for-profit organisations, community groups, or individuals in areas where the company delivers waste and street cleansing services for the community. Applicants can request funding of up to £1,000 per project as well as in-kind resources and volunteers.
Applications can be made via Veolia’s website at veolia.co.uk/Sustainability-Fund or via Spacehive, Veolia’s crowdfunding partner, at spacehive.com/movement/veoliauk. The fund will be open for applications until Monday 30 September. All applications will be considered, but projects should aim to fulfil at least one of the following criteria: enhancing biodiversity; promoting sustainable behaviours (reduce, reuse, recycle); protecting or preserving resources and the environment by using recycled, reused, or reclaimed materials.
Pascal Hauret, Managing Director, Municipal at Veolia, said : “I am always thrilled to see projects we support through the Sustainability Fund coming to life, and look forward to reviewing all the creative and inspiring applications for this year. Biodiversity is one of the pillars of ecological transformation and we’re proud to be supporting the communities we work in every day to make their local areas even greener.”
