B&Q teams up with Woodland Trust on regeneration project, & other partnership news
Melanie May | 12 October 2022 | News
With B&Q supporting the Woodland Trust with the restoration of its new site in the Yorkshire Dales, here’s more on this and other partnerships benefitting good causes around the UK – from Jo Malone and UNICEF, to Tesco and St John Ambulance.
B&Q & the Woodland Trust
B&Q has launched a partnership with the Woodland Trust to support the restoration, protection and creation of native woodland at their newly acquired site; Snaizeholme in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales. The donation will help turn a tree-less landscape into a thriving haven, vital for the protection of wildlife including the native red squirrel. Snaizeholme is set to become a flagship woodland creation project and will form part of an ambitious plan to revitalise the north of England’s woodland. The regeneration area sits within the wider Northern Forest project, and links in with the woodland strategy of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The partnership forms part of B&Q’s wider long-term commitment to encouraging nature. In April this year B&Q stopped selling disposable barbecues. This followed the announcement in 2017 that it has banned suppliers from using neonicotinoid pesticides linked to bee decline in its flowering plant range. It is also on track to meet its commitment to be peat-free across its bagged compost range in 2023.
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Jo Malone & UNICEF
Jo Malone has announced UNICEF as its new global charity partner. It is giving a $1 million donation, which will go towards UNICEF’s work to protect and promote good mental health and well-being for all children, adolescents and caregivers. Jo Malone has supported mental health charities for the past 10 years. On this month’s World Mental Health Day it also launched the Shining A Light On Mental Health Foundation supported by Jo Malone London and a global pledge of $2 million towards UNICEF and local mental health charities over the course of the next 12 months.
Air Partner & The Hygiene Bank
For National Hygiene Week, aviation services group Air Partner expanded its donation points for The Hygiene Bank to its Gatwick and Bracknell offices to support more local communities. The Hygiene Bank distributed Air Partner’s donations to key hubs in Gatwick and Bracknell, such as schools, food banks, and vulnerable community groups to reach the homeless, struggling families, people fleeing domestic violence, and refugees from all over the world, among others. Air Partner employees from the group’s Redline Assured Security division previously supported The Hygiene Bank in Doncaster, donating essential household items including toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant, toilet rolls, nappies, and sanitary products.
Zego & Brake
Commercial motor insurer Zego has announced its partnership with road safety charity Brake to educate fleet businesses on road safety and promote safer driving among the fleet community. The partnership with Brake underlines Zego’s commitment to supporting its fleet customers by helping them manage risk, as well as educating them on road safety measures that could reduce the likelihood of their drivers being involved in a collision. Zego will use and promote resources and tools developed by Brake to help fleets manage their road risk. Additionally, the partnership between Zego and Brake will enable the insurer to support the charity’s work caring for people bereaved and injured in road crashes as well as its broader campaigns around safer driving.
Fenner Precision and James Dawson & St Barnabas Hospice
St Barnabas Hospice has been chosen as Charity of the Year by Lincoln-based manufacturers Fenner Precision and James Dawson. The silicone and rubber firm is committed to supporting local communities and charities through its Works Council initiative, which chooses a charity to support. The business has been based in Lincoln since 1865, with over 300 employees across two sites, where fundraising events will take place throughout the year.
Halfords & Bikeability
To mark this year’s Cycle to School Week (3-7 October), Halfords and newly appointed ambassador Charlotte Worthington have teamed up with Bikeability to give away 475 pre-pedalled bicycles across the country to equip children who don’t have access to a bicycle with the skills and confidence to cycle safely. The bikes being given away by Halfords come from their pre-pedalled initiative, ‘Bike Xchange’ which involves giving pre-owned bikes a new lease of life. Whilst each bicycle has already experienced an adventure with its previous owner, Halfords’ experts fully safety check and where necessary complete repairs, allowing children who may not have had access to a bike before to begin their own cycling journey.
Sir Robert McAlpine & ParalympicsGB
Sir Robert McAlpine has raised £56,000 for ParalympicsGB, following a charity event hosted to support athletes on the road to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. Held at London’s Science Museum, the Best of British lunch offered 300 guests from the construction industry the chance to mingle with athletes, including seven-time Paralympic champion, Hannah Cockroft OBE, Britain’s most successful Boccia player ever, David Smith MBE, and Paralympic rowing champion, Lauren Rowles MBE. Guests were able to try out Paralympic sports and bid on a range of sought-after prizes during a silent auction, including a one-to-one velodrome cycling session with a Paralympic athlete. Earlier this summer, Sir Robert McAlpine organised a sponsored abseil from the ArcelorMittal Orbit for ParalympicsGB. The money raised will be used to support the ParalympicsGB team as they prepare for the next Paralympic Games.
Boots & The Hygiene Bank
Boots is the official retail partner of The Hygiene Bank. Since the start of the partnership in 2020 Boots has donated over a million products through the charity, which directly supports more than 2000 organisations and projects across the UK. It has also installed The Hygiene Bank donation points across more than 400 of its Boots UK stores as of July 2021. National Hygiene Week saw it spreading the word across social media channels to encourage more people to donate items.
Tesco & St John Ambulance
St John Ambulance and Tesco have partnered in a campaign to spread awareness of how to do baby CPR – by printing instructions in words and pictures onto baby grows. The baby grows are being launched in Tesco stores this week with free supplies handed out while stocks last. A donation to St John Ambulance is suggested.
First Response Finance & SANE
UK vehicle finance company, First Response Finance, has raised a total of £152,065.38 for SANE across a four-year period. First Response Finance hosted a variety of fundraising events, including raffles, bake sales, and a number of employees even took on the National Three Peaks Challenge. All of the money raised went straight to SANE so that the charity could continue offering the fundamental support and assistance that so many people need.
J D Wetherspoon & Young Lives vs Cancer
On Sunday 9 October, eleven teams made up of J D Wetherspoon staff from across the UK travelled to Goals in Wembley to take part in the final of five-a-side football tournament Kick, to raise money for charity partner, Young Lives vs Cancer. Staff from the Wibbas Down Inn in Wimbledon were crowned the winners of the tournament, which has raised over £360,000 in three months for the charity. The Kick tournament is now in its 20th year, and has raised more than £20million since it began in 2002. Wetherspoon staff and pub communities have organised and taken part in many fundraising events during that time for Young Lives vs Cancer, including a 185-mile cycle from London to Paris earlier this year.
Teneo pledges 1% of revenue to nonprofits
IT services company Teneo has unveiled its core purpose to improve the lives of 1 million children worldwide, pledging to donate 1% of revenue to charitable initiatives, particularly focused on education projects in underserved communities. To create the funding to achieve its purpose, Teneo’s long-term vision is to become a trusted technology partner to 500 of the world’s largest companies. The commitment to donate 1% of total company revenue will take three years to fully realise, with a staged approach initially introduced. Since 2011, the company has been involved in several important projects in partnership with key charitable foundations, such as SEED Madagascar, ActionAid and Jhpiego, amongst many others. This includes significant financial donations to support the build and refurbishment of schools in Ghana, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone and Madagascar.
Maison Sport & Snow Camp
Maison Sport, ski and snowboard instructor provider, has partnered with charity Snow Camp to help make skiing more inclusive and accessible to young people across the UK. Maison Sport is donating a percentage of bookings revenue to Snow Camp which will fund children’s first ski lessons and trips to the slopes. Maison Sport will also offer internships for two apprentices. The total funds raised will be announced at the end of April 2023 and donations will commence after this. A full list of the totals raised, and the number of young people helped will be released in Spring next year.
Northern Monk brewery & good causes
Northern Monk brewery has partnered with Leeds Beckett University academic and artist Dr Vivien Sabel for its latest beer, Faces of Mental Health, to mark World Mental Health Day (10 October) The can design features art by Dr Sabel, which uses emojis to highlight that how people portray themselves on the outside might not be a true reflect of how they are feeling, especially around their mental health. Faces of Mental Health, a 4.0% session IPA, is part of Northern Monk’s Patrons Project, a series of beers collaborating with Northern creatives, artists, designers, and photographers. As part of the Patrons Project, Northern Causes will focus on a different social or health cause with each beer release, with seven beers due to be released in the coming months.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.