repair, re-use, re-CYCLE
As a charity that aims to inspire and encourage young people to become involved in outdoors activities, we are passionate about looking after our planet and reducing the demand on its resources.
Sustainability is at the forefront of all our working practices and we ensure that our project work focuses on educating and supporting our young people to embrace sustainability within their own lives and in their communities.
With this in mind, we made a conscious decision as a charity to not have a permanent base that is open all year round. This allows us to ensure we are not using resources such as electricity and water unnecessarily when it is not required. Our programmes run as a ‘hub and spoke’ model and this enables us to be more responsive and adaptive.
We work with our delivery partners to minimise the impact we have on the environment, which allows us all to act in a more sustainable manner. We endeavour to keep our equipment at our delivery venues so we can make the best use of space and resources.
We also ensure, where possible, that we use bicycles as our main form of transport to reduce our carbon footprint. We have a bicycle trailer that enables us to get our equipment to all our delivery sites. We also provide bicycles to all our staff and mentors to encourage them to travel to our sessions this way as well.
Setting the right example
We train all our staff and young people to better understand, conserve and protect our natural environment with the aim of making them more environmentally aware. We highlight the benefits of cycling throughout our bicycle maintenance courses and in giving each young person a bicycle, we provide them with the opportunity to continue their sustainability journey.
We make sure that the equipment and bicycles used on our bicycle maintenance courses are re-used, re-purposed and recycled where appropriate.
Where possible, we also like to deliver our work outside which minimises our resource footprint and also encourages our young people to see the benefit of being within their natural environment.
Lending a hand, for a greener land...
Recent project work has seen our young people transform outside areas into useable garden spaces within their local youth centres. This project allowed for young people to take ownership of improving their local environment and will benefit future generations for years to come.
We are making significant progress on our sustainability journey but we know there is always more work to be done. We are dedicated to continuing our work in this area and will ensure all our staff, young people and partners are committed to sharing our high environmental standards.
