Environmental Volunteering
This project links environmental voluntary groups and their projects with local businesses and other organisations wishing to help out and volunteer. Projects within South Derbyshire can go on a register for businesses wishing to volunteer to choose from.
Contact the Environmental Education Project team for more information about how your group/company can either volunteer or benefit from this project.
The benefits of Environmental Volunteering by local businesses:
- Builds links with the local community and supports local projects
- Demonstrates that people can make a positive difference to the local environment with just one day or half day of volunteering
- Adds to the environmental values of the business.
- Contributes towards positive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
- Improves and enhances employee satisfaction for the organisation they work for.
- Improves workplace relationships and teamwork.
- Supports a positive image for the company in their local area.
- Supports environmental learning in the workplace.
- Acts as a rewarding way of ‘giving back’ to a community/environment.
We can match you up with a local voluntary group or parish council which may need physical help with an environmental project, we can run sessions at your site improving the environment around your own space or we can host activities at our base at Rosliston Forestry Centre.
Corporate volunteering days provide a great opportunity for your employees and teams to spend a day outdoors, get close to nature and be part of supporting the environment in practical ways.
Booking a Corporate Volunteering day out has a real impact and is also great fun. Your employees learn new skills, work in ways that may be new to them and increase their understanding of the environment and biodiversity. Getting close to nature is known to improve both physical and mental well-being as well as gaining a sense of satisfaction by volunteering.
Days can also include teambuilding activities linked to environmental principles (Environmental Education Team) or physical activity (Sports and Health Team) and targeted at whichever key skills you want to build within your team eg communications, resilience, partnership working (charges apply for team building activities).
We can link a series of sessions or run an event as a stand-alone Environment Volunteering Project for your employees.
Overall, project work will help improve biodiversity and the visual attractiveness of South Derbyshire, benefit local communities and support businesses in their Community Investment and ‘Business in the Community’ (BiTC) work.
Local community groups with a project they need help with should ensure they have landowner consent then contact us to go onto a register of projects.
Please look at the attached document (docx, 28kb) as it gives you an idea of the sort of information a visiting company might need from you.
Businesses will be asked how many people they want to volunteer, for how long and when. They can choose their own project or can be matched up by us. It’s also useful to know if you have a volunteering budget as groups may need to buy extra tools to work with a group and may need to ‘buy in’ specialist leaders at around £300/day to lead the task and do the risk assessments needed by your business. Contact us directly to discuss your requirements for volunteering.
The match-making service and advice are provided free as part of our work with South Derbyshire Partnership. However we will need to charge if we have to supply a project leader or to fill in project templates, do risk assessments or other practical work for either party. Costs are worked out on a project-by-project basis to cover costs.
Environmental volunteering for individuals
If you aren’t part of a business or local group but want to volunteer on conservation projects please email rosliston@southderbyshire.gov.uk and we’ll help you find your local group (or you can join ours)
For any other kind of volunteering please contact South Derbyshire Council for Voluntary Services https://sdcvs.org.uk/contact
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