Corporate Volunteer Day

Workers from a northeast events company downed their usual business tools to join forces with Groundwork NE & Cumbria to support its environmental restoration and management efforts on the banks of the Tyne. The volunteers from BeaconHouse Events, an events management company in Newcastle took part in the hands-on corporate volunteering day as part of their company’s charitable commitment and efforts to become carbon neutral.

The volunteers supported Groundwork NE & Cumbria’s Revitalising our Estuaries programme which uses Nature-based Solutions to tackle climate change and mitigate issues affecting the rivers and estuaries of the northeast.

Volunteers donned wellies and high-vis jackets to help Groundwork’s team carry out environmental and marine ecology work on the banks of the Tyne.

They spent the day in South Tyneside doing restoration and monitoring work on the salt marshes and mud flats on the river’s edge, measuring how the salt marsh has developed due to Groundwork’s Nature-based Solutions activities in the area.

Part of the work included tackling and removing the non-native and highly invasive Japanese rose plant, which grows on the ecologically important salt marshes on the Tyne. Salt marshes were once commonplace on the river but are increasingly rare habitats, and help reduce the impacts of climate change by protecting the land from coastal erosion whilst capturing and storing large amounts of carbon.

BeaconHouse Events signed up for the corporate volunteering day as part of their commitment and support for Groundwork NE & Cumbria.

Commenting on the volunteer day and the support from local companies, Lisa Locke, Head of Business Development at Groundwork NE & Cumbria said:

“Many thanks to our hard-working volunteers for their efforts and for their continued support. BeaconHouse Events is ahead of the game with its commitment, investment and efforts to achieve carbon neutrality by supporting Groundwork NE & Cumbria with its local community and environmental initiatives. We are so thankful for their efforts and their donations.

“Partnerships like this are really important to us and we’d like to encourage other businesses and funders with an interest in our work, to get in touch. We would welcome the chance to show how long-term corporate partnerships benefit business as well as supporting our charitable objectives.”

Sarah Thackray, co-founder and director of BeaconHouse Events said, “Partnering with environmental charities like Groundwork NE & Cumbria forms a key part of our five-year strategy here at BeaconHouse Events. The work that Groundwork NE & Cumbria is doing is inspirational and aligns completely with our values and vision for the region. This volunteering day is just one part of a much larger relationship we have with the charity, which included a donation equivalent to offsetting our organisational carbon for 2023 which we made earlier this year.

“We have thought long and hard as a team about how we wanted to approach Environmental, Social and Governance, ESG as a business and ultimately, we wanted to give back ethically to communities in our immediate vicinity here in the North East, rather than opting to support projects further afield. We were thrilled to be part of the volunteering day and look forward to continuing to support the amazing team at Groundwork NE & Cumbria as they carry out their fantastic projects in the region.”

Any businesses interested in supporting Groundwork NE & Cumbria should contact gnec.development@groundwork.org.uk