July 7, 2025

The company which collects waste in the borough of Hammersmith & Fulham is offered grants of up to £1,000 to environmental projects by local community groups.

This year’s hand out from Veolia’s Sustainability Fund was announced World Environment Day (5 June) at a garden party hosted at Phoenix Farm, home of Hammersmith Community Gardens Association, previous recipients of the Fund.

. Last year 15 schemes in the borough received a total of £13,500 including one by AllChild to help build a wildlife garden at Ark Bentworth School. With the funding, students prepared the ground for planting and built a small wildlife pond. It provided an opportunity for AllChild to work with students who don’t have easy access to nature and to educate them on the wildlife in the garden.

One scheme from across the UK will be getting a grant of £5,000 and all projects that apply are potentially eligible. They need show either an enhancement of biodiversity, promotion of sustainable waste behaviours or increased use of recycled, reused or reclaimed materials.

This year, the Sustainability Fund is also expanding to include social projects alongside environmental initiatives. This broader focus now welcomes projects that strengthen the local community, including but not limited to: employment support programmes, rehabilitation projects, and youth development initiatives.

Applications can be made via Veolia’s website at veolia.co.uk/Sustainability-Fund. The fund will be open for applications until Tuesday, 30 September.

Pascal Hauret, Managing Director, Municipal at Veolia, said, “Since its launch five years ago, the Sustainability Fund has allowed us to directly support the communities we serve with over £300,000 in funding delivered since 2021. The Fund continues to grow and evolve, this year offering more opportunities than ever, and I’m looking forward to reviewing some unique and inspiring applications, from environmental projects to social initiatives."

Kate Walters, AllChild said, “We were very happy to receive the grant from Veolia and have been busy with our weekly sessions in the garden in Ark Bentworth Primary, with support from the Hammersmith Community Gardens Association. So far, we have been designing and preparing the garden and learning about the wildlife and nature it can support, including activities such as making bird feeders from pine cones. We have also started planting seeds and bulbs and preparing a small pond for wildlife.”

Veolia is a global environmental-services giant with revenues of  €44.692 billion last year. It has a contract with the borough to provide waste, recycling, and street‑cleaning services well into the next decade. The annual value of the contract has not been published but when similar services were run by Serco it was paid £140million a year.

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