Aviva Community Fund provided £2,051 of match funding
Environmental change makers - creating change
Bristol, England, United Kingdom
Aim
We are building a community of changemakers, involved in an initiative that brings people together to create positive environmental outcomes
After many years working in education I set up One Planet Matters with the simple idea of using the money that I raised from selling a small range of bamboo fibre keep cups (environmentally beneficial) to fund environmental workshops that I delivered into schools and colleges. I did this because I believe that the climate emergency needs to be properly understood and that young adults should be given the tools to make environmentally positive choices. It is easy when faced with the doom and gloom around the climate emergency to think that it is impossible to make a difference, I wanted to show that actually we can all make a difference.
The One Planet Matters 'Change-Maker' initiative was conceived to develop a community of change makers young and old working collaboratively for the same cause: our planet!
The initiative consists of 3 key activities that One Planet Matters believes will enhance community cohesion, improve well being, engage with young adults, and create a community engaged in activities that have positive environmental outcomes.
The initiative
Tree Planting This activity is linked to the idea of 21/21. Our aim is to plant 21k trees by the end of 2021. We will be working with community groups, schools and colleges to achieve this. Our facilitators will plan, organise and then work with the community to plant our saplings sourced from our change maker partner Perihale Nurseries.
Builds community, improves health, reduces CO2
Rooted local produce communities Our aim is to work with community groups, schools and colleges to create communities involved in growing local produce. Seeds and plants will be sourced through our change maker partners; Iron Acton Garden Centre, whilst timber for raised beds will come from Bendrey Brothers. The produce grown will be shared within the community or donated to local food banks.
Builds community, improves health, reduces packaging, reduces transportation emissions, helps food banks
Swish and Swap events In many ways the simplest, but also one of the most positive activities. Our facilitators will organise a community or group swish and swap event. A One Planet Clothes fact sheet will be available and discussed at the event which will be a social event as well environmentally positive. When the event is over our facilitator will bag up the remaining clothes and feed them in to the H & M recycling scheme. This activity is environmentally circular and all clothes that are brought to the event will either be swapped, recycled or reused.
Builds community, reduces carbon, reduces transport emissions, reduces pollution, reduces landfill, saves water, reuses clothes, recycles clothes.
What will your donation be spent on?
The Change Maker initiative is ready to grow and your donation will allow me to start to fund regional facilitators who will roll out our initiative in their areas. Donations = more facilitators = more engagement = growth of initiative = more change makers. My aspiration for the future is that we can create a community that covers the whole of the UK and your donation will be important in enabling this vision to grow. This growth is the primary target for the funding. .
Have a look at our facebook page, where One Planet Matters posts and engages on environmental issues. Visit or even join our changemakers group which we are building, (and which individuals involved in our initiatives will also join). It's for people who care about the environment and our aim is to grow this into a national campaigning body. And finally review our changemaker series that we have started to run on instagram. I would like to further develop our social media activity and part of your donation could be used to fund this.
There is a clear vision and strategy to the development of the Change Maker Initiative, and the development of an active campaigning community. Your donation will be a stepping stone in achieving this vision. It may at first glance seem ambitious but our planet deserves nothing less . Please support One Planet Matters by donating today. Thank you
This project successfully funded on 7th October 2020