One of Britain’s largest insurers is to join with an award-winning volunteer-led group to educate local businesses on the sustainable greening of product lines and processes.
Plastic Free Peckham, which won Southwark’s Sustainable Green Investment Award, launched a crowd-funding campaign with Aviva UK on October 26, with a £10,000 target.
Aviva have promised to match donations up to the value of £50, as part of their climate fund.
The three-year-old group’s project, Sustainable Peckham, aims to help small local businesses find ways to reduce their environmental impact.
There is also an opportunity for supporters to earn rewards through other local businesses after they donate money to the cause, such as discounts off of services.
Jo Johnson, owner of Form SE15, an independent clothing business which is offering rewards, says “We were the first small business to team up with Plastic Free Peckham. Since then, we have been able to implement gradual but effective changes to the business.”
Johnson said these included “things people might not necessarily think of when starting a business, such as compostable mail bags and soybean ink-printed tissue paper.”
Sustainable Peckham encourages businesses to make three changes in order to become a champion with a certificate and a wooden plaque.
Laura Ford, a community leader for Plastic Free Peckham, explained that “this is the first year we’ve been able to apply for Aviva’s community fund, as they require you to have been established for a year”.
She added: “Recently, we’ve been able to celebrate the wins. We’ve raised over £7,000 from our own community which is going to make such a difference to the help we can offer.”
Ford is keen to educate people on the importance of re-using materials. “A paper bag used once is more carbon intensive than a plastic bag used once,” she says, adding that “this isn’t often considered and is a great example of how carbon literacy training can help businesses in the long run.”
Aviva Climate Fund was established five years ago. It claims to have helped many small charities and good causes build stronger communities across the UK.
Each Aviva employee is also given a £25 voucher to put towards a cause of their choice.
Aviva made headlines some months ago when it became the first major insurer worldwide to target Net Zero carbon by 2040.
The ambitious target is at least a decade earlier than the date set by most countries at COP 26 in Glasgow, to achieve net zero emissions.
The campaign is live and open to donations until midnight, December 7.
