Staff across News UK, HarperCollins and Dow Jones nominated environmental causes for the News Corp Giving charity fund, with two charities winning grants on the back of their project proposals which will form part of a year-long partnership with News UK, Dow Jones and HarperCollins.
The Marine Conservation Society will be using the donation to support the expansion of their Great British Beach Clean and their Source to Sea programme of inland litter picks and data collection. As part of that collection they identify and record every piece of litter picked up over a 100-metre survey stretch and upload the results to an online database adding to the 30+ years of data to track the types and sources of litter blighting our beaches, and identify important trends in pollution, including the appearance of discarded PPE.
Trees for Cities will spend the donation on major tree planting projects across London, Glasgow and Dublin focusing on areas with high indices of multiple deprivation and low canopy cover, as part of their wider Urban Forests programme to Plant at least 150,000 trees across the UK and Ireland.
The trees will bring transformational greening to entire neighbourhoods and help clean the air, provide habitat for urban wildlife and nature, and support our mental and physical health. They are an effective response to climate change in urban areas and will help make our towns and cities greener, happier and healthier places to live for today's and future generations, says News UK.
News UK Director of Corporate Affairs, Daisy Dunlop said: “This donation will make a real difference to two important programmes across land and sea. Our titles have been campaigning hard for sustainable causes through The Sun’s Green Team and The Times’ Clean Air for All Campaign along with the newly launched Times Earth channel. So this donation is well aligned to our editorial initiatives and we will be working closely with both charities over the next 12 months to help drive their sustainability agendas.”
Director of Fundraising at the Marine Conservation Society Katherine Stephenson-Hall said: “This support comes at a pivotal time and means we can clean up even more beaches during our Great British Beach Clean.
“It will also help to grow our Source to Sea programme of inland litter picks and data collection. During last year’s clean up, face masks and gloves were found on almost 30% of beaches cleaned by volunteers across the UK. Inland, more than two thirds (69%) of Source to Sea Litter Quests found PPE items. These types of litter are sadly easy for wildlife to become entangled in and hurt, and the funding will help kit out our volunteers to remove it, hopefully before this can happen.
“Funding will also help attract volunteers who may not be near a beach but can still be part of the UK’s biggest citizen science engagement event for thriving seas and coastlines.”
David Elliott, Chief Executive of Trees for Cities, said: “We are very excited to be working in partnership with News UK to create healthy, accessible, functional and resilient urban forests for today and future generations. By planting trees, we celebrate something we all love and cherish. Something that brings communities together and actively promotes healthy eating and food growing and addressing pollution and stress of living in our cities. Through this partnership, we will help bring the multitude of benefits of urban trees to local communities in our towns and cities and create a greener, happier, and healthier environment for today's and future generations.”
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