Environmental sustainability specialist takes action to help create a “Net Zero North East & Cumbria”

Become Green Together has officially launched and is open for applications from community organisations, charities and social enterprise organisations in the North East and Cumbria.

Environmental sustainability specialist Genee is also set to be a part of the new initiative alongside a partnership of the VONNE Climate Action Alliance (VCAA), VONNE, Cumbria CVS, Cumbria Action for Sustainability (CAfS), SmartCarbon and SIDE Labs.

The Going Green Together partners secured over £300k of funding from The National Lottery Community Fund and County Durham Community Foundation earlier this year to deliver the Going Green Together campaign over the next 15 months.

The project looks to “establish an effective climate-focused strategy” within community organisations, charities and social enterprises, introducing conversation and action around carbon reduction in a “pro-active but accessible way”.

Genee will be delivering training and putting participating organisations through the Investors in the Environment (iiE), a nationally recognised environmental accreditation programme.

The iiE programme aims to help organisations understand their environmental impact, in addition to establishing effective solutions to reduce it, in turn helping organisations save time and money, and “gain recognition” in the process.

Jo Holmes, managing director at Genee, said: “We are excited to work with voluntary sector organisations across the North East and Cumbria to identify and reduce their environmental impact.

“This is such an important sector as its influence throughout the communities it works with can be significant. We hope that any work we do with the sector will have a greater reach throughout organisations and communities they work with”.

This is the first regional level programme of practical support for charity sector organisations in the country. By signing up for Become Green Together, VCSE organisations can lead by example and “establish effective environmental policies, taking advantage of the expertise of Genee and the Investors in the Environment programme”.

By Matthew Neville – Correspondent, Bdaily

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