Ember Aquatics and ACT Native Tree Nursery are the two successful recipients of the second annual round of funding from the Drax Foundation. Both projects support education and skills development in Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM), as well as improving green spaces and enhancing biodiversity within local communities.
The award is part of nearly £1m that the Drax Foundation has donated globally this year in this funding round, across the UK and North America.
Shona King, Drax Group Head of Community, said:
“The Drax Foundation is committed to giving back to the communities where we operate and we are delighted to share that our second round of grants, totalling £82,000, will benefit these two projects in Scotland. These charities are doing vital work – one is helping school children build their STEM skills through water safety and environmental training and the other is improving green spaces and biodiversity for local people to enjoy.”
The projects in Scotland include:
- Ember Aquatics – a program engaging with Scottish primary schools to conduct water safety workshops. The primary goal is to inculcate a love for water activities while prioritizing the safety of young students. The project aims to deliver an impressive total of 375 workshops, potentially impacting around 7,500 pupils.
- ACT Native Tree Nursery – a community-led conservation effort passionately working towards establishing a native tree nursery. This endeavour is a testament to their commitment to preserving the environment and nurturing the growth of indigenous trees. Remarkably, the community’s dedication has earned them a full 100% of the requested funding.
Julie Young, CEO of ACT, said:
“This support from the Drax Foundation enables us to establish a tree nursery, which is at the heart of what we are aiming to achieve with Argyll’s rainforest – a secure supply of a range of native tree species will help us to expand, restore, and connect fragments of the rainforest, and also provide great training opportunities for our Rainforest Squad.
“We are very excited to have our team and tree nursery in place in the next few months – we’ve already started gathering acorns, which will be Argyll’s mighty oaks in the future!”
Organisations and initiatives that meet Drax’s funding and selection criteria are encouraged to visit www.drax.com/community to learn more about the Foundation and submit an initial expression of interest. The Foundation is already accepting applications for 2024’s first round of funding.
The Foundation prioritises support for organisations that deliver programmes for under-served and under-represented groups, advance gender equality and support indigenous communities. 100% of its UK funding is for programmes that benefit underserved groups.
The Drax Foundation is a donor advised fund administered by the Charities Trust (an independently registered charity with the UK Charity Commission, charity no. 327489.
ENDS
Media contacts:
Nicolas Morales
Communications Officer
E: [email protected]
T: 07756289343
Editors’ Notes:
About Drax
Drax Group’s purpose is to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future and in 2019 announced a world-leading ambition to be carbon negative by 2030, using bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) technology.
Drax’s around 3,000 employees operate across three principal areas of activity – electricity generation, electricity sales to business customers and compressed wood pellet production and supply to third parties. For more information visit www.drax.com
Power generation:
Drax owns and operates a portfolio of renewable electricity generation assets in England and Scotland. The assets include the UK’s largest power station, based at Selby, North Yorkshire, which supplies five percent of the country’s electricity needs.
Having converted Drax Power Station to use sustainable biomass instead of coal it has become the UK’s biggest renewable power generator and the largest decarbonisation project in Europe. It is also where Drax is piloting the groundbreaking negative emissions technology BECCS within its CCUS (Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage) Incubation Area.
Its pumped storage, hydro and energy from waste assets in Scotland include Cruachan Power Station – a flexible pumped storage facility within the hollowed-out mountain Ben Cruachan.
The Group also aims to build on its BECCS innovation at Drax Power Station with a target to deliver 4 million tonnes of negative CO2 emissions each year from new-build BECCS outside of the UK by 2030 and is currently developing models for North American and European markets.
Pellet production and supply:
The Group has 18 operational pellet plants and developments with nameplate production capacity of around 5 million tonnes a year.
Drax is targeting 8 million tonnes of production capacity by 2030, which will require the development of over 3 million tonnes of new biomass pellet production capacity. The pellets are produced using materials sourced from sustainably managed working forests and are supplied to third party customers in Europe and Asia for the generation of renewable power.
Drax’s pellet plants supply biomass used at its own power station in North Yorkshire, England to generate flexible, renewable power for the UK’s homes and businesses, and also to customers in Europe and Asia.
Customers:
Drax supplies renewable electricity to UK businesses, offering a range of energy-related services including energy optimisation, as well as electric vehicle strategy and management.
To find out more go to the website www.energy.drax.com
