Veolia Environmental Trust

The Trust currently offers three grant schemes:

• Community Grants are for constituted, not-for-profit organisations and local authorities to create or improve community buildings or outside spaces for the benefit of the community.
• Environmental Improvement Grants are for Environmental Bodies that are enrolled with ENTRUST, the regulator of The Landfill Communities Fund, and are a registered charity. Grants are available to enable landscape scale improvement projects such as habitat creation/management, and/or species protection.
• Habitat and Biodiversity Grants are for constituted, not-for-profit organisations that are enrolled with ENTRUST to support structural improvements to a single habitat, such as a waterway, woodland, or nature reserve.

Three different grants are available:

Community grants of between £10,000 and £75,000 for:

• Projects with a total cost of no more than £250,000 (including VAT and professional costs).
• Projects where the 10% Contributing Third Party (CTP) payment has been secured.

Habitat and Biodiversity Grants of between £10,000 and £75,000 for:

• Projects with a total cost of no more than £250,000 (including VAT and professional costs).
• Projects where the 10% Contributing Third Party (CTP) payment has been secured.

Environmental Improvement Grants start at £75,000. There is no upper limit. CTP payment is applicable.

Grants will be paid by BACS transfer in three separate payments.

Match Funding Restrictions

Match funding of at least 10% is required for projects before the full application is submitted.

For all awards, an independent third party contributor will need to reimburse the landfill operator the 10% shortfall to release the grant. This contribution can be made by another funder, a local council or an individual.

Who Can Apply

Community grant applications will be accepted from:

• Constituted not-for-profit organisations with governing documents that state members or directors receive no financial benefit, have a minimum of two directors, and have been established for a minimum of two years.
• Local authorities.

Applicants must use the Postcode Checker to check that their project is located within the proximity of a qualifying Veolia site.

Habitat and Biodiversity Grant applications will be accepted from:

• Constituted not-for-profit organisations with governing documents with at least two unrelated trustees.
• Environmental bodies already enrolled with ENTRUST.

To be eligible for an Environmental Improvement Grant, organisations must:

• Be already enrolled with ENTRUST as an Environmental Body, and a registered charity.
• Have experience of delivering projects funded through the Landfill Communities Fund (LCF).
• Have a track recordproven expertise in delivering similar successful environmental improvement projects.
• Have a project located in England that meets ENTRUST requirements.

Restrictions

The following are not currently eligible for funding from the Community Grant scheme.

• A hospital, hospice, care home, theatre, museum, art gallery, educational organisation including a pre-school, school, university or organisation with an affiliation to a school, including PTA.
• A project that will take place in a theatre, museum, art gallery, school, library, medical centre, hospital, hospice, zoo, shop, cafe, allotment, graveyard, crematoria area, road, car park or where there is on-site accommodation.
• Historic building restoration, statues, monuments or memorials.
• Purchase of land or a building.
• Project sites with restricted access e.g. prevents use by any person or user group defined by age, gender, disability, race, religion or belief.
• Costs which have already been incurred (e.g. design fees, planning application fees).
• Furniture and equipment (e.g. kitchen and electrical appliances, sports equipment, lawnmowers, computers, audio and visual equipment, CCTV and Wifi).
• Running costs (e.g. staff salaries, rent and maintenance fees).
• Renewable energy projects that have the potential to generate income e.g. solar panels.
• A project that forms part of a larger project.
• A project that has already started or is anticipated to start before formal agreements are signed.
• A project that intends to generate an income for use other than for the upkeep of the project site.

Eligible Expenditure

Community Grant Funding is available for capital improvement projects at a single site with discrete start and end dates.

Funding can be used for the construction and/or improvement of buildings or outdoor spaces, such as:

• Community buildings and rooms, including community centres, village halls, community spaces within religious buildings, and Scout or Girl Guiding buildings.
• Outdoor Spaces, including public parks, nature reserves, community gardens, footpaths, bridleways and cycle-paths.
• Play and recreation, including play areas, skateparks, Multi Use Games Areas (MUGAs), sports grounds, pavilions and changing rooms.
• Fixed items, including kitchen cupboards and worksurfaces, boilers and radiators, windows and doors, toilets, and fencing.

To be eligible, projects must:

• Be open to the wider general public for at least 104 days a year without any limit or unreasonable restrictions of use.
• Have a total cost of under £250,000, including VAT and professional costs.
• Have already secured at least 10% of the total cost.
• Have secured all permissions (eg, planning).
• Be completed within 12 months (18 months for biodiversity projects).

The funder is looking for projects that will:

• Benefit a diverse range of users, including excluded, often overlooked, deprived and hard-to-reach groups.
• Meet a need that has been evidenced through community consultation.
• Involve volunteers.
• Use environmentally friendly solutions.
• Achieve value for money.
• Demonstrate innovation, imagination and excellence.

Habitat and Biodiversity Grant Funding is for projects resulting in structural improvements for a single habitat, such as woodland or nature reserve.

The funder is looking for projects that:

• Provide, conserve, restore or enhance threatened habitats.
• Protect and increase biodiversity.
• Have the widest impact on the natural environment.
• Monitor, assess and promote the impact.

Environmental Improvement Grants are for ambitious and imaginative projects which will make a local, regional, national and global impact on the environment by:

• Protecting and expanding threatened habitats.
• Protecting and increasing biodiversity.
• Having the widest impact on the environment.
• Monitoring, assessing and promoting the impact.

Initial proposals should be emailed to UK.Trust@Veolia.com.

How To Apply

There are four funding rounds each year. It is important that groups apply at the right time, as only one grant application may be submitted per project site, in a 12-month period.

The next application windows are: 12 noon

• 04 January 2024
• 11 April 2024
• 20 June 2024
• 03 October 2024
• 07 January 2025

Applicants should refer to the new guidance notes/criteria which are available to download from the Trust’s website.

Please note the criteria is reviewed quarterly. Applicants need to read the criteria that is current at the time that they are making an application to ensure their grant request remains eligible.

Community grant applications will be reviewed against the following:

• How much the project will benefit the general public
• What evidence has been provided that the project is needed
• The opportunities for volunteering and community involvement that will be created or maintained by the project.
• The effect the project will have on the environment.
• The financial viability and sustainability of the project.
• Index of Multiple Deprivation

Limited funding is available each round and grants are awarded to the projects which most closely match the Trust’s funding priorities.

Environmental Improvement Grant applicants will need to submit a proposal. Full details can be found in the guidance notes on the Trust’s website. The Trust will contact applicants within five days to discuss the proposal and the next steps.

Contact Veolia Environmental Trust for further information.

---

Useful Links

• •  Veolia Environmental Trust
  •  Veolia Environmental Trust Grants