Our 2021 Highlights for Climate Action North
As we launch into 2022 we’re looking back on an incredibly busy and climate positive year for climate action.
We’ve pulled together 12 months of our proudest and key positive highlights from the first retail park to have a Pollinator Parks garden to winning an award for Innovation, being part of the Herald’s COP 26 campaign and also winning important funding for an exciting Seagrass project.
In January we hit our crowdfunding target for the Dare to Dream Library Train. This saw us install solar panels onto the train at Kirk Merrington School – the panels were installed in December 2021 and we’re looking forward to the next steps in this project.
February saw us successfully secure a role of North East co-ordinators for the Rewilding Britain network and as an organisation passionate about rewilding especially linking to climate action, we’re excited about taking forward this role during 2022, working with projects across the region, coordinating rewilding efforts and connecting people and projects.
March was an exciting month as we held our online Trees & Bees Conference featuring talks from Rewilding Britain, Cairngorms National Park, Knepp Estate and Bee experts – a really well attended conference and an exciting fundraiser too. In that same month we won an award for our work on our North East Action for Rivers (NE4R) initiative.
Innovation of the Year Award
April saw the showcase of our Net Zero Matters Network, (initially called Green Recovery Action Network) an online networking group designed to champion the necessary changes to halt the climate crisis within the business community. The group stands at a strong membership of 90 members, growing on a monthly basis as we continue to support each other.
May was a month of productive support for young people as we recruited our first intern volunteer to focus on helping us drive forward our business engagement programme and assist with blog writing for our website. We continue to support young people through our climate action young ambassadors and Global Wilders programme.
We also celebrated key wildlife events such as World Otter Day and fundraised for this very important cause.
Global Wilders Programme
June was the month of World Environment Day and our continued campaign to raise awareness of the climate crisis and inspire and mobilise climate action – we celebrated this very special day with the successful story of our first retail park to host one of our Pollinator Parks gardens.
Dalton Park continues to be one of our major projects for community rewilding and we’re excited about taking forward projects in 2022.
World Environment Day 2021
July marked the launch of our exciting new Pollinator Parks garden as part of our community rewilding project with Dalton Park. In the same month we also launched our Project Swift campaign and the first installation of swift nest boxes at Dalton Park.
Above: Copyright Georgy Alain, courtesy of Swift Conservation
August was the month of the IPPC “Code Red” report and after lots of media coverage we really stepped up the gears to supercharge our climate action work. We were invited to support the Greenpeace Just Transition campaign aboard the Rainbow Warrior III ship which docked in Sunderland and in the same month we also launched our new range of events, working with organisations such as Wild Intrigue to link businesses with biodiversity.
We also launched the Climate Action North Training Academy.
Climate Action North Team at Rainbow Warrior
September stormed ahead as a supercharged month of climate action with a visit from the Conservation without Borders Round Britain Climate Challenge Team and continued in the run up to COP 26 with a series of campaign events: The Great Big Green Week and the Great British Beach Clean, both aimed to raise awareness and mobilise climate action.
Round Britain Climate Challenge visits Sunderland
October continued to work towards COP 26 and we were delighted to be included in the Herald 100 Days of Hope campaign showcasing the efforts of the organisations and individuals who are leading the way in the fight to tackle the climate crisis.
100 days of Hope campaign photo
November was the month of our Just Transition event and the kickstart of our Climate Hope campaign to showcase projects across the UK, remaining positive and encouraging practical action to tackle the climate emergency.
This Climate Hope campaign will form a big part of our work in 2022 and beyond with regular Climate Hope events being ran throughout the year.
Climate Hope Campaign
December was an exciting month of securing vital funds to help us deliver our projects including Incubator funding for a new climate solutions Seagrass project, receiving support from the Give a Little Love Campaign and also gearing up for net zero and greater activity during 2022 including the pilot launch of our Business Action Toolkit.
Climate Action North Business Action Toolkit
And so it continues into 2022 with a project to kickstart the year on a climate positive note as we plant trees at Dalton Park in the New Year. The tree planting is the latest in a series of measures to improve the environment and restore nature at Dalton Park Outlet Shopping Centre.
The retail park is already the first in the North of England to host a Climate Action North Pollinator Parks® garden, which is designed to provide a safe place for the struggling insect population.
We’re really looking forward to launching into 2022 as another year of supercharged Climate Action.
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