Environmental Sustainability – a 'Good Cause' for All

The National Lottery is celebrating its 25th birthday this year and I feel privileged to have been part of The National Lottery Heritage Fund for 20 of those years. I’m even more fortunate to have recently taken on the role as Director for the newly formed Midlands and East team. We cover a richly diverse and fascinating area across the heart of England stretching from Shropshire and Herefordshire in the west to East Anglia and Essex in the east and all points in between.

Changes in your life and significant anniversaries cause you to pause and think about what’s most important to you. We’ve been doing a lot of that sort of reflection as an organisation and, after 20 years at The Fund, I can honestly say that our new Strategic Funding Framework is the one I am most proud of. Its vision and aims are firmly embedded in the needs of the many heritage and cultural agencies we talked to – but it also reflects the voice of members of the general public and National Lottery players who told us what was important to them.

Putting an emphasis on sustainability in all its forms came through loud and clear! I went along to some consultation sessions with National Lottery players. We met people who had no particular connection to heritage but were interested to know more about what happened to money raised for Good Causes and wanted to have a say in how it was used. I was struck by how strongly people felt about the restoration and reuse of historic buildings because they were important to their sense of place and community and because it was, frankly, the sensible and sustainable thing to do.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has supported hundreds of projects where people have recognised that, far from being a liability, the restoration and reuse of older buildings can enrich and sustain a community. Those projects which consider not just a single building but their wider setting and context can be some of the most successful. Just one example that we are very proud of is Diss Heritage Triangle. A grant just shy of £2 million to Diss Town Council and partners has helped to refurbish and extend the Grade II-listed Corn Hall, enhance the streetscape of the triangle of roads in the historic centre of the town, and create a new public wildlife garden. The investment has given the Corn Hall a revived life as a thriving cultural venue within a part of the market town that is on a path to regeneration.

The project in Diss took account of sustainability in its widest sense. Not only was the new single span roof over the main hall in the Corn Hall fully insulated to a high thermal performance standard, helping to reduce running costs; but the urban landscape design has reduced the dominance of vehicles and put people back at the heart of the town; and the wildlife garden has been planted to encourage insect and bumble bee colonies.

So, taking responsibility for environmental sustainability isn’t just about regenerating buildings. The Fund now expects all of our applicants to consider how they can make their projects more sustainable by increasing positive environmental impacts and reducing the negative ones. We also want everyone to think about what they can do to protect and enhance nature wherever possible. It doesn’t matter whether a project needs £3,000 or £3 million – everyone can do something such as:

• Telling people how to get to a site or event by using sustainable transport for example bus, train, walking or cycling
• Using recycled or environmentally friendly materials, recycling waste and reducing single use plastic
• Thinking about local sourcing of products and materials and reducing food miles in cafes
• Helping to increase biodiversity (for example using green roofs, bat and bird boxes, insect holes, bee-friendly planting)

We all need a bit of help to get this right. There is some great guidance on our website to support people to start thinking about what they can do for the environment. We are also signposting everyone to Fit for the Future, an environmental sustainability network that The Fund is working with to support people to make good decisions about integrating environmental measures into their projects.

And a final message to everyone running a heritage project of whatever sort – tell your visitors, audiences, volunteers and staff about what environmentally sustainable measures you are adopting. Spread the word!