During 2022, invertebrate conservation charity, Buglife, welcomed sustainable vehicle leasing and fleet management specialists, Arval UK, to their growing, dedicated corporate supporter network; becoming just one of four, ‘Queen Corporate Investors in Nature’.
Their first year as a Buglife Investor in Nature saw Arval UK employees undertake more than 500 hours of volunteering; learning about the importance of invertebrates, undertaking flower insect timed (FIT) counts and supporting with habitat management and restoration work, close to their Swindon head office.
Activities during 2022 included, Arval UK employees undertaking two physical challenges. In June, Arval employees took part in a sponsored charity bike ride, with participants completing one of two routes; a 20 mile ride taking in the spectacular Wiltshire scenery including Wroughton and Royal Wootton Bassett or a longer, hillier 38 mile ride travelling down to Marlborough and Avebury via Col de Hackpen.
In July, the team completed a sponsored Three Peaks Challenge, climbing Ben Nevis, Snowdon & Scafell Pike during a heatwave; with some team members even overcoming a fear of heights to complete the task!
These sponsored challenges, direct donations and additional Arval UK contributions saw the company supporting Buglife and biodiversity with donations totalling £10,400 throughout the year.
Zoe Maitland, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Arval UK said: “Supporting Buglife has been both exciting and educating. Bolstering our commitment to biodiversity, we’ve taken part in a variety of activities which have engaged colleagues across the UK by sharing educational material, raising money and volunteering. Our relationship has been enhanced from internal communications, which have raised awareness of bugs and why they are important, through to a desk drop for employees with bee-friendly seeds. We’ve also joined in with its national campaigns, such as the ‘flower insect timed count’ and Bugs Matter.
Paul Hetherington, Fundraising and Communications Director, Buglife shared: “Buglife is extremely grateful to the support from Arval UK and their staff during 2022, which has raised over £10k for our charity. We are particularly pleased to generate funds which can be applied to our aim to halt the extinction of invertebrate species and to achieve sustainable populations of invertebrates.”
Buglife is working hard to achieve these aims through promoting the environmental importance of invertebrates and raising awareness about the challenges to their survival. Assisting in the development of legislation and policy that will ensure the conservation of invertebrates and developing and disseminating knowledge about how to conserve invertebrates. Whilst encouraging and supporting invertebrate conservation initiatives by other organisations in the UK, Europe and worldwide and undertaking practical conservation projects.
Zoe added: “Raising awareness of the importance of biodiversity and the part bugs play has been well received and is also a great fit with our global biodiversity initiative ‘1 Electrified Vehicle = 1 Tree’, which has already seen us plant 35,000+ trees in the UK. We look forward to doing more with Buglife in 2023.”
To find out more about Buglife’s Investors in Nature and opportunities available to individuals, community groups and businesses please visit Corporate Partnerships – Buglife
