Veolia Orchard is branching out to new schools in St Albans District
Veolia Orchard is open for applications once again.
This scheme invites schools to increase biodiversity and become part of Veolia's family tree by growing their onw strawberries or nurturing their own orchard of fruit trees.
Since 2022, Veolia Orchard has delivered 25 fruit trees and 10 strawberry plants to 6 schools across the borough. This local network is just a small part of a whole family of 1,085 trees and 780 strawberry plants steadily growing at 291 schools across the UK.
This initiative launched in 2022, with fruit trees donated to schools in order to give young people a chance to experience the benefits of engaging with nature as well as improving local biodiversity. Building on its initial success, in 2023 the scheme expanded to include strawberry plants, ensuring that urban schools with limited outdoor green space could participate.
Each orchard comprises either five trees or ten strawberry plants per school, an individual component of a much wider network. Schools can apply online until 8 November 2024 using the following link: https://www.veolia.co.uk/veolia-orchard
Successful candidates will then hear back from 25 November with deliveries taking place in spring 2025. Schools can opt for an interactive planting event where Veolia’s experts guide students through their planting whilst educating them on the orchard’s long-term benefits to the community and environment.
Pascal Hauret, Municipal Managing Director at Veolia said:
The Veolia Orchard scheme is about growing more than just fruit; it's about cultivating a love of nature in our future environmental ambassadors. I am especially happy to see this initiative continue to flourish in urban schools where there are typically fewer opportunities to interact with the environment. Not only are we boosting biodiversity by introducing new fruit tree species, creating habitats for pollinators, and enhancing the genetic diversity of cities with urban farming, we’re planting the seeds for a more sustainable future.
Chris Traill, Strategic Director for Community and Place Delivery for St Albans City and District Council, said:
This is a fantastic initiative by our waste and recycling contractor Veolia which we have been supporting for a few years now.
I urge the District’s schools to apply as it is a fun way to increase awareness of environmental issues among their young pupils as well as give them the rewarding experience of planting trees, creating habitats and improving biodiversity.
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ABOUT VEOLIA
Veolia's ambition is to become the benchmark company for ecological transformation. With nearly 218,000 employees on five continents, the Group designs and deploys useful, practical solutions for managing water, waste and energy that help to radically change the world. Through its three complementary activities, Veolia contributes to developing access to resources, preserving available resources and renewing them. In 2023, the Veolia group served 113 million people with drinking water and 103 million with wastewater services, produced 42 terawatt-hours of energy and recovered 63 million metric tons of waste. Veolia Environnement (Paris Euronext: VIE) generated consolidated sales of €45.3 billion in 2023. www.veolia.com
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