Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust and Leeds Building Society win best environmental partnership accolade

Yorkshire is home to the Best Environmental Impact Partnership according to the Third Sector Business Charity Awards

Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust’s (YDMT) partnership with Leeds Building Society, which began in 2021, was hailed as having the biggest environmental impact out of all the nominees.

The judges of the awards, which is held annually to celebrate the synergy between business and charity sectors, called the partnership “a standout nominee for the best environmental impact partnership due to its multifaceted approach to addressing pressing environmental challenges while fostering community engagement and wellbeing.”

2023 was the most successful year of the partnership to date and saw the organisations work together to deliver impactful projects that addressed the climate and biodiversity crises:

• Leeds Building Society planted a tree for every new children’s savings account opened between January 2023 and July 2023. In total, 8,748 trees were planted in the Yorkshire Dales and surrounding areas.
• In the second half of 2023 efforts switched to restoring a hectare of rich wildflower meadow, bringing it back from the brink of extinction and helping to create a biodiverse habitat.
• Over 100 Leeds Building Society staff volunteered their time in 2023, planting and maintaining trees in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales. Their hard work, which included the planting of 2500 trees, helped capture 3.75 tonnes of CO₂ per volunteer in 2023 – the equivalent of 20,000 travel miles from a family sized car.

Richard Hore, Development Officer at YDMT, commented:  “We’re so proud of this award and thrilled that our partnership with LBS has been recognised as being industry-leading. It has been a pleasure working with the Responsible Business Team at LBS to ensure our partnership is delivering maximum impact for our beneficiaries, while enabling key elements of their ESG strategy.

“Staff engagement has been key to the partnership’s growth and really bought the partnership to life. We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone at LBS for their commitment to supporting people, landscape and wildlife of the Dales and hope the success of this partnership will inspire other businesses to think about how they can deliver positive social and environmental impacts in their local area.”

 Wendy Carter, Responsible Business Lead, Leeds Building Society said: “We began working with the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust in 2021, planting trees for every new children’s savings account opened and on behalf of every one of our colleagues each year. We’ve now planted over 15,000 trees in the Yorkshire Dales, offsetting an estimated 2,500 tonnes of carbon over the next 50 years.”

“We’re incredibly proud of our partnership with Yorkshire Dales Millenium Trust, what it has achieved, and of being recognised by the Third Sector Business Awards as the Best Environmental Impact Partnership. Supporting our communities and looking after the planet are two things we’re passionate about, and our partnership ensures members and colleagues can support a stable financial and environmental future for generations to come.”

If your business would like to discuss working with YDMT to deliver positive social and environmental impacts for people and planet, please contact richard.hore@ydmt.org