SCOTLAND: Finnie announces funding for sustainable development projects

Over £750,000 is to be provided to twelve environmental projects over the next three years.

Environment Minister Ross Finnie today announced that projects ranging from recycling bicycles and mattresses to making public transport in rural areas more efficient are to receive funding from the Executive's Sustainable Action Grants scheme.

The scheme supports projects which promote sustainable development and environmental justice. The projects to be supported were selected from seventy nine applications which were received in March.

Mr Finnie said:

"The Scottish Executive is committed to delivering sustainable development with economic growth and an improved environment for all. These national and regional projects are playing their part in helping us achieve that aim.

"The successful projects address our sustainable development priorities of energy, resource use and travel and our commitment to environmental justice for all our neighbourhoods.

"People must be given the support and confidence to make sustainable choices. That is why we will be funding a range of initiatives that build on the existing expertise of organisations such as BTCV (The British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) Scotland [TD1]in placing communities themselves at the heart of local environmental regeneration.

"These innovative projects that we are supporting will help us to embed sustainable development across Scottish life, in business, public authorities and peoples' lives."

Details of the successful projects and the funding they will receive are as follows:

• Beautiful Scotland in Bloom - a contribution of £7,500 per year for three years to the project to give greater prominence to sustainable development and focus more on matters of sustainability and biodiversity, aiming to encourage 200 communities across Scotland to embrace sustainable development principles over three years - including waste awareness, recycling, green transport and wildlife habitats. They also propose a New Neighbourhood Award for socially disadvantaged communities.
• Centre for Human Ecology in Edinburgh- a contribution of £5,000 per year for three years for Ecoprojects - matching students needing research projects with suitable projects. This will provide a web-based service and aims to increase industrial and academic involvement in sustainability and environmental justice issues in Scotland.
• CSV (Community Service Volunteers) [TD2] Scotland - £29,000 per year for three years. Action for Sustainability project to provide all Highland schools with one source of information, resources and advice to assist their work in all subjects relating to education for sustainable development.
• BTCV [TD3] Scotland, based in Stirling - £45,000 in 2004-05, £47,500 in 2005-06 and £50,000 in 2006-07 for a continuation and expansion of BTCV Scotland's "Community Learning and Action Network" (CLAN) - undertaking projects and initiatives across Scotland to help people deliver sustainable environmental changes - including habitat management, waste minimisation and recycling, composting, fencing, dyking and footpath construction.
• Sustainable Development Research Centre - £5,000 for one year for a Highlands and Islands International Sustainable Development Conference and Exhibition, "Creating a Culture of Sustainability," in Inverness in November 2004. The intention is to explore the policy, infrastructure and stakeholders required to create a culture of sustainability, with an international audience, and highlighting the Highlands and Islands in the sustainable development field.
• National Playbus Association - £1,000 for one year for the production of a Green Guide for mobile community projects. This will cover environmentally friendly fuels, environmentally friendly vehicle construction and how to minimise the environmental damage caused by vehicles through good maintenance and environmentally aware driving.
• Recycle to Cycle, based at Waverley Station, Edinburgh - £12,227 in 2004-05, £11,789 in 2005-06 and £11,959 in 2006-07 to extend existing Bike Station work throughout the Lothians. The work of the Bike Station diverts bikes from landfill, provides volunteering opportunities and delivers health, transport and social inclusion benefits.
• Business Environment Partnership - £49,000 in 2004-05, £48,750 in 2005-06 and £48,750 in 2006-07 for an expansion of the Success and Sustainability initiative aimed at small and medium enterprises, building on this and mainstreaming sustainability advice into the business support network, including Scottish Enterprise. This work demonstrates to business that sustainable development goes beyond waste minimisation and complying with environmental legislation - to travel, procurement, community engagement, new product development and biodiversity. The aim is to have one project in every local enterprise area in Scotland.
• Argyll and Bute Council - £29,532 in 2004-05, £27,948 in 2005-06 and £28,777 in 2006-07 for work towards a sustainable transport solution in Argyll and Bute, maximising use of existing vehicles already in use by public agencies, in partnership with NHS Argyll and Clyde, the Scottish Ambulance Service and the Association of Scottish Community Councils. This follows Napier University research funded by the Executive's Rural Challenge Fund, and aims to provide increased public transport opportunities in a sustainable way appropriate to the needs of rural communities.
• FEAT Enterprises (formerly the Fife Employment Access Trust) - £50,000 in 2004-05, £44,000 in 2005-06 and £40,000 in 2006-07 for a mattress recycling project based in Falkland Fife - covering Fife, Clackmannan and Falkirk.

Although the mattresses will initially at least come from Civic Amenities sites and the recycling will be of mattress parts, this is the first such project in Scotland. This social enterprise project aims to recycle 6,900 beds in the first year and will provide employment to five disabled or disadvantaged people.

• Scottish Ecological Design Association - £23,250 per year for three years for the publication of three "Green Detailing Guides" for building designers on the subject areas of designing for deconstruction; designing for airtightness and designing for minimising organic chemical content in the fabric of buildings. The guides would provide technical information which would encourage the design of buildings making better use of physical resources and help reduce energy consumption in use.
• YMCA Scotland - £6,555 in 2004-05, £5,689 in 2005-06 and £5,777 in 2006-07 for the incorporation into residential courses for socially excluded young people of content for understanding of and activity on sustainable development and environmental issues. YMCA run residential courses at Wiston Lodge south of Biggar, in grounds which lend themselves to environmental work.

Examples of programme elements are drink can recycling (making cameras), earth walks (for a sensory encounter with the natural world), food and diet (examining the potato from the ground to the plate, learning about conservation and land management, transfer of learning to local action and local community follow-up visits. YMCA aims to have a programme relevant in effecting change in young people's personal environments.

Further projects will be considered for funding in 2005-06 and 2006-07.

It was announced in January that £300,000 a year would be made available to extend the sustainable action grant scheme, under which these projects are being supported, until 2007. The scheme is funded from the Environment and Rural Affairs Department's Sustainable Action Fund budget.

The Sustainable Action Fund was set up in 1996 to fund sustainable development projects throughout Scotland. Projects which have already benefited range from Scotland-wide youth programmes to community level recycling initiatives.