ENHANCE THE
ENVIRONMENT

From tree planting to helping our members save costs by reducing waste, our programme has a strong emphasis on sustainability. As the climate crisis worsens we recognize the need to do more, and we are proud to be members of the Lambeth Climate Partnership and the Southwark Climate Collective. 

More locally we are a founder partner of Sustains Us, demonstrating our commitment to sustainability and environmental resilience in the immediate Waterloo neighbourhood. 

We focus our sustainability work around 4 key pillars:

  • Buildings & Energy
  • Transportation
  • Biodiversity & the Environment
  • Recycling, Waste & Circular Economies
 

Within each of these pillars we have developed our own projects as well as establishing opportunities to partner with external initiatives.

We are also working closely with Lambeth Council on the implementation of their Kerbside Strategy as well as the Waterloo And South Bank Future Neighbourhoods 2030 Strategy.

Below is an overview of the types of sustainability initiatives we offer: 

  • Active Travel and Green Logistics: we support our businesses to make the shift to sustainable and active transport as an alternative to using high emission vehicles such as cars and vans.  We run a variety of subsidies to encourage cycling and cargo bikes usage in Waterloo and we also host free Dr Bike maintenance workshops to help fix basic mechanical issues.  We are working with Lambeth and Cross River Partnership to explore how the trial Waterloo Freight Hub can support our local businesses an reduce the amount of through traffic in the neighbourhood.
 

  • Biodiversity & the Environment: we run a variety of urban greening initiatives in the neighbourhood ranging from the development of kerbside pocket parks to larger projects, such as our recent transformation of Hercules Road which has resulted in over 300m2 of additional green space on the street.  Staff can get involved in our regular Rooted lunchtime gardening sessions.  We have secured a Green Flag Award and a London in Bloom Silver award for our work in greening Waterloo.


  • Buildings & Energy: through our partnership with Sustains Us, we are exploring the feasibility of a district heat network for the Waterloo and South Bank neighbourhood.  We continue to  work with a variety of external organisations to help promote energy efficiency to our members.

  • Recycling, Waste and Circular Economies: we are currently reviewing our subsidised recycling provision to broaden our waste and circular offer in the coming 2026-31 years.  We are keen to support our businesses to reduce the amount of waste they produce by growing our circular economy activities.  Producing less waste saves our members money and we are exploring more ways to reduce and re-use more of what is produced by our Waterloo businesses, building on our work to date with Too Good To Go to help businesses reduce their food waste.