How to consider environmental sustainability in your heritage project

How to consider environmental sustainability in your heritage project

Climate change is already impacting our society, our natural environment and our heritage.

We want all the projects we fund to reduce the effects of the climate crisis, assist places and people to adapt to our changing planet, and to support nature’s recovery across the UK.

We expect them all to have a positive impact on our environment and we factor a project’s environmental impact into our decision making.  

We expect to see environmental sustainability embedded into applicants' decision making.

This applies to all projects – whether our funding is supporting an entire landscape, regeneration of a local park, a museum refurbishment or bringing a community together.

What we expect from projects

To reach our environmental sustainability requirement, we expect all projects we fund to:  

  • limit any potential damage to the environment  
  • make a positive impact on the environment and particularly for nature  

Including environmental sustainability within your project right from the beginning will mean your project is likely to be more resilient, financially sustainable and have multiple benefits for people and the community.  

We expect to see environmental sustainability embedded into applicants' decision making. You should also think about how to measure your environmental sustainability and ensure that this is part of your evaluation strategy.

Essential links

Octagonal brick structure with roof with a cross on the cliff tops above Bude in Cornwall.
The Storm Tower at Compass Point

Projects

Saving Bude’s historic Storm Tower

The Storm Tower at Compass Point needs to be moved 100 metres inland due to the impact of climate change and coastal erosion.

A group of children and adults doing outdoor activities by a river
Children take part in outdoor activities in Stour Valley Nature Reserve.

Stories

How to create sustainable urban green space in your area

We celebrated the end of our three-year Future Parks Accelerator (FPA) programme in October 2022 with the Naturally Thriving online conference, sharing learnings from the projects. The FPA programme, launched in 2019, has successfully shown the value of investing in parks and urban green spaces and